The new elected government of Thailand has approved funding the International 2005 Miss Universe beauty pageant competition to be hosted in the Thai Kingdom this year, a Thai official said yesterday.
In their first Cabinet meeting, after the general elections, the new elected Thai Government gave the go-ahead for the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to spend 260 million baht (US$ 6.75 million) on the planned gala event for the 2005 Miss Universe Contest, the Government spokesman said.
The 2005 Miss Universe beauty pageant funding was one of the cabinet's first decisions since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai party claimed victory in the election of this week Sunday.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said that the televised event of the 2005 Miss Universe beauty pageant in Thailand would attract an international audience of more than 1 billion people from more than 50 different countries and Thailand expects to gain 2 billion baht in revenue from tourists visiting Thailand during the pageant contest.
Thai beauty queens have twice won the Miss Universe contest, Miss Apassara Hongsakula in 1965 and Miss Porntip Nakhirunkanok in 1988, and the Thailand hosted the Miss universe contest in the year 1992.
Beauty pageant contests are very popular in Thailand. One of the most famous is the annual "Jumbo Queen Beauty Contest" for large-sized Thai women, while the "Miss Tiffany Contests" crowns Thailand's top transsexual and the "Miss Spinster Contest" is for mature, but still single, Thai beauties aged 28 or over.
