The Thai government may consider lifting martial law in some provinces to help recover the economy, especially the tourism industry, Deputy Prime Minister Wisanu Krue-ngam was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying.

According to Wisanu, the law might not be necessary as the government has other measures in place, such as the emergency decree, national security laws and the criminal code.

However, he did not give an exact time the law will be lifted.

The law was imposed in Thailand several days before the Thai military took power on May 22, an action that aimed to put an end to a long-lasting dispute in the country.

The tourism industry, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of the nation’s economic growth, suffered its biggest fall since then and some experts have predicted a gloomy outlook for Thailand, with GDP to grow about 1.4 percent this year.

Tour operators have repeatedly urged the government to eliminate the law to restore Thailand’s image as a trouble-free holiday destination and bring back tourists to the country.

Thailand has launched some tourism campaigns recently with the hope to recover the industry and reach the target of 26.8 million visitors as well as about 1.9 trillion THB in revenue by the end of the year.

In the first nine months of 2014, international tourist arrivals to Thailand fell by 10 percent to 17.6 million and tourism revenue slid 7.6 percent to 807 billion TBH.-VNA