Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pitches to host Formula One street circuit race in Bangkok to bolster tourism
- Srettha’s administration has focused on entertainment and sports events to draw high-spending tourists to the country
- F1 executives, who were invited to Bangkok to survey the race routes, were told the country had all it took to hold the event
Thailand is staking claim to host a Formula One race, with Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pitching Bangkok as a circuit for a street race that will help burnish the Southeast Asian nation’s status as a major tourism hub.
Srettha, whose administration has focused on entertainment and sports events to draw high-spending tourists, met F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali on Monday and said the country has all it takes to hold the competition.
F1 executives were in Bangkok to survey and study the routes for the race at the invitation of the Thai government, Srettha said in a post on X.
The visit followed the leader’s meeting with Domenicali in Paris last month when the two discussed the possibility of Thailand hosting a street race, Rudklao Suwankiri, a deputy spokeswoman for the Thai government, said in a statement.
A third of the 24 F1 races scheduled for the 2024 season, which began on March 2, will be held on a street or hybrid circuit, compared with around 15 per cent a decade prior. These are races that take place either entirely or partially on closed-off public roads that have been transformed briefly into motorsports venues, home to hi-tech racers that can hit more than 322 kilometres per hour.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore hosts the F1 race on the Marina Bay Street Circuit, located on the city’s waterfront. Since its debut in 2008, the F1 Singapore Grand Prix has attracted more than 550,000 foreign visitors and generated around S$2 billion (US$1.47 billion) of incremental tourism receipts, according to the island’s government.
Srettha has vowed to elevate Thailand’s status as a tourism hotspot into an aviation and logistics hub as his administration taps the so-called quick wins to stimulate the nation’s economy. He has pushed promotional campaigns to extend holidaymakers’ stay and year-round festivals to boost the number of foreign tourists, and pitched Thailand as an ideal location to host the Formula E competition and MotoGP.