Thai tourism sector proposes 300-baht tax to counter over-tourism

[Scouse123]

I remember many years ago in Pattaya chatting with a bar girl I knew very well down there who had been dating a guy from the UK who worked offshore and was wealthy. I knew him and he was a pleasant lad, but nobody's fool.

 

They had just broken up and she was sitting in the bar glum-faced, so I asked what had happened.

 

She went on to tell me she had asked for a new motorbike and he bought one, then after a while there was the farm plus animals which he provided for, ( a lie of course was that project, to extract cash) then there was the obligatory pick-up, which he paid for again.

 

Eventually, when he asked to see the items mentioned above, they weren't there. She had either scammed and pawned them or simply had the money and spent it.

 

So they broke up.

 

She blamed him for the breakup because she said when she asked the first time, he gave, so then she asked again and he gave, so then she said, she just couldn't stop asking!

 

And that is similar to what we have here in Thailand at present, they are trying to balance books obviously through 9 or 10 years of mismanagement and turning to the obvious cash cow, the tourists.

[klauskunkel]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Adith suggests a key strategy could be to divert tourists from these hubs to the country’s secondary cities.

Another strategy could be to burn some more forest, then the arrival numbers will self-regulate.

[StayinThailand2much]

4 minutes ago, outsider said:

Not a day goes by without the idiots singling out foreigners for whatever reasons, or trying to fleece them. Just. Can't. Fix. Stupid.

 

I remember well, how Anutin called (Western) foreigners "dirty", and asked Thais to stay well away from them not so long ago... Add how dirty and polluted the country is, overpriced compared to neighbouring countries, and the changed attitude of Thai women. - Yes, I really want to be fleeced more for all this... Not! - This is not the 1980s where there were limited other destination choices in the region.

[NorthernRyland]

4 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

She blamed him for the breakup because she said when she asked the first time, he gave, so then she asked again and he gave, so then she said, she just couldn't stop asking!

 

 

The mind of a child. Welcome to Thailand.

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai tourism operators are advocating for government regulations to address the rising issue of over-tourism in the country.

 

They propose the implementation of a 300-baht tourism tax, which they believe could alleviate the problem.

Now it's over-tourism... stop inviting the whole world to visit?

[Scott Tracy]

Don't they already charge tourist tax? What happened to the cash money I had to pay to leave in the 90s, what happened to the tourist tax supposed to come in on 2022? 

[Millcx]

OVER Tourism 555555555 How many people are chocking on their breakfast as they laugh out loud … I’m laughing trying to type this “;0)

[mran66]

32 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

Further, how would the spending of the money be managed to ensure it doesn't end up in corruption activities?

 

? - manage money not to be used how it is planned to be used? 

[Mangkhut]

Divert flights to Khon Kaen? Is there even an airport there where bigger jets can land???🧐😆😆😆

[StayinThailand2much]

Just now, Millcx said:

OVER Tourism 555555555 How many people are chocking on their breakfast as they laugh out loud … I’m laughing trying to type this “;0)

 

Perhaps they mean the large numbers of Chinese tourists buying up all the cheap snacks and instant noodles at Big C... 😄

[Scott Tracy]

Don't they already charge tourist tax? What happened to the cash money I had to pay to leave in the 90s, what happened to the tourist tax supposed to come in on 2022? 

[mran66]

10 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

... she had asked for a new motorbike and he bought one, then after a while there was the farm plus animals which he provided for, ( a lie of course was that project, to extract cash) then there was the obligatory pick-up, which he paid for again.

 

 

... And you said he was nobody's fool... 

[mran66]

4 minutes ago, Scott Tracy said:

Don't they already charge tourist tax? What happened to the cash money I had to pay to leave in the 90s, what happened to the tourist tax supposed to come in on 2022? 

 

That's departure tax, even locals have to pay that. They of course want a tax that only foreigners would pay, just don't have figured out how to execute the collection... 

[TheFishman1]

Official sitting down with the peace of paper, and pencil trying to figure out a way to get money disgusting disgraceful TIT

[PomPolo]

Have said this before  and will say it again, at all the international airports they should just have a U-turn before passport control to take you back to your country on the same airplane you arrived in and buckets in the departure lounge that say "Please put in this bucket all the money you brought to spend on your holiday"
Pompolo for head of TAT!

[Scouse123]

20 minutes ago, mran66 said:

 

... And you said he was nobody's fool... 

 

He was earning plenty but he knew what was going on and when he'd had enough, that was it.

 

He could afford it, but he gave her enough rope and she hung herself.

[jonclark]

 

 

57 minutes ago, transam said:

Yep, farangy's planning a long and expensive trip to Thailand and 300 bht will put them off, I don't think so......🤭

 

To be fair though - it may put off the some of the tens of thousands of Chinese tourists on zero baht tours....if zero baht if their going rate for a holiday, then 300 baht is a fortune by comparison 😀. 

[StayinThailand2much]

2 minutes ago, PomPolo said:

Have said this before  and will say it again, at all the international airports they should just have a U-turn before passport control to take you back to your country on the same airplane you arrived in and buckets in the departure lounge that say "Please put in this bucket all the money you brought to spend on your holiday"
Pompolo for head of TAT!

 

That's exactly what they want. No pesky tourists, or 'having to play the host'... No, all they want is grabbing as much money with a minimum of effort from their 'guests'. And more and more tourists learn it the hard way, visiting only once...

[RobU]

300 baht is peanuts tourists and potential tourists won't even notice it. This is a roundabout way of raising money for government coffers. That's fine if it goes into improving the infrastructure, but I seriously doubt it. It will probably be used to fund bonuses and pay rises for civil servants

[transam]

1 minute ago, RobU said:

300 baht is peanuts tourists and potential tourists won't even notice it. This is a roundabout way of raising money for government coffers. That's fine if it goes into improving the infrastructure, but I seriously doubt it. It will probably be used to fund bonuses and pay rises for civil servants

Exactly.............🤗

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, TheFatOne said:

Give me a break.

Not a serious issue and certainly affordable to any tourist spending on the order of 1,500+ baht a day while in Thailand.

And not uncommon.

For example, tourism in the Caribbean nation of Dominican Republic generates more than 15% of GDP. Despite tourist entry fee of US$10 that may be added to the air ticket price or paid at immigration and departure fee of US$20 usually included in airfare already. Tourist are also subject to Island VAT. 

[Sydebolle]

What a load of ......... 

Bhutan does not charge a tourism tax; you have to spend USD 200 (not 100) per day and that covers hotel, transportation, the works. The reason behind this is, that the Bhutanese have understood the basics and want the upper crust of the tourism cake. 
Thailand, on the other hand, has lost its plot quite some time ago and is facing the zero-dollar Chinese avalanche and the mostly hatred Southasians; don't even go further West to the Middle East. 

Put the industry back to where it was, teach your people languages beyond "you buy drink for me", clean up your petty corruptions literally everywhere and get the semi-divine Khon Thai to understand the word "service" and "friendly". Upgrade whatever you do and clear out all that cheap s"ç%t everywhere; will take time as falling down is always done much faster than climbing back - Thailand is a pristine example of that! 

[terryofcrete]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

 

That's certainly true in Pattaya, which is becoming unlivable during the high season. BUT it's hardly likely to be due to foreign tourists, most of whom don't own or rent a car here. If the ever-increasing volume of traffic on the roads is caused by tourists, then they're of the Thai domestic variety, and this dubious tax will be pointless.

If there was no prostitution in Pattaya the s-hole would be empty...oh wait... there is no prostitution in Pattaya ! 

[TheFatOne]

15 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Not a serious issue and certainly affordable to any tourist spending on the order of 1,500+ baht a day while in Thailand.

And not uncommon.

For example, tourism in the Caribbean nation of Dominican Republic generates more than 15% of GDP. Despite tourist entry fee of US$10 that may be added to the air ticket price or paid at immigration and departure fee of US$20 usually included in airfare already. Tourist are also subject to Island VAT. 

 

Regardless of how serious it is, it still plain dumb.

You can't complain about not having enough tourists and then slam a tax on them.

This is just schizophrenic.

Like two days ago, I was reading an article about british tourists and expats turning their back on Thailand because of cost and bureaucracy.

And now this ? Is this supposed to bring back western tourists ?

So yeah, give me a break :D

[newbee2022]

3 hours ago, TheFatOne said:

What a joke.

The country doesn't have enough tourists but wants to implement a tax on... over-tourism.

Give me a break....

Tax Thai companies and those corrupted billionaire families of yours.

 

 

I think you misunderstood🙏

[TheFatOne]

5 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

I think you misunderstood🙏

 

I'm all ears. Go ahead.

[Almer]

3 hours ago, Artisi said:

one minute they are thinking up hair-brained schemes to attract tourist and in the next breath they are planning to impose a tax to reduce tourism -- could only happen in Thailand, probably smoking too much weed believing their own weed smoking tourism advertising. 

What they want is to increase tourism with hair brain idea's, but collect 300 baht if them to pay for it whilst in the North East people have little or nothing to show fod the continued mismanagement of everything.

[Lee65]

1 hour ago, PomPolo said:

Have said this before  and will say it again, at all the international airports they should just have a U-turn before passport control to take you back to your country on the same airplane you arrived in and buckets in the departure lounge that say "Please put in this bucket all the money you brought to spend on your holiday"

 

Why even say "Please".

 

Anyway, the great unwashed would still come.

[Dioj]

This is absolutely nothing new. Originally, Thailand was scheduled to start collecting a Tourist Tax from 1 January 2022 in the amount of 300 baht per person (for air passengers; arrivals by land or water would pay 150 baht). However, because of Covid-19, it was then rescheduled to start being collected on 1 April 2022, but that was also opposed by tour operators, causing the government to put off the collection until June 2023. Then in early 2023 they scrapped the whole idea again. At one point they were going to even call the 300 Baht tourist tax a tax fund tax to protect hospitals from tourists in places like Phuket where they supposedly don't pay their hospital bills. Now it's back as a tourist numbers reduction tax. Seems eventually they are going to come up with some hare brained reason for it that people will finally broadly accept and then the tax will go into place. So it isn't a matter of if, but when. And it isn't going to reduce tourism numbers or help anything else, but it's going to give someone at the top a lot more extra free money. 

[ThailandGuy]

Quote

"Surawat suggests that the tax would not deter foreign tourists, as the fee is minimal compared to countries like Bhutan, which charges a tourist tax of over US$100 (approximately 3,700 baht) per night. "

 

How many tourist does Bhutan have in a year? Max 400.000 !!! What a joke!