On 16 March 2023, Ms. Acharapan Yavaprapas, Consul-General of Thailand in Kolkata was invited as guest of honour to the inauguration of the International Tourism and Hospitality Conference 2023 (ITHC 2023) organised by NSHM Knowledge Campus in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism of India at ITC Hotel Fortune Park Pushpanjali, Durgapur, West Bengal. The Conference was attended by more than 200 participants comprising tourism industry leaders, academicians and students.

In her address, Consul-General acknowledged the success of Thailand’s tourism industry as seen in the conferring of the Best Country Award to Thailand at the 30^th Grand Travel Awards in Sweden and the voting of Phuket as the Best Wedding Destination by the magazine Travel+Leisure India. At the same time, Thailand also faced several challenges like many countries such as the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and ‘over-tourism’ problem that caused environmental concerns. She underscored that Thailand’s lessons-learned in tourism development were 2-prong; namely, the constant adaptations and innovations to cope with contemporary issues, and the development of sustainable tourism. Notable examples were: 1) to take a ‘think outside the box’ approach for tourism during the pandemic though innovative measures such as Phuket Sandbox Program, Test and Go Scheme, and Thailand Pass System; 2) the closure of natural reserves to allow the ecosystem to recover such as Maya Bay, Krabi; 3) the adoption of Bio-Circular-Green Economy Model as guiding principle to develop sustainable tourism; and 4) the promotion of community-based tourism that can preserve local cultures and create income for local dwellers particularly though One Tambon One Product Project or OTOP. She also highlighted Thailand’s readiness to exchange knowledge on tourism development with the global community including India.

NSHM Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management under NSHM Knowledge Campus is well-known for its high quality of education and has been ranked Number 1 Hotel School in Eastern India and 12^th in all India by the Week Magazine. The main purpose of ITHC 2023 was to serve as platform for exchanging ideas and knowledge on tourism industry especially the coping with global trends and contemporary issues as well as tourists’ attitudinal changes towards more awareness on sustainability and environmental impacts of tourism industry.