Starting Travel Company

[dkbkk]

I am looking into the possibility of starting af travel company in Thailand.

This company will arrange day tours for farangs with a local driver, not a certified tour guide.

My question is, how is the Thai law on this matter?

Must i specify that its "only" a driver and not a guide? And will that give any problems?

Must i register with TAT in this setup? And if so, how about the expense?

Are there any advantages in making this company registered in another country?

Are there any other issues that is worth mentioning?

Thanks in advance.

/DK

Edited November 13, 2010 by dkbkk

[steppenwolf108]

You MUST have a TAT License to handle inbound tours [100,00 baht for inbound/200,000 baht for outbound], beside that, it's the regular paperwork to setup any Co.,ltd. in Thailand.

You will be told that you need/must become member of one of the larges associations, ATTA, to operate, but that's not true, you can go solo without any problem, there is no law saying so, just a way to push more fees into ATTA's pockets.

Drivers do take care only of transportations, they cannot assist tourists during the visits...if they do so, sooner than later you will have the licensed tour guides to "gently" remind them about it.

If you wish to run smoothly, then you must hire licensed tour guides.

TAT License is issued only to a Thai registered company, so setting up in another Country is no help.

If you wish to issue also tickets [becoming a BSP] then it's a whole other process and costs go to the sky...

[craigt3365]

Farang market is in the toilet...go after the Thai market.

[bushwacker]

Good luck. :jap:

[jalansanitwong]

Be careful about getting involved in the travel business in thailand. Apart from the legal implications and red tapeother problems willarise.I tried to open an agency in bangrak distrct Bangkok.Most of the applications for staff were from shady taiwanese.korean chinese human traffickers wanting me to be a front for their nefarious activities.Thailand is full of these types of people. Youve been warned.

[dkbkk]

You MUST have a TAT License to handle inbound tours [100,00 baht for inbound/200,000 baht for outbound], beside that, it's the regular paperwork to setup any Co.,ltd. in Thailand.

Thanks steppenwolf. Can you be more specific about the TAT license? What you mean by inbound/outbound? I also heard about those fees, but that was regarding to 100k for having a thai only website and the 200k was for having an international website. I also heard some people mention that it was a deposit you will get back (some day).