New Initiative to Recognise Excellence Among SHA Certified Businesses

Bangkok, Thailand, July 23, 2021 / TRAVELINDEX / The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is pleased to announce the launch of ‘The Best of SHA Awards 2021’ project, which aims to celebrate excellence among Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration (SHA)-certified tourism and tourism-related businesses in Thailand.

In a live stream yesterday (20 July, 2021) via the Facebook page of media outlet Thairath, tourism and health officials gathered to discuss the new awards initiative and its objectives. This included Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, Ms. Thapanee Kiatphaibool, TAT Deputy Governor for Tourism Products and Business, Dr. Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, Director-General of the Department of Health under the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), and Mr. Akira Wongseng from a popular YouTube travel channel.

Mr. Yuthasak said “The Best of SHA Awards 2021 will search for the best SHA-certified businesses in the 10 categories the certification covers, and celebrate their excellency. In doing this, we also hope to encourage business operators to continuously adhere to the SHA standard and maintain consistency in their health and safety approaches.”

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports through the TAT and the MoPH through the Department of Disease Control, Department of Health, and Department of Health Service Support have worked closely together to position SHA as the industry standard by which the quality level of products and services is enhanced to prevent and reduce the spread of the virus.

Introduced in May 2020, the SHA certification was recently certified by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in alignment with the WTTC SafeTravels protocols. It means Thailand’s health and safety standard is accepted on an international level.

The Best of SHA Awards 2021

There is 1 Best of SHA Awards title for each of the 10 categories of the SHA certification; these being: restaurants and diners, hotel accommodation and homestay, recreational activities and tourist attractions, transportation, travel agencies, health and beauty, department stores and shopping centres, sport for tourism, activity/meeting and theatre/entertainment, and souvenir and other shops.

In addition, there will be 3 other award categories: 1 star for a business that consistently adheres to the SHA standards, 2 stars for an above average business that consistently adheres to the SHA standards, and 3 stars for an above average business that consistently adheres to the SHA standards and has a ‘white’ tourism standard (convenience, cleanliness, safety, fairness, and environment friendly).

The results will be decided through random auditing by the Amazing Thailand SHA Safety Standards Audit Committee and Voice of Customer (VOC), a user satisfaction survey that encourages guests to submit feedback.

The Best of SHA Awards 2021 project is open for people to submit feedback by scanning a QR code on their establishment’s Amazing Thailand SHA logo, or via www.thailandsha.com and complete a questionnaire from 20 July until 20 October, 2021.

By submitting feedback, people are in with a chance to win prizes worth 1 million Baht in total; such as, iMac, MacBook Air, iPhone 12, iPad Pro, Mac Mini, and Thailand tour packages.