Thailand offers free domestic flights for 200,000 foreign arrivals
published : 20 Aug 2025 at 07:23
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Molpasorn Shoowong
The Tourism and Sports Ministry plans to offer free domestic flight tickets to 200,000 foreign arrivals to boost tourism nationwide over a three-month period.
The ministry expects the giveaway to generate 8.8 billion baht in revenue from a budget of 700 million baht, but it still needs cabinet approval.
The campaign was called “Buy International, Free Thailand Domestic Flights”, and would encourage foreign tourists to visit secondary destinations.
Foreigners holding an international flight ticket would be able to claim one round-trip domestic flight ticket with 20 kilogrammes of baggage for free on six Thai carriers - Thai Airways, Thai AirAsia, Bangkok Airways, Nok Air, Thai Lion Air and Thai Vietjet.
The free tickets would be offered when tourists book international flights directly with airlines or online travel agents.
The ministry plans to propose the scheme to the cabinet for approval next week, seeking 700 million baht from the central budget.
The programme is scheduled to run from September to November, with a government subsidy of 1,750 baht per one-way ticket, or 3,500 baht for a round-trip ticket, for each tourist.
Vocabulary
- approval: official permission - การอนุมัต
- budget: (n) the money that is available to a person or an organisation and a plan of how it will be spent over a period of time -
- cabinet: the group of government ministers who make and approve government policy - คณะรัฐมนตรี
- campaign: a planned group of especially political, business or military activities which are intended to achieve a particular aim - การรณรงค์
- domestic: inside the country being talked about - ภายในประเทศ
- giveaway: free things; something given to people for free -
- secondary: not the most important -
- subsidy: an amount of money that the government or another organisation pays to help to reduce the cost of a service or product - เงินสนับสนุน (the verb form is subsidise)
