Changes proposed for tourism and guiding act to speed up penalties 

By The Nation

 

 

The Tourism Department will propose amendments to the tourism business and tour guide act so that penalties could be swiftly imposed on violators, the department chief said.

 

Thaweesak Wanitcharoen, director general of the Tourism Department, said on Monday that his department is in the process of studying how to amend the Tourism Business and Tour Guide Act of BE 2551 to increate penalties.

 

Thaweesak said the amendments would allow the authorities to more quickly punish tour guide and operators of tourism businesses through a three-step process of issuing a warning, suspending licences and revoking licenses.

 

In the case of severe wrongdoing, the authorities may skip the two precedent steps and directly revoke licenses, Thaweesak said.

 

He said his department pondered the amendments because tourists affected by the malpractice of tourism business operators were having to wait quite a long time to get their money back.. The planned amendments would require the operators to quickly return money to affected tourists, Thaweesak added.

 

He said his department is also studying how to set minimum prices for tour packages to prevent tourism operators from participating in extreme price competition that would eventually cause negative effects on tourists.

 

Thaweesak said the study on the minimum prices for tour packages should be done within this year.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30375394

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-27

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No worries.  Tourism will nosedive with the strong Baht.  Bank of Thailand's hot money affliction assures this.

With polluted beaches and air, a strong Baht and better options close by Id guess they need to tackle things on a range of fronts to save the tourist industry.  

I wonder if such initiatives and changes to tourist related issues/scenes would be going on if a military wasn't in power. ❔

6 hours ago, webfact said:

studying how to set minimum prices for tour packages to prevent tourism operators from participating in extreme price competition that would eventually cause negative effects on tourists.

What about maximum prices to prevent overpricing to gouge tourists?

Maybe require a government commissar attendant to accompany every tour guide to assure a proper tour.

I'm surprised TAT/Thailand doesn't just nationalize all tour enterprises now given that tourism accounts for upwards of 15% GDP.

It’s easier than ever to visit surrounding countries. The Thailand tourist gold rush is over. 
 

It will be difficult to for them to understand why tourists would go anywhere else, but they had a good run and did everything possible to screw it up. 

On 8/26/2019 at 8:05 PM, webfact said:

and guiding act to speed up penalties 

Have you noticed all the new penalties (and fines) that are in the news lately?????? The TM30 fines are some of the most prominent but news around Thailand recently is mentioning penalties, fines, and old laws starting to be enforced with fines involved...... Can you believe that it is anything else than money raisers for this newly elected junta government..... Finding all the new ways to grab money...but not spending it on school lunches of improving hospital care.... ONLY on Submarines and Armoured Personel Carriers and Tanks.......

On 8/27/2019 at 3:05 AM, webfact said:

Thaweesak said the amendments would allow the authorities to more quickly punish tour guide and operators of tourism businesses through a three-step process of issuing a warning, suspending licences and revoking licenses.

Between the warning and supending the license, there's a step called 'handing over a brown envelope'.

20 hours ago, Jimbo2014 said:

With polluted beaches and air, a strong Baht and better options close by Id guess they need to tackle things on a range of fronts to save the tourist industry.  

My Wife is  currently in Vietnam and  loving it, says its very cheap especially clothes room is 250 baht a night about 1   billion dong.