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Thai Billionaire Owner of Leicester City Club to Promote Tourism

Thai Billionaire Owner of Leicester City Club to Promote Tourism

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The Thai billionaire who owns the nation’s duty-free stores as well as the U.K.’s Leicester City soccer club is teaming with the government to boost Thailand’s ailing tourism sector.

King Power Group Chief Executive Officer Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha said he will promote Thailand through his team’s fan network of about one billion people. Images of Thailand will be broadcast during games and players’ uniforms will carry tourism messages, he said after a meeting with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha.

Leicester City’s “international network provides a strong outlet to promote Thailand to the world,” said Prayuth, who sent letters three months ago to 20 Thai billionaires, including Aiyawatt, asking for their ideas and economic support amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The campaign is one of the projects King Power Group proposed in the letter replying to the prime minister,” Aiyawatt said. Boosting tourism will help “lessen the impact of hardships faced by Thais and restore the country’s economic welfare,” said Aiyawatt, who took control of the family’s business empire after his father, Vichai, died in a 2018 helicopter crash outside the football club’s stadium in the U.K.

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