Tourism fee fund to be fast-tracked after payouts to families in the Siam Paragon mass shooting

[sandyf]

2 hours ago, khunjeff said:

Yes, and the airlines rightfully refused to collect it. It's simple for them to add a fee that applies to all passengers

False information, the airlines did not refuse to collect it. Airlines can only differentiate  between passengers on fixed booking information. In common with other the tourist tax does not apply to all passengers.

For example Heathrow imposes a separate tax over and above the Passenger Service Charge from about 3.500THB upwards depending on seat size, this is easily identifiable from the booking.

People should remember Thailand could have adopted the same approach as most other countries with a tourist tax and applied it to hotel bookings on a nightly basis.

The 300 baht would pale into insignificance.

[itsari]

4 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

What will come next is a horizontal departure tax before your coffin gets nailed down ???? 

Death duties for foreigners in Thailand ? 

Dont give them ideas 

 

[SiSePuede419]

Thailand: We're Still Not As Bad as Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar or Vietnam. ????

[brianthainess]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

foreign tourism entry fee, which the ministry now proposes will be paid by travellers on arrival at entry points to the kingdom,

So they now realize to expect airlines to collect this charge was unworkable, imagine a stop over on the way, then paying the fee in say Delhi when you buy a ticket to Thailand there.

[sambum]

5 hours ago, chris26be said:

So when a Thai citizen shoots someone, the tourists have to pay the costs?

Yes, you hit the nail on the head - Thai "Anti-logic" at its best!

 

Akin to putting the prices up in a bar because they don't have many customers - and no I'm not being flippant - it was a tragic event that seems to be coming commonplace, but to link the compensation payments to the tourist tax is unbelievably bad P.R.

I can just hear the TAT spokesperson now! :- "We're charging you to come into our country because one of our citizens went on a shooting spree in  a Mall, and we need some money to pay compensation to the victims' families"

[Caldera]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

a tourism levy or fee with a new method to pay at airports and entry points using kiosks

Oh great, another queue.

[sambum]

1 minute ago, Caldera said:

Oh great, another queue.

Next move will be to form a committee to discuss ways of reducing the waiting time at said queues!

[brianthainess]

3 hours ago, Parker2100 said:

It would obviously be before you get past Immigration.

 

Btw, the original plan years ago, was just tack a 200 Baht fee to your airplane ticket.

 

 

700b is already added.

[bamnutsak]

The MoT&S has been trying to get their grubby little hands on this 300 baht fee for a few years now. They want to collect and manage this revenue with little oversight. They do NOT want it to be collected as part of the 700 Baht TS fee, which could be increased to 1,000.

 

With 25 million tourists this is a nice little 7.5 BILLION baht cash pile which can easily be stolen.

 

Sometimes they say it's for unpaid medical bills often said to be in the several hundred million baht range. Sometimes they say it's for maintenance and upkeep, other times it's for the coral reefs.

 

Collection is always the issue, airlines want no part of a new ticket line item. This kiosk idea seems like it would be an epic fail.

 

Seems rather ghoulish to push this latest requirement while the cremation ashes of the deceased are still warm? But this Minister seems to be quite foolish and simple-minded.

 

 

 

 

[sandyf]

54 minutes ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

Just being accurate!

If you are working in Thailand and have a work permit/visa or a long permission to stay, like being married to a Thai or a 'retirement' visa you are obviously not a tourist!

A tourist is a person who comes or goes to Thailand for a vacation and goes home!

So calling it a 'tourist levy'  is inaccurate!

If you were being accurate you would quote the criteria accurately.

I seem to remember there were exemptions, one being a work permit.

Wouldn't it be better to wait and see before spreading false assumptions.

[Mr Meeseeks]

These new episodes of The Muppet Show just keep getting better and better. 

[paddypower]

5 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

Yes, it's a Foreign Tourist Levy, nota general levy for anyone who travels!

 

New taxes on tourists have become common in many countries:

 

Barcelona taxes foreigners staying in tourist accommodation

Portugal charges foreign tourists 1 Euro per night

Austria adds 3.02% to foreign tourists bills

Belgium add about 7 Euro's per night to room bills

Bhutan charges foreigners a whopping USD 250 per day!

Bulgaria adds 1.50 Euro per night to bills

Caribbean islands, Croatia, Czech republic, 

France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia

etc etc etc, all charge foreign tourists more.

 

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/09/11/tourist-taxes-all-of-the-countries-you-will-have-to-pay-to-enter-in-2022

 

 

and here, you can get shot for free.

[sandyf]

3 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

700b is already added.

No it is not.

PSC is a tax imposed by every country and ring fenced for airport services, nothing to do with tourism.

[Smokey and the Bandit]

4 minutes ago, sandyf said:

If you were being accurate you would quote the criteria accurately.

I seem to remember there were exemptions, one being a work permit.

Wouldn't it be better to wait and see before spreading false assumptions.

What false assumptions are those?

[Mr Meeseeks]

3 hours ago, newnative said:

Terrible optics from a totally clueless tourism minister.

They are never there on merit.

 

I deal with these Thai government types a lot and some of them are so stupid it beggars belief. 

[brianthainess]

So its for 30 days only, what happens when you extend for another 30days? Welcome to Thailand sir, you have 20k cash sir, ''no I now only have 19,700b" entry  denied "can i get my 300b refunded'' No. 

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

2 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

I believe a lot of guys on this forum missed the point, it's a slush fund to payout for situations like this, PLUS it provides tourists with emergency medical insurance cover and other benefits for 30 days from the point of entry, suffice to say, ask yourself, how many tourists come here without insurance and then end up on forums with GoFundMe asking for help.

Do you honestly believe any tourists will get medical cover free from the Thai govt?

 

????

[Mr Meeseeks]

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

I believe the original thought/purpose was to pay the hospital bill for irresponsible people getting hurt or sick here without insurance or funds to cover their bills.

A lot of naivety on this forum from expats that should know better.

 

Any foreigner in hospital will have to pay as usual. There will be no change there.

 

This fund will only be used to pay the hospitals and other organisations that lose money because potless foreigners are destitute or can't pay.

 

Folk thinking that foreigners can rock up to Thai hospitals and get free medical treatment because they are 'covered' by some 30 day health insurance are deluding themselves. 

 

That's not how it works here. 

 

 

[Jackbenimble]

Using Thai logic, entry to the USA should be an absolutely astronomical amount then?

What the governemnt seem to be overlooking here is that foreigners already purchase a Visa in order to gain entry, pay to enter certain buildings and areas of natural beauty, are over charged by taxi drivers and suffer double-pricing almost everywhere they go. Alas, now they want every visitor to pay a fee to literally walk in? 

There's a tipping point somewhere when visitors will say "sad that" and they will look at alternative destinations & begin voting with their feet.  

I'm not actually against an entry fee - lots of countries do it and have done for years. But it's one thing after another here if you're not Thai.

[Mike Lister]

14 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

A lot of naivety on this forum from expats that should know better.

 

Any foreigner in hospital will have to pay as usual. There will be no change there.

 

This fund will only be used to pay the hospitals and other organisations that lose money because potless foreigners are destitute or can't pay.

 

Folk thinking that foreigners can rock up to Thai hospitals and get free medical treatment because they are 'covered' by some 30 day health insurance are deluding themselves. 

 

That's not how it works here. 

 

 

100% agreed.

 

Plus posters have a very narrow view of who is a foreigner and who these hospital bill evading foreigners are. The vast majority of unpaid bills result from medical treatment by uninsured workers from Myanmar and Cambodia, especially those in the construction and fishing industries.  This is why the Phuket hospitals have the highest rate of unpaid medical bills because of the large number of foregn workers.

[bananafish]

The last time this was mentioned, I thought they were going to tack it on to airline fees. A bleeding kiosk? That will be a guaranteed <deleted>show. 

[Iamloki]

One the one hand... Macro Economics 101: if you want to slow sales, increase price.

 

On the other hand... If it really will be used to "providing emergency medical health insurance cover and other benefits for 30 days from the point of entry"... Well that is at least somewhat more palatable...

[Fairynuff]

5 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

Bhutan charges foreigners a whopping USD 250 per day!

For that price you get all your accommodation, all your food, a private tour guide, car and driver. You literally don’t have to spend anything.

[brianthainess]

32 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

These new episodes of The Muppet Show just keep getting better and better. 

Oh if only Thailand could have The Muppet Show, it could run forever. 

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

5 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

100% agreed.

 

Plus posters have a very narrow view of who is a foreigner and who these hospital bill evading foreigners are. The vast majority of unpaid bills result from medical treatment by uninsured workers from Myanmar and Cambodia, especially those in the construction and fishing industries.  This is why the Phuket hospitals have the highest rate of unpaid medical bills because of the large number of foregn workers.

Indeed, and no surprise why they are not going after the companies and businesses that employ these illegals.

 

All legal workers in Thailand have to pay social security and register at a local hospital.

[FruitPudding]

6 hours ago, chris26be said:

So when a Thai citizen shoots someone, the tourists have to pay the costs?

Classic Land of Smiles.

[Mike Lister]

Just now, Fairynuff said:

For that price you get all your accommodation, all your food, a private tour guide, car and driver. You literally don’t have to spend anything.

That is a minimum daily spend amount that the article declares as a tax, I can see how they might arrive at that conclusion because there is no choice but to pay it, the idea that you get something for it is not really relevant. The fact is, if you went there for 5 days and went no further than the airport and didn't eat or drink anything you would still have to pay 250 x 5.

[Mr Meeseeks]

5 minutes ago, bananafish said:

The last time this was mentioned, I thought they were going to tack it on to airline fees. A bleeding kiosk? That will be a guaranteed <deleted>show. 

As usual, almost complete mismanagement from start to finish.

 

They won't care as it is not going to impact them.

 

When it does result in a loss of face through social media reports on the delays, queues and general disruption being caused there may be some action taken.

 

Reactive, not proactive.

[Fairynuff]

3 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

That is a minimum daily spend amount that the article declares as a tax, I can see how they might arrive at that conclusion because there is no choice but to pay it, the idea that you get something for it is not really relevant. The fact is, if you went there for 5 days and went no further than the airport and didn't eat or drink anything you would still have to pay 250 x 5.

Everything is preplanned. You’ve already paid for it. It’s not a tax, it’s a package tour.

[metisdead]

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