DonniePeverley

The most i've ever seen with dual pricing was 500 baht for foreigners. This is about the price of a burger in the UK now. The average Thai income is tiny. Tell me one person who would not visit Thailand because to go into a national park cost the price of Burger? If they are that cheap then why on earth are they getting so obsessed about appeasing these? The Louvre in Paris, is going to give discounts to Parisians. Will any tourist not go to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre because they have to pay more than Parisians? Give over. Plenty of places in London, Madrid that has dual pricing. Why is Thailand constantly so defensive about these matters? India, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Japan, hell even Singapore had elements of dual pricing in their mix up too. You have the moral preachers on X complaining, citing they live and work in Thailand (do they pay Tax though?) and should not be treated different. I can't stand these tree huggers, always whinging on they don't have the same rites. The point being they are not Thai citizens. That's the deal you making coming to developing nations. India does not allow foreigners to buy property or land, , etc ... these are practices developing countries put in place to protect their populations. Honestly why the constant pivot to appeasing cheap tourists is disgusting. If anything i would raise the price of foreigners to get into these places and reduce it more for Thai's for having to put up with mass cheap tourists who are causing havoc culturally and enviromentally to their country. There needs to be a pivot to quality tourism.

The usual few on twitter complaining with their campaigns. Pay no tax, contribute very little , have access to foreign wages, foreign pensions, then whinge they can't get things a little cheaper like Thais.

I have news for you ... they also practise dual pricing.

Dual pricing only effects cheap backpacker type tourists and sensitive souls. Thailand in no way should appease cheap backpackers who offer nothing to the economy, but take up valuable space. Not only should they put the prices up for foreigners but ban anyone with a back pack from coming into a national park. Furthermore ban hostels. The prices for these places are still cheap compared to western standards. Thailand simply needs to adjust the wording and image of the dual pricing. For example, if you see a price on the wall, but then offers Thais a reduction it may look better than showing two prices on board and you get the dreaded sensitive police brigrade crying dual pricing. In London you have attractions and places that offer discounts for locals, and those not from the area pay more. I see no moral outrage there. Imagine being a local Thai and seeing lovely national parks destroyed by mass cheap tourists, throwing rubbish everywhere, crowds, and the enviromental damage it does to your locality. Letting them in cheaply offers some compensation. Aren't the also planning this for the BTS - where by locals in Bangkok may get a set fare of 20 Baht per person, but others will pay full fares. Wording makes it okay.

Dual pricing only bothers cheap backpackers. Forget them, Thailand doesn't need them or should even cater for them. Instead they need phrase it better. For example set a price - but if you are a Thai you get 50% off. Some attractions in London have this too for locals. I believe they may do this with the BTS in Bangkok, where local Thai's will get a set 20 Baht fare, but not to anyone else. This is fair enough as these people live in the city.

The DTV has destroyed Thailand - you are starting to see the erosion of Thai culture. It is one of the worst things implemented by any government i have known. I am including coups in that too. It was ill thought out, an absolute disgrace.

Whilst it is cheap tourists .... they are on course to hit 40 million visitors this year. That would be their record. Now i have no idea why Thailand is so obsessed with number of visitors as a gage of success, the actual barometer should be income generated. Furthermore could income be further improved if there were more quality spending tourists. The likes of UK, France, USA, Australia could get far more tourists than Thailand, but they chose to have restrictions on their borders. Thailand is basically an open border at the moment to anyone. Hence why 'total number of visitors' is a really poor gage to work out any policies. Furthermore, when you allow in so many cheap tourists - you then have the costs involved in infrustricture, policing, pollution, enviromental damage, etc .... so some tourists make you a loss per head.

This talk of a downturn in tourism is utter nonsense. They on course to hit 40 million tourists, which is record breaking. They just had a boom during Songkran. Then a few quiet weeks and they begin to panic in the media. Tourism is going to be around as emerging markets with middle classes wanting holidays. You need quality tourists, not cheap mass tourism that ironically turns away quality tourists.

Forget these backpackers. Thailand does not need them. It adds nothing to their economy. Ban hostels. As for entry filing they introduced - literally every country has one. Singapore, UK, USA, Malaysia, European Union - why should Thailand be any different ? Ban marijuana. It is one of the reasons we are seeing sordid visitors. They are attracted to this. These aren't old men who used to come to Thailand, but comitted no crime. These are young men, violent, and often will gateway to other drugs here. This turns away tourist. Thailand is still a developing nation and must protect it's local population. Too many illegal workers here. You see it open and blatant. Reduce the 60 day visa back to 30. Ban the DTV, or toughen it up massively. It's being abused massively. Stop the visa free entry for some poorer nations - it's too much too allow masses to enter without any check ups. You have to look at income figure per head, not accumulative - which is what they are doing with Indians. Toughen up policing. Stop the small fines and get tough. Be like Singapore, Dubai and clean up the country for what was once known as safe.

Eh ? So now facts are made up?

The legal loop holes that allow tax havens is a disgrace ... the top brass allow it. The UK should toughen up the laws by saying if you leave, you can't keep dual citizenship, a time limit on how long you can stay in the UK - no more than 30 days.

15,000 baht fine is an utter joke. What example does this set? No criminal record, no deportation, nothing. Just pay 15,000 and carry on. Even the drink driving ... was anything done for that ?

Unfortunately the lack of detterant and example allows other tourists to act embolded. In Dubai you would dare not behave this way.

I see the long term visa being introduced by Phillipines ... much more tougher and robust to stop abuse. One interesting requirement they have put in is a 'criminal record check certificate', which i thought was absolutely brilliant. Of course it's not going to be thorough in every country, but it will be 100% proof in western countries to weed out criminals. I know relatives who work in airports in India need to get a local criminal record certificate too, so there are mechanisms in developing nations too. This is one introduction that is vital and to toughen up the DTV. Furthermore, i would push for stronger income requirements, mandatory insurance, and checks every 6 months to make sure the funds in the account weren't just a one off.

They add a pesky service charge on in most restaurants in Bangkok. Should be illegal unless they can prove the staff get that money.

It's obvious which region they are from. The sheer arrogance of these two is astonishing. They are also seemlesly unaware of the danger they could be in, if a pack attack them. The fact he was grabbing his balls and actually looking on in arrogance was astonishing. Lucky for them the police was there or this would have gone very nasty. He then directs the police man to arrest people saying he will pay 1 million, 2 million - i mean wtf. Why didn't the police start with arresting them? One of them has driven pissed. Unbelievable. This is what i mean by the police just afraid to say anything against tourists. This soft approach by policing is causing alot of the poor behaviour - there is just no deterrant.

Absolutely disgusting behaviour from these tourists. When will this ever stop ? Since covid the level of visitors to Thailand has gone down in the pan. They really do look down upon Thai people with their behaviour - as i have said numerous times, they would not behave like this in Singapore, Dubai or China, etc You see the frustration from the Thai people against these lot. Government really needs to take a good strong look at entry requirements. Will it? Of course not.

I welcomed the news that they were hitting hard on short term rentals. It was getting out of control. You cannot invest in a property to live if you believe it will just be over taken by airbnb and become a short term rental hotel - and the problems that come with that.

The illegal workers are mainly Chinese i believe. And often the work is not out upfront, but behind the scenes in factories, call centres, scamming, etc You do get Russians and some Europeans working, but they stand out like a saw thumb. Eg, you have a guy from China who pops in and out of Thailand to carry out his work. He is not a tourist. He just stays a few months before his time runs out and then repeats this all year. They need stronger checks to ensure this can't happen. So a 30 day reduction will rack up 12 stamps and stand out. Hopefully for Chinese it is reverted back to visa required. But the big mess is the DTV. All well and good you want high earners to stay long term - but this isn't attracting high earners. It's attracting criminals and dross. The digital nomads in Thailand are backpackers with laptops or criminals.

Reducing the visa stay to 30 days will ensure tourists can still come through, but give alerts to authorities for those who are using it long term to live, and those who are here to exploit working illegally. The current system is too long and allows very few checks. It won't stop everything, but will reduce those working and living here illegally. The real thing they neeed to adddress is the DTV. This needs toughening up. Finally to clean up tourism they need to address which countries have been given visa free access. Vietnam in my opinion has a good system, which allows Indians visitors .... but they need a visa first, and on that visa you must ensure you have accomodation booked in your name, return ticket, etc This ensure quality visitors. At the moment you have indians with little funds, rocking up to Thailand sharing rooms with 10 others in a room (i have seen this personally). The crux is Chinese are here working illegally, and exploiting Thailand.

Reducing the time you stay here. At the moment you can stay here for ages, and with some indefinately. Stop these long term visas.

The review will do nothing. Same same every year. I remember just before covid the population and local media had started to rise up against the mass tourism which was approaching 40 million, traffic gridlocked, appalling behaviour from tourists. There was talk of QUALITY TOURISM - it was the magic word. Hostels were going to be banned, tighter restrictions on visa, etc Then covid happened. So scarred by covid and no tourists, that Sretta (the previous PM) stimulated tourism unneccesarily by removing all restrictions to the whole world - when tourism was recovering everywhere. It was needless.

How can a government tell companies to reduce prices of their hotels? For as long as i've known Thailand will look to point the finger at everything but the actual answer Rampant crime, mass over tourism due to the relaxed visa laws from less developed nations, cheap violent tourism with barbaric behaviour, marijuana laws attracting horrific tourists. Improving infrustructure, etc - ALL THIS WILL TURN AWAY QUALITY TOURISM. I was in Vietnam. I never saw a drunken fuelled Benidorm Brit anywhere. The indians i saw were all on visas with hotel bookings and decent tourists. Russians would dare not break the law there as the police do not mess around. There is no open rampant marijuana around that attracts dirt tourists. But nah ... always look for the easiest answer - prices must be to blame etc.

Great to hear !!! I remain heartened their is evidence of some quality coaching. May i ask if the coach was Thai or international ?

I'll definately take your comments on board on trying to move the nephew around to a better place, and giving what you say i remain heartened their is better coaching out there. My generalisation was my own experiences from a few coaches, and of course if you look at Thailand performance in most sports with their large population it does beg the question whether the country has a coaching problem - although fully agreed that may well be generalising - i am aware there are most likely other (not sporting) reasons for the country not excelling at sports.