Cabinet approves tourist fee of 150-300 baht for all foreign tourists

[anchadian]

The Thai cabinet has approved the collection of a landing tax, ranging from 150-300 baht, to be collected from all foreign tourists visiting Thailand, tentatively from June 1st.

 

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/cabinet-approves-tourist-fee-of-150-300-baht-for-all-foreign-tourists/

[petermik]

Sheer greed.....I hope it backfires on them

[OneMoreFarang]

Let me guess: administration cost for collecting that fee and keeping all the details in computer systems etc. will cost more.

 

What a great idea...

Who comes up with ideas like that?

 

[worgeordie]

"explained that the landing tax will be used for domestic tourism development and for insurance coverage for tourists while they are in Thailand."

 

Does that mean tourists wont need to buy accident insurance now , I am sure impeccable records

will be kept of how much is coming in and what is spent ..........any MP's with tourist businesses will

be well rewarded I bet. anything in Thailand involving large amounts of money ,also small amounts

are prone to leakages.....???? winking eye if you cannot see it ,

 

regards worgeordie 

[2baht]

More swill for the trough! ????

[Upnotover]

Makes me so glad to have an inbound flight on June 2.  I am yet to see any clue as to the how and where to pay this.

[Lee65]

The Chinese will likely/hopefully be particularly averse to this.  They're pretty sharp when it comes to money.  

[pomchop]

I can think of a few dozen questions in five minutes none of which seem to be addressed that i can see....who will collect it, where will it be collected, are airlines involved,  take credit card?,  what if no have thai baht, what exactly insurance is provided, how long valid, what is covered, how to collect and on and on and on

 

Sounds like yet another idea that they came up with after a few bottles of lao khao and all said yeah that sounds good scheme...lets have a press conference and announce it....never mind those pesky little details....we are the Thai cabinet and we can't be bothered with details that will impact millions of tourists and have hundreds of millions of baht floating around with no idea who how when where why other than oh boy i gonna have a new mercedes and maybe a flat in london soon.

[Stocky]

$10 strewth what's the big deal?

 

I see the UK's Air Passenger Duty for flights departing the UK will, from 1st April 2023, be £200 for the new Band C, that's flights over 5,500 miles.

 

Now that IS a big deal.

[Smokey and the Bandit]

Surely the only way the can collect this "tax" is when you purchase the ticket?

They can't collect from passengers landing in Thailand, as there are no ATM's air side and some folks may not have cash, only credit/debit cards, maybe? Can you imagine the lines of people?

So if they do implement this tax, then everyone that sells tickets to Thailand and all airlines that travel to Thailand, even code share will have to able to collect and pass it on to the relevant authority in Thailand?

[ikke1959]

tourists have money.. they pay fee to enter, fee for leaving double pricing for all entertainments, taxis no meter no problem for them,  we fine them for no helmes, driverslicences, e cigarettes, and ban alcohol sales during daytime, why are not so many tourists come to Thailand// we do not understand

[Yorkshire Tea]

1 hour ago, anchadian said:

to be collected from all foreign tourists

Don't they mean "all foreigners"?

[Lee65]

14 minutes ago, Stocky said:

I see the UK's Air Passenger Duty for flights departing the UK will, from 1st April 2023, be £200 for the new Band C, that's flights over 5,500 miles.

 

Now that IS a big deal.

Maybe for some.  And anyway, the UK was lost years ago.  We still have hope for Thailand.

[Stocky]

5 minutes ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

So if they do implement this tax, then everyone that sells tickets to Thailand and all airlines that travel to Thailand, even code share will have to able to collect and pass it on to the relevant authority in Thailand?

They do that already, the Bht500 departure tax was eventually rolled into the ticket, so I can't see a problem with adding the Bht300 arrival tax.

[Upnotover]

3 minutes ago, Stocky said:

They do that already, the Bht500 departure tax was eventually rolled into the ticket, so I can't see a problem with adding the Bht300 arrival tax.

I don't remember the last time I bought a plane ticket and the price was dependent on whether I had a work permit or not.

[Stocky]

3 minutes ago, Lee65 said:

Maybe for some

It'll be £601 for Business Class

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-allowances-for-air-passenger-duty

[mikeymike100]

11 minutes ago, Stocky said:

They do that already, the Bht500 departure tax was eventually rolled into the ticket, so I can't see a problem with adding the Bht300 arrival tax.

Right,  they obviously can, but I wonder how long it will it take?

The 500 baht departure tax was a cash payment for a long time, before they eventually added it to the ticket?

[mikeymike100]

15 minutes ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

Surely the only way the can collect this "tax" is when you purchase the ticket?

They can't collect from passengers landing in Thailand, as there are no ATM's air side and some folks may not have cash, only credit/debit cards, maybe? Can you imagine the lines of people?

So if they do implement this tax, then everyone that sells tickets to Thailand and all airlines that travel to Thailand, even code share will have to able to collect and pass it on to the relevant authority in Thailand?

Why are there no ATM's air side before immigration? It would certainly make things easier for some folks, other countries have them?

[Stocky]

2 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

The 500 baht departure tax was a cash payment for a long time, before they eventually added it to the ticket?

Exactly, surely all they need to do is change the charge from 500 to 800 (500+300)?

 

.

[foreverlomsak]

1 hour ago, Upnotover said:

Makes me so glad to have an inbound flight on June 2.  I am yet to see any clue as to the how and where to pay this.

And how are they going to separate Expats (on annual extensions for retirement or marriage or whatever returning after a home country visit) from Tourists.

[Upnotover]

3 minutes ago, foreverlomsak said:

And how are they going to separate Expats (on annual extensions for retirement or marriage or whatever returning after a home country visit) from Tourists.

They're not.

[Xanthe]

58 minutes ago, Stocky said:

I see the UK's Air Passenger Duty for flights departing the UK will, from 1st April 2023, be £200 for the new Band C, that's flights over 5,500 miles.

US International departure tax is $20 and International arrival tax is also $20, collected when you purchase a ticket. 

[herfiehandbag]

1 hour ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

Surely the only way the can collect this "tax" is when you purchase the ticket?

They can't collect from passengers landing in Thailand, as there are no ATM's air side and some folks may not have cash, only credit/debit cards, maybe? Can you imagine the lines of people?

So if they do implement this tax, then everyone that sells tickets to Thailand and all airlines that travel to Thailand, even code share will have to able to collect and pass it on to the relevant authority in Thailand?

That's why this is yet another "tentative" announcement of the implementation of this scheme.

 

They almost certainly still haven't worked out how they are going to collect it. Things being the way they are, the more agencies that get involved, the more sticky fingers and the smaller the slice for the bright sparks who came up with the idea in the first place.

[Woof999]

1 hour ago, Stocky said:

It'll be £601 for Business Class

£200 fortunately, up from £185. It's £601 if the plane weighs more than 20 tonnes but carries less than 19 passengers. If you're flying on one of those then the £601 doesn't mean much anyway.

[Lemsta69]

2 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

The 500 baht departure tax was a cash payment for a long time, before they eventually added it to the ticket?

Correct, and then it went up from ฿500 to ฿700 at one point. I vaguely recall using a machine at Swampy to purchase the departure tax ticket and if memory serves it was cash only.

[markclover]

10 counters.  Only one open.  30 minute wait only for the man to shout at you and send you to the back again.

 

First time I ever came here I had one of customer service girls screem in my face.

 

Disgusting service.

[mikeymike100]

11 hours ago, Lemsta69 said:

Correct, and then it went up from ฿500 to ฿700 at one point. I vaguely recall using a machine at Swampy to purchase the departure tax ticket and if memory serves it was cash only.

Yes it was some time ago, but are right, it took them years to put it on to the ticket price as departure tax?

[pomchop]

13 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

That's why this is yet another "tentative" announcement of the implementation of this scheme.

 

They almost certainly still haven't worked out how they are going to collect it. Things being the way they are, the more agencies that get involved, the more sticky fingers and the smaller the slice for the bright sparks who came up with the idea in the first place.

It takes time for airlines and air ticket sellers to change all their pricing to include an extra tax...and what if you already bought your ticket long ago...what then? 

 

 The thai cabinet would do well to work all the details out BEFORE making a big announcement and ending up looking like fools.  Collecting the $$ is likely the easy part....figuring out how this so called insurance will work is much more complicated to negotiate and explain to people in dozens of languages exactly what the insurance might be, what it might cover, etc etc....my guess is it will all be hidden and somehow the insurance company will get paid a massive amount of $$ and the policies will have more loopholes than swiss cheese meaning little if any will get paid out re tourists...but a lot of it might well end up buying new cars, homes, and more for a select few well connected politicians and insurance execs...

[herfiehandbag]

2 hours ago, pomchop said:

little if any will get paid out re tourists...but a lot of it might well end up buying new cars, homes, and more for a select few well connected politicians and insurance execs...

Almost certainly that is what is behind the whole proposal.

[treetops]

On 2/14/2023 at 11:40 AM, Stocky said:

$10 strewth what's the big deal?

 

I see the UK's Air Passenger Duty for flights departing the UK will, from 1st April 2023, be £200 for the new Band C, that's flights over 5,500 miles.

 

Now that IS a big deal.

£15 increase.  The price of Business Class tickets now is such that you'll hardly notice a £15 increase in the taxes.