Tourism Industry Backs Reinstatement of 300 Baht Tourist Fee

[Korat Kiwi]

20 minutes ago, statman78 said:

The departure tax is still there.  It is now included in the price of the ticket.  You’ll see it if you look at the itemized receipt for an international ticket.

Time for me to head back to Specsavers! 

 

If it was that simple, arrival/tourist tax could be done the same way? 

 

Although many here would be up in arms cause they aren't 'tourists' as they stay here long term. 

[Purdey]

No one has mentioned how 300 Baht would help improve tourism. How will such a small amount per person actually be seen in terms of returns?

Actually, if tourists were given 300 Baht on entry, that money may help Thailand more. Imagine when word gets out.

 

"The Thais are giving away 300 Baht at the airport on entry! Let's go!" 

"How much is that?"

"Who cares? What other country is giving us beer money to go?"

[candide]

38 minutes ago, sidneybear said:

Tourists who find 300 Baht a hindrance aren't worth having anyway. 

The problem is not the amount itself, but the way to collect it, I.e. if it means more time time lost at the airport.

 

And what would be the interest of the tourism industry in it?

[dinsdale]

10 minutes ago, natway09 said:

They did not get rid of the departure tax. It is still there, just applied to your ticket charge.

Why not just add it to that ??

Part of this tax is about insurance. Why would a Thai flying out of Thailand have to pay this? Indeed why should anyone flying out of Thailand have to pay this?

[Peabody]

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

One of the reasons it didn't happen before was because the airlines said no.

Didn't the old departure tax just get added to the ticket price?

 

[dinsdale]

1 minute ago, Peabody said:

Didn't the old departure tax just get added to the ticket price?

 

Still does but it's a departure tax. Might be wrong but as far as I know all airports have this on departure from the country.

[ikke1959]

The 10K wallet much be paid....

[Korat Kiwi]

Departure tax used to be collected before you went through into departures.  From memory you got given a ticket to say you'd paid. 

 

This allowed you to pass thru into immigration departures area.  Some tourists got caught out as they would give away their loose Thai change forgetting about departure tax. 

 

I expect this tourist tax will go towards anything but tourists. 

[Peabody]

So the old departure tax, 700THB/head? X 40 million departures? = 28 BILLION baht. Where has that been going?

 

[sidneybear]

1 hour ago, candide said:

The problem is not the amount itself, but the way to collect it, I.e. if it means more time time lost at the airport.

 

And what would be the interest of the tourism industry in it?

Accept it in multiple currencies. Accept cards. Lots of ways to collect 300 Baht. Not rocket science, really. 

[sidneybear]

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

Thank you for adding to the conversation although it would seem you have missed the point. A) It's a tax. B) Is it a valid tax? C) How will it be implemented? 

A&B) It's a levy charged for a government service, so of course it's a tax. You mentioned earlier that people who already have travel insurance should be exempt, but taxes don't work like that. For example, in the west, people with no kids to educate don't get income tax offsets, and pay the same amount (or more) of income tax as those who send 10 kids to public schools. Hardly a new thing to charge a levy even though some people won't benefit from it.

 

C) I get your point on airlines, but collecting money from people arriving isn't a new concept. Many countries with visa on arrivals do it. Thanks to modern technology, other cash currencies, payment cards in any currency, tap snd pay, etc, could be used. Where there's a will, there's a way. 

 

 

[Almer]

4 hours ago, DPKANKAN said:

What I have said before is that all tourists without travel/health insurance should pay the 300 baht, on arrival, with it going into the health industry to cover the inordinate amount of hospital costs etc. fees that we see people needing regularly!!!!

Yes 300 for 1 month health and accident exc motorbike, and 5000 added to annual ext of stay visa for same cover

[MartinBangkok]

2 hours ago, sidneybear said:

Tourists who find 300 Baht a hindrance aren't worth having anyway. 

So Sidneyidiotbear: How much should they charge on already 7 different tourist fees (check your plane ticket), up to ten times increase on entrance to temples and national parks, farang extra fee in hotels, triple hospital fees for expats, double pricing for farangs everywhere, extortion of farang by police (traffic fines), not to mention 10-100 times extra farang fee in the justice system. Give us a number on the new farang fee you would be happy with Sidney.

[Lee65]

As a universal rule to guide one through life: government ruins everything it touches.

 

Recently, the private sector has been getting in on the act.

 

Edited May 2 by Lee65

[sidneybear]

56 minutes ago, MartinBangkok said:

So Sidneyidiotbear: How much should they charge on already 7 different tourist fees (check your plane ticket), up to ten times increase on entrance to temples and national parks, farang extra fee in hotels, triple hospital fees for expats, double pricing for farangs everywhere, extortion of farang by police (traffic fines), not to mention 10-100 times extra farang fee in the justice system. Give us a number on the new farang fee you would be happy with Sidney.

Well MartinIdiotBangkok, Thai tourist areas just aren't pleasant because they're packed out. Prior to Covid, there were nearly 40 million of them. If 300 Baht weeds out some of them and pays for some upkeep, that's a good thing. 

[StayinThailand2much]

2 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Still does but it's a departure tax. Might be wrong but as far as I know all airports have this on departure from the country.

 

Of course they do, but this proposal has nothing to do with higher airport-costs, or tourism-industry improvements, or insurance, but is (in the latest proposal) purely a money-grab, cause there are "too many tourists", despite TAT's very frequent announcements about plans to attract like 80 million international tourists, or more.

[StayinThailand2much]

5 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

300 b times 40 million tourists expected that's a lot of baht.

 

New BMWs, villas, and Rolexes being ordered while we still talk about it, and Somchai Doe (of 95% 'lower class') not getting one satang of it...

[Skeptic7]

Flip meet Flop.

Right Hand this is Left Hand. Get to know one another.

It's Deja Vu all over again.

T.I.T. 

 

[dinsdale]

2 hours ago, sidneybear said:

A&B) It's a levy charged for a government service, so of course it's a tax. You mentioned earlier that people who already have travel insurance should be exempt, but taxes don't work like that. For example, in the west, people with no kids to educate don't get income tax offsets, and pay the same amount (or more) of income tax as those who send 10 kids to public schools. Hardly a new thing to charge a levy even though some people won't benefit from it.

 

C) I get your point on airlines, but collecting money from people arriving isn't a new concept. Many countries with visa on arrivals do it. Thanks to modern technology, other cash currencies, payment cards in any currency, tap snd pay, etc, could be used. Where there's a will, there's a way. 

 

 

If you're going to say I said someting please quote me. Where did I say: ".... people who already have travel insurance should be exempt,"? Please do not misrepresent what posters have posted.

Edited May 2 by dinsdale

[Liquorice]

Incoming Tourist Tax, no problem, I'm a Non Immigrant.  😉

[sidneybear]

43 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

If you're going to say I said someting please quote me. Where did I say: ".... people who already have travel insurance should be exempt,"? Please do not misrepresent what posters have posted.

Apologies, I thought you mentioned travel insurance in an earlier post, and that it (along with other things) would be impossible to implement. Anyway, the rest of my post still applies. 

 

[MangoKorat]

11 hours ago, Korat Kiwi said:

I was glad when Thailand got rid of that bastard departure tax. What a pain that was. 

 

9 hours ago, dinsdale said:

As said before the airlines said NO last time. Do you think anything has changed? What about land border crossings? What about Thai nationals? What about people with work permits? What about people who have insurance already? I'm sure this list can be expanded. Are the airlines meant to sort this out? Simplistic, poorly thought out policies often have very complex implemenations. This is one of them and to say just add it to the ticket obviously is too simplistic. That's why it didn't happen before. 

As has already been stated, the departure tax was never 'got rid' of - it was transferred to the airlines who I guess will have added it to their ticket prices.

[pomchop]

12 hours ago, DPKANKAN said:

Simple. Collection booths on arrival, pay and receipt before going through customs. Only if no travel insurance.

and exactly who will check all the travel insurance policies written in dozens of languages with page after page of fine print, limitations, exclusions, and legalese? 

 

Not so simple a task.  Lots of arguments over what travel insurance would be accepted, validity dates matched to travel records, etc etc.  And if passenger refuses to pay...which some no doubt would do... and is denied entry that would mean the airlines would have to check the policies before allowing boarding as they would likely be lilable to fly people out if they are refused admittance.  Good luck with that.

 

 

[DonniePeverley]

600 Baht will have no effect. Built it into the ticket. 

 

Secondly, they must reinstate visa fees for Chinese and Indians. 

[pomchop]

13 hours ago, Jimjim1 said:

Every time I arrive in Thailand and indeed any country I do so with a folder full of details regarding my travel insurance and a letter from my insurance company confirming that I have £10,000,000 of full cover, I have never yet been asked for it but it is available for any official to peruse, so the matter is easily checked.

It's all those "details" in most any insurance policy that requires someone to be able to read all the fine print and check exclusions and often in a variety of languages.  Next they need to check the time period covered to see if it matches the length of stay and your travel arrangements. 

 

While I have no doubt yours is in order I also have little doubt that many many more folders would be a total mess that would result in all kinds of extra staffing, training, waiting in lines etc which would not be so simple as saying here is my policy so all good. 

 

If they ever do anything re travel insurance the best system would be to take part of the arrival fees to purchase insurance to cover all visitors....and of course that could well open another can of worms as to which company would be selected, amount of coverage, what specific injuries, illness, pre existing conditions, length of hospitalization is covered, and on and on.  And even then people who already have a good strong travel insurance policy would complain about having to pay for even more insurance.

 

Not at all as simple as many imply.

 

 

[Paris333]

The entry tax on tourists visiting Thailand again in the news

The Tourism Council of Thailand is again lobbying for the government to introduce the 300 baht (US$8) levy on all foreign tourist arrivals. Vice president Surawat Akaraworamat said the income was desperately needed to upgrade tourist sites and monuments, whilst the small amount would not deter the number of international arrivals

The 300 baht revenue booster was first mooted in 2018 with cash to be divided between medical insurance for foreign tourists and a renovation fund for popular sites such as leisure parks and some temples. The idea was then shelved during the covid pandemic and then delayed by the change of government after the May 2023 general election. The current prime minister Srettha Thavisin has shown no interest in the proposal, preferring instead to boost international arrivals by reducing visa restrictions for some countries.

The tourist insurance issue has been addressed, sort of, by the introduction last January of the Thailand Traveller Safety Scheme which allocates up to one million baht (US$27,000) for the accidental death of a foreign tourist and up to half that amount for medical compensation such as loss of limbs. Negligence or carelessness or participation in illegal or dangerous activities voids the policy which is not available in any case for expats. The scheme ends in August 2024 and there is no public information about claims, successful or otherwise, made to date. Some hospitals claim not to have heard of any policy.

The other outstanding issue is the actual collection of the 300 baht, or 150 baht at land borders according to an earlier draft. As the scheme applies only to foreign tourists (not Thais or foreigners with work permits) simply adding the fee to airfares is problematical to say the least. Other ideas have included pre-payment by plastic card or QR code, but the danger of long queues at airports and border crossings remains a real concern. Incoming tourists wanting to pay by cash or needing change or claiming they knew nothing of the 300 baht fee pose a looming reality.

Source:

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/the-entry-tax-on-tourists-visiting-thailand-again-in-the-news-459625

 

[jacko45k]

How does one reinstate something that has never been instated?