Pattaya considers tourist fee for Koh Larn

[Rimmer]

Pattaya considers tourist fee for Koh Larn

PATTAYA:--Pattaya is considering charging tourists to visit Koh Larn to help pay for over-run resort island’s upkeep.

 

City Council Chairman Anan Ankanawisan led the Feb. 23 discussion on imposing fees that would be used to clear Koh Larn’s garbage backlog, fix its sewage system and bolster its water supply.

 

Councilman Choluek Chotekamjorn proposed that everyone arriving on Koh Larn pay a fee that would be used to maintain the island’s infrastructure, rather than depend on Pattaya’s small and slowly allocated budget.

 

He argued that other Thai tourist resorts, such as the Phi Phi Islands, charge 20-100 baht per visitor.

 

The difference, however, is that the Phi Phi Islands and other places that charge visitors, such as the Similan Islands, are national parks. Koh Larn is not.

 

Read more: http://www.pattayamail.com/featured/pattaya-considers-tourist-fee-koh-larn-204056

 

-- © Copyright Pattaya Mail 2018-03-09

[keith101]

If it was a National Park i would not have problem paying a small 20 baht fee but as it is not why should anyone be expected to pay for the Councils problems in not doing the necessary upkeep on the island , tourists are already spending money there and this should be enough as long as people don't slip it into their pockets .

[HLover]

A fee to go see all the rubbish and spend the day with loads of Chinese, sounds fantastic.

 

[trigpoint]

I don't disagree with a charge, but the massive amount of tourists that go every day spending money the business operators should pay for the rubbish removal and better infrastructure.

[impulse]

24 minutes ago, trigpoint said:

I don't disagree with a charge, but the massive amount of tourists that go every day spending money the business operators should pay for the rubbish removal and better infrastructure.

 

They already do.  But that's not where that money's being spent.

 

[Pattaya46]

1 hour ago, keith101 said:

If it was a National Park i would not have problem paying a small 20 baht fee but //

 

If it was a National Park, you probably would have to pay 500 baht !

That's the alien fee in many (most?) Thai National Parks 

[SOTIRIOS]

...where is the money allocated for those purposes one should ask....

 

...next will be like some TV Posters have said......air tax.....or....walking tax....

 

 

...or just confiscate tourists' ATM cards and PIN Codes upon arrival.....

[mok199]

squeeze another buck from the old worn out ''hoe'' you have been pimping for decades..thats the spirit...

[Darcula]

4 hours ago, Rimmer said:

fees that would be used to clear Koh Larn’s garbage backlog, fix its sewage system and bolster its water supply

 

Fix it first. Paying customers would like to see what they are getting.

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, impulse said:

 

They already do.  But that's not where that money's being spent.

 

Of course the money won't be spent where it should be. Why would anyone think it will?

The answer is for all the business OWNERS to pay a trash company directly to transport all the rubbish back to Pattaya for disposal in an official disposal area. They are benefitting from the tourists so they should be the ones paying.

If it's just a tax on tourists going to the island it will be like Samet where they collect park fees and spend nothing on cleaning it up.

[Cake Monster]

Tourist money should self generate a system of maintaining and enhancing the whole environment.

 

However, for some reason there appears to be no credible organization that organizes this as in other Countries.

 

Beggers the question - where is all the Tourist money going ?

[impulse]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Of course the money won't be spent where it should be. Why would anyone think it will?

The answer is for all the business OWNERS to pay a trash company directly to transport all the rubbish back to Pattaya for disposal in an official disposal area. They are benefitting from the tourists so they should be the ones paying.

If it's just a tax on tourists going to the island it will be like Samet where they collect park fees and spend nothing on cleaning it up.

 

I'd object to getting double dipped if I was a business owner.  First, pay the taxes or fees or backhand rent that allows their business to exist, then have to pay again for the services that they aren't getting for their taxes or fees or backhanders.  

 

My inkling is that any trash shipped off to the mainland by private contractor under a competitive bid would probably make it about halfway there, and end up on the beaches all over the GOT.  It's got to be government supervised, and that's the problem.  The other option would be to hire an international company to do it, but we all know how that would go over...

 

 

Edited March 9, 2018 by impulse

[Curmudgeon1]

37 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

Tourist money should self generate a system of maintaining and enhancing the whole environment.

 

However, for some reason there appears to be no credible organization that organizes this as in other Countries.

 

Beggers the question - where is all the Tourist money going ?

I agree... before they concern themself with where the funds come from provide a workable plan with budget and qualified contractors.  Then charge every tourists and tour boat that goes over. Tour boats are known to regularly dump garbage on route.

[shady86]

I still don't get it, why foreign tourists still want to come and pay 10x the amount locals are paying?

[stanleycoin]

Greedy little pigs. 

[Kimber]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Of course the money won't be spent where it should be. Why would anyone think it will?

The answer is for all the business OWNERS to pay a trash company directly to transport all the rubbish back to Pattaya for disposal in an official disposal area. They are benefitting from the tourists so they should be the ones paying.

If it's just a tax on tourists going to the island it will be like Samet where they collect park fees and spend nothing on cleaning it up.

 

Last trip to Pattaya (Oct 2017)  I sat and watched a Thai guy walking along the beach raking up plastic debris and various garbage into neat piles. 

 

Nothing else was done, no pick up and disposal while we sat there in hired deckchairs eating and drinking. 

A couple of hours went by and the tide came in and washed all the piled garbage across the beach where it had been before. 

 

Yet another reminder of My Pen Rai in LoS. 

[Kimber]

1 hour ago, shady86 said:

I still don't get it, why foreign tourists still want to come and pay 10x the amount locals are paying?

 

The tolerance required for sojourning in LoS;  another reason I'm finding it hard to relocate there. 

 

I've slowly come to realise that Thailand isn't worth the government and businesses bullshit, pollution, overcrowding; farang pricing; corrupt police targeting; and subordination to diminishing exchange rates.

 

I've little doubt that ex-pat farangs will find it more and more difficult as time marches on, as for me I'm content with regular holidays with my chosen TG;  bugger living there.   

[Xaos]

Everytime when I went there slow boat I had to pay at pier counter so what's new here?

 

 

[balo]

Just another idea from an official. It will never happen.

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, Kimber said:

 

Last trip to Pattaya (Oct 2017)  I sat and watched a Thai guy walking along the beach raking up plastic debris and various garbage into neat piles. 

 

Nothing else was done, no pick up and disposal while we sat there in hired deckchairs eating and drinking. 

A couple of hours went by and the tide came in and washed all the piled garbage across the beach where it had been before. 

 

Yet another reminder of My Pen Rai in LoS. 

Maybe he was employed to clean the beach, but being literal he didn't include removing the rubbish as they didn't specifically tell him to.

On the islands, they used to rake up the rubbish in front of their hotel, and bury it right there. Given that was a long time ago, I would imagine they ran out of sand to bury rubbish in as it must be buried rubbish end to end. 

[InMyShadow]

On 3/9/2018 at 10:42 AM, HLover said:

A fee to go see all the rubbish and spend the day with loads of Chinese, sounds fantastic.

 

Only a total idiot would would go to the day trip beach and hang with the Chinese and listen to 100 water craft all revving engines non stop

Plenty of non china beaches. Hope the fee is 200 baht. The island needs protecting and great timing for this!! good idea to get the rubbish tip gone for good

[tinca tinca]

On 3/9/2018 at 10:37 AM, keith101 said:

If it was a National Park i would not have problem paying a small 20 baht fee but as it is not why should anyone be expected to pay for the Councils problems in not doing the necessary upkeep on the island , tourists are already spending money there and this should be enough as long as people don't slip it into their pockets .

WHAT COUNCIL !!!!???

[InMyShadow]

On 3/9/2018 at 10:37 AM, keith101 said:

If it was a National Park i would not have problem paying a small 20 baht fee but as it is not why should anyone be expected to pay for the Councils problems in not doing the necessary upkeep on the island , tourists are already spending money there and this should be enough as long as people don't slip it into their pockets .

Way to many tourists. Needs culling like many other islands being trampled around Thailand

[metisdead]

An off topic deflection post about garbage on Jomtien Beach has been removed. 

[beachump]

We already spend extra time and money going there for beaches with no peddlers, why not pay a little extra if it will keep some of the riff-raff out?

 

[The manic]

On 3/12/2018 at 4:00 PM, beachump said:

We already spend extra time and money going there for beaches with no peddlers, why not pay a little extra if it will keep some of the riff-raff out?

 

By Riff Raff do you mean Thai human beings trying to make a living in their own country? 

[Cake Monster]

Who exactly are all these " Riff Raff " that need to be kept away from the island ?.

 

You are obviously some kind of superior being to voice such a bigoted view on the issue being discussed, and we are not worthy.

[HLover]

1 minute ago, Cake Monster said:

Who exactly are all these " Riff Raff " that need to be kept away from the island ?.

 

You are obviously some kind of superior being to voice such a bigoted view on the issue being discussed, and we are not worthy.

He doesn't take the ferry, he walks to the island. Very god-like.