Thailand Tourism Fee to be postponed until September

[Toby1947]

4 hours ago, bignok said:

Airline tickets have a dozen different taxes in them. 300 baht is not much but make it 200 baht for all people easy to put in. Visa Exempt 60 days happy days.

Good idea but doesn't fit in with their racist policy. Let's gouge the aliens, on the curriculum in Thai schools ????????

[nigelforbes]

52 minutes ago, Toby1947 said:

Well it's a substitute then. ????

Hahahahaha......I'm looking at my post and thinking, why's everyone laughing at it, stoopid people! 

 

Thanks.

 

It should of course say, "alternative".

 

Too funny.

 

[Drop the dead donkey]

I personally feel that they are panicking due to very low booking numbers. Adding the 300 will deter even more Chinese from coming.

This is a fear factor that the tourism economy is not rebounding back as they stated.

At the beginning of Covid, the Thai government stated that tourism was only 9% of GDP. This has since been dispelled as a complete myth, and the number is near to 40% with all service industries supporting the main hotel and hospitality industry.

Therefore, this suspension of the fee is another case of sheer panic to mother year of low GDP income and further borrowing by the Thai government to prop up the whole economy.

[sandyf]

5 hours ago, Joseph98765 said:

Here is the tax when you leave....

Take it that was a flight from Thailand to Spain via Qatar.

The YQ & YR are airline charges, E7 is Thailand Advance Passenger Processing and G8 is the Arrival/Departure tax, TS is the Passenger Service Charge for Thailand.

All taxes following TS are for Qatar and Spain. 

 

[sandyf]

3 hours ago, VBF said:

Of course it'll probably be followed by another, equally stupid scheme....

You mean like "Air Passenger Duty".

[Kalasin Jo]

16 hours ago, paulbrow said:

Airlines have been collecting the departure fee (700 TB) for years!

Indeed. Incorporated in to the advertised ticket price for all including Thais I believe along with all the other extra charges if you care to look at the ticket price break down. The difficulty with the arrival tax is that there are all these exemptions. How does the airline identify them as exempt and as genuine at the point of sale? Why should they have to bear this burden? Identification and verification will have a cost.

[VBF]

14 hours ago, Kalasin Jo said:

Indeed. Incorporated in to the advertised ticket price for all including Thais I believe along with all the other extra charges if you care to look at the ticket price break down. The difficulty with the arrival tax is that there are all these exemptions. How does the airline identify them as exempt and as genuine at the point of sale? Why should they have to bear this burden? Identification and verification will have a cost.

Which is why, as i said above, I think the scheme will be quietly dropped. Its somewhat typical of Thailand to announce a scheme, and only then start to think it through, eventually realising it's impracticality. 

 

A little like the proposed change to entry requirements (Certificates and Insurance) mooted in January this year which were then abandoned. That one caused a few people problems....this one is just a few quid on a ticket

Dare I say.....TIT! ????

[sandyf]

On 4/27/2023 at 11:37 PM, Kalasin Jo said:

Indeed. Incorporated in to the advertised ticket price for all including Thais I believe along with all the other extra charges if you care to look at the ticket price break down. The difficulty with the arrival tax is that there are all these exemptions. How does the airline identify them as exempt and as genuine at the point of sale? Why should they have to bear this burden? Identification and verification will have a cost.

It is not a departure fee per se, it is IATA tax code "TS" which is the Passenger Service Charge for Thailand which has to be used for passenger security and facilities. Other countries have their own codes.

You are right in that the tax could not be attributed to passenger groups based on passport etc as API is not collected at time of booking.

The UK's tax code "GB" for Air Passenger Duty, over and above PSC, is attributed to passenger groups but based on ticket class.

The only way it could work is if airlines sold a different fare class where exemption could be claimed, but it is a big ask and as you say additional airline fees could remove any benefit.

We just wait for the next update.