TOURIST TAX......300 Baht. Land, Sea, Air....OMG

[Ventenio]

1.  Of course this is NOT law.  Just thoughts

2.  will be included in cost of airfare, maybe...

 

all speculation..... 

 

I won't put in links, but here is the gist:
 

The Thai Government’s Tourism and Sports Ministry is considering introducing a tourist tax that would be charged to all people who arrive in the country once the ban on incoming flights is lifted at the end of May.

The proposal suggests that a tax of approximately 300 baht per person is collected from foreigners on all inbound flights, in addition to arrivals by land and sea.

The tax would then be placed into a fund that is managed by the Tourism Ministry with the aim of rebuilding and developing the tourism industry across Thailand in addition to offering better security and safety for visitors.

 

-------------

 

Hopefully we will get the "official" thread...

 

But this is getting interesting...

 

Oh, border run..... 300 baht.  thanks

 

300, 300, 300.....

Edited May 12, 2020 by Ventenio

[bkk6060]

Sounds like a good idea.

[KhaoYai]

There already is a tax. It was previously 500 baht and payable on departure. A few years back it was incorportated into air ticket prices. Now they want more? - great idea for attracting tourists........not!

[stouricks]

6 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Sounds like a good idea.

Sounds like rubbish to me. What about foreigners flying into Thailand who are NOT tourists, either businessmen or long term residents, who could not give a monkeys about visitors to Thailand. Not a lot of money, but everything starts somewhere small.

[473geo]

They should add another 1200 round it up to 1500 include a 30 day medical insurance policy, off the back of this create an annual policy fee of 14,400  ????

Edited May 12, 2020 by 473geo

[ChouDoufu]

maybe a good idea.

 

will it replace the proposals for mandatory thai insurance policies?

will it replace any requirement for covid insurance coverage?

 

and will it be by every foreigner entering thailand, or only on a tourist visa or visa waiver?

[4MyEgo]

One minute their crying that tourism is down, and there are going to be massive losses and that it will take years to get back to where they were before, then all of a sudden some genius comes up with a plan, a not so smart plan to slug any intending tourists an additional 300 baht tax, could this be to try and save Thai Airways ?.

 

Perhaps it's not in the Thai culture to think outside the square, like think about bringing in the tourists by dropping the visa entry fee for starters, and then take the 300 baht that you were intending to slug them out of the income derived through an additional tax of 300 baht from the tourism industry, like hotels, car hire places, taxis, etc etc, this might just be an incentive to bring them back, but doubt it.

 

Too difficult for some to think outside the square as I said above, yeh I guess so, well take it on the chin Thailand because your about to realise how many tourists you will receive, very little IMO, no skin off of my nose, but I reckon there is going to be even fearser competition from other countries to get tourists in and I doubt that they are looking at slugging them additional taxes to enter a country which was already going down in tourism pre-covid-19.

Edited May 12, 2020 by 4MyEgo

[Sujo]

How can they but 300 on the cost of a ticket if coming by land.

 

I walk across the border, no ticket for that.

[new2here]

33 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

There already is a tax. It was previously 500 baht and payable on departure. A few years back it was incorportated into air ticket prices. Now they want more? - great idea for attracting tourists........not!

That is a Passenger Service Charge and is collected and remitted to the Ministry of Transport.  Like most countries that have a similar fee built into tickets, it’s used in part to partially subsidize/defray the cost of services provided by the airport or government to individual passengers, such as Immigration and customs processing, security processing and even aircraft operations.  
 

Yes, airlines also pay for these services through fees collected, however their fees tend to be for things that are more airline-centric such as aircraft landing/take-off, use of gate space, etc.

 

So in total both the passenger and the actual airline pay for the services.

 

in this case, unless the ministry of transportation either remits some of that fee income collected back to the national government for later redistribution through the normal budgeting process or they have some type of pre-arranged revenue split/sharing with the ministry of sports/tourism, I highly doubt the ministry of sports/tourism sees  

any of that B700 charged today.

 

in my opinion, adding a new fee that’s essentially a tourism-support fee, and adding it into ticket prices - and to be collected at the time of ticketing is a GREAT move.... 

 

why? First, every air ticket sold will be equally impacted and at the same time, so there’s no price impact variance.. everyone’s ticket would go up B300 at the same time .... and secondly, and IMHO most importantly, few, if any passengers ever really look at nor make a purchasing decision based on any one Included-in-ticket-price tax... they may see the price went up, but I’d guess that less than 1% take the time nor understand what really drove that fare increase...  and lastly, given that fares can move up and down by the thousands of baht per day or even intra-day, its my guess that an across-the-board levy of a new B300 tax on every single ticket issued regardless of the airline nor point of sale, will have a near zero long term impact on the typical air ticket buyers decision making process. 

Edited May 12, 2020 by new2here

[ChouDoufu]

27 minutes ago, Sujo said:

How can they but 300 on the cost of a ticket if coming by land.

 

I walk across the border, no ticket for that.

foreigner stamp fee.

[473geo]

It's 300 baht guys, is that really a make break amount on a holiday in Thailand? Most people will spend much more in the airport prior to departure!!

[worgeordie]

Fewer tourists are expected to arrive,so tax the ones that come, 

Thats Thai logic for you.

regards worgeordie

[time2093]

46 minutes ago, stouricks said:

Sounds like rubbish to me. What about foreigners flying into Thailand who are NOT tourists, either businessmen or long term residents, who could not give a monkeys about visitors to Thailand. Not a lot of money, but everything starts somewhere small.

We are all tourists in the mind of the Thais.

[Lacessit]

46 minutes ago, 473geo said:

They should add another 1200 round it up to 1500 include a 30 day medical insurance policy, off the back of this create an annual policy fee of 14,400  ????

I'd be in that, if it included over 70's. 14,400 baht a year? I wish.

[ChipButty]

Increase VAT while your at it

[Lacessit]

12 minutes ago, 473geo said:

It's 300 baht guys, is that really a make break amount on a holiday in Thailand? Most people will spend much more in the airport prior to departure!!

You're forgetting the backpackers living on 30 baht pad thai.

[stevenl]

Speculating about a speculative post is useless.

[Canuck1966]

It will drained like a big fat boil by the parasites who run this place 

They've syphoned enough pythons over the years

Just another excuse to feed from the trough 

[KhaoYai]

21 minutes ago, new2here said:

in my opinion, adding a new fee that’s essentially a tourism-support fee, and adding it into ticket prices - and to be collected at the time of ticketing is a GREAT move....

Why?

 

Please come back, please visit Thailand - our tourist industry is having a terrible time. Please come, spend money - oh and we'll tax you for doing so???

19 minutes ago, 473geo said:

It's 300 baht guys, is that really a make break amount on a holiday in Thailand?

The cost is not the point really is it? - its the whole principle of being taxed when you are already assisting the country by taking your holiday there.

[473geo]

Just now, KhaoYai said:

Why?

 

Please come back, please visit Thailand - our tourist industry is having a terrible time. Please come, spend money - oh and we'll tax you for doing so???

The cost is not the point really is it? - its the whole principle of being taxed when you are already assisting the country by taking your holiday there.

But you will be ok paying 10,000 baht extra for your flight if required right?

[Kennycrossfit]

9 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

You're forgetting the backpackers living on 30 baht pad thai.

You're forgetting the pensioners living on 30 baht pad Thai. 

[Jimbo53]

1 hour ago, KhaoYai said:

There already is a tax. It was previously 500 baht and payable on departure. A few years back it was incorportated into air ticket prices. Now they want more? - great idea for attracting tourists........not!

I think it went up to 700 bht years ago.

[Jimbo53]

6 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Why?

 

Please come back, please visit Thailand - our tourist industry is having a terrible time. Please come, spend money - oh and we'll tax you for doing so???

The cost is not the point really is it? - its the whole principle of being taxed when you are already assisting the country by taking your holiday there.

Your forgetting the fee (700bht) thats already in place to this additional <deleted>.

[sqwakvfr]

I would gladly pay the equivalent of $10 USD to get back in this year.  

[KhaoYai]

9 minutes ago, 473geo said:

But you will be ok paying 10,000 baht extra for your flight if required right?

I will have no choice - but I'm not a tourist, tourist will have a choice. There's been enough bad press about Thailand recently - anything that tourists see as a negative cannot be good.

Edited May 12, 2020 by KhaoYai

[anchadian]

The OP is referring to insurance which would cover covid-19 for foreign arrivals.

 

Up to B300 per person but would possibly be B100.

 

The article is in a certain Thai newspaper.

[473geo]

3 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

I will have no choice - but I'm not a tourist, tourist will have a choice. There's been enough bad press about Thailand recently - anything that tourists see as a negative cannot be good.

It's 300 baht!!!

[Big Joke]

We will just reintroduce the system used before. You will go to a booth and purchase your departure tax ticket. On clearing immigration your ticket will be collect by staff. No ticket no departure. Anyone presenting themselves at the booth who's stay exceeds 180 days and not in possession of a tax clearance certificate will be directed to the airport tax office.

[KhaoYai]

3 minutes ago, anchadian said:

The OP is referring to insurance which would cover covid-19 for foreign arrivals.

He has not provided any links but at the moment, I don't see anything about covid 19 insurance in his post - quite the opposite.

[drbeach]

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

One minute their crying that tourism is down, and there are going to be massive losses and that it will take years to get back to where they were before, then all of a sudden some genius comes up with a plan, a not so smart plan to slug any intending tourists an additional 300 baht tax, could this be to try and save Thai Airways ?.

 

Perhaps it's not in the Thai culture to think outside the square, like think about bringing in the tourists by dropping the visa entry fee for starters, and then take the 300 baht that you were intending to slug them out of the income derived through an additional tax of 300 baht from the tourism industry, like hotels, car hire places, taxis, etc etc, this might just be an incentive to bring them back, but doubt it.

 

Too difficult for some to think outside the square as I said above, yeh I guess so, well take it on the chin Thailand because your about to realise how many tourists you will receive, very little IMO, no skin off of my nose, but I reckon there is going to be even fearser competition from other countries to get tourists in and I doubt that they are looking at slugging them additional taxes to enter a country which was already going down in tourism pre-covid-19.

Really bad timing to be considering this...but they're not alone.

 

Laos has implemented a tourist tax - 16000 Kip for incoming foreign passport holders and 8000 for foreign border pass holders. Strangely, they're not yet collecting the tax when entering from Thailand but reportedly are doing so for entries from Vietnam and arrivals by air.

 

New Zealand also recently introduced a tourist levy - collected at the time when you apply for your visa or e-visa. Since October last year, all foreigners except Australians need to apply for an e-visa to board their plane or ship. Australian and several Pacific Island nations are exempted from the new levy. Thais and Europeans, as well as Americans need to pay it. Thais pay it through VFS or the embassy, Americans and Europeans pay online.