Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakan sent the proposal to the Cabinet for deliberation on Tuesday, saying it would promote tourism.

But Prayut said he rejected the proposal out of concern that critics were finding fault with his government.

“There are those finding fault with the government all the time these days,” Prayut sasid.

Besides, Prayut said, the government has already approved a measure to boost tourism by subsiding Bt1,000 of the travel costs for each citizen touring in the country. To be eligible for the subsidy, Thais must register for an e-wallet with the government and the Bt1,000 in the e-wallet must be used in certain shops taking part in the government programme.

Prayut said he was fed up with critics who also attacked the e-wallet measure for boosting tourism.

He added that he was happy to see that the tourism situation during the first eight months of this year was better than last year. He said the next four months will be a high season for foreign tourists and the government expects some 40 million foreign tourists will visit the kingdom.

The prime minister said tourism has already generated Bt2 trillion revenue from January to August, an increase of 3.27 per cent compared to last year. A total of 26.5 million foreign tourists visited the kingdom during the period, an increase of 2.61 per cent. Spending by foreign tourists generated revenue of Bt1.29 trillion, a growth of 3.04 per cent. Chinese, Malaysians, Indonesians, South Koreans and Laotians were the top five groups of foreign tourists during the period.