On 25 February 2015, Mr. Noppadon Theppitak, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presided over the opening ceremony of the study visit on Tourism Promotion for Sustainable Development at the Amari Watergate Hotel, Bangkok.

                  The study visit on Tourism Promotion for Sustainable Development for executive officers from Pacific Island Countries will be organized by the Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 25 February – 1 March 2015 in Bangkok and Samui Island, Surat Thani.

                  The study visit aims to offer the participants to learn best-practices in community-level participation on tourism management, the development of Low Carbon Model Town as well as opportunities to exchange experience on sustainable-tourism management. The 14 participants are from 7 Pacific Island Countries of Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu and Tonga.

                  This study visit is one of the first activities under the Three-year (2015-2017) Thailand – Pacific Island Countries Forum (TPIF) Development Partnership Programme, a pilot project initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which will pave way for future cooperation partnership in other fields including economic cooperation.