Tourism Entrepreneurs Ask Thai Govt To Scrap Visa Fees

[scania]

I vote to drop all this nonsense 90day reporting crap + paying for extension of stay visa + re-entry ripp off

you´ve got my vote ;-)

[tropo]

I vote to drop all this nonsense 90day reporting crap + paying for extension of stay visa + re-entry ripp off

Careful what you wish for. If all these fees were dropped they could easily discontinue issuing these perks.

[barryFunk]

A lot of posters seem concerned that getting rid of the visa will somehow discourage high end tourists - or at least that's how many of your posts read. Yes - the government/TAT may wish to focus on attracting high spending visitors, but I'm not sure that a wealthy business man or women would decide against visiting Thailand because the visa requirements (or just visa fees) were dropped!!

Secondly, this is not the Thai government suggesting that they will drop visa fees, it's a group of tourism sector business asking for this to happen. It's funny how so many posters on Thai Visa Forums equate anyone Thai suggesting something as the same as proposed government policy. Seems to be an us vs. them mentality. Unfortunate since I have never felt such hostility from anyone Thai since moving here last year.

Reducing visa fees may actually attract higher spending tourists (and probably lots of lower spending ones too - which is OK isn't it?) who do not want the hassle of having to pay up in their home country or on arrival. However, if they still have to queue to get a visa prior to passing through immigration, then such a policy would be pretty pointless. Reducing hassle is going to be more useful than reducing fees.

barryFunk

[tropo]

If you ever get involved with trying to get a visa for a Thai to visit another country (other than immediate neibours) for tourist purposes you will realise how cheap and simple it is to get a visa to Thailand.

I.E. Tourist visa to NZ; an inch thich stack of paper a couple of intervies and 3 months later, granted.

To OZ; gave up in disgust and did not go.

These countries are actually protecting the interests of NZ'ers and Aussies by making it tough. How many girls try to get into these countries via false pretenses. i.e. Love and marriage.

NZ: Took me a month over Christmas holidays to get my Filipino gf a visitors visa. Look into limited purpose visas next time - no interview required - but you only get a month.

[maxtingtong]

drop down the baht 5-10% and you'll have the country full of tourist again. Every friend come here from europe complain that's too expensive!

:jap:

[thailand49]

Just another stupid explanation from another stupid government official. Every tour group fare has a visa fee fixed into the cost but I'm sure the Chinese are going to take care of you under the table if you can get this fee to go away! The fee when included into the tour is rarely noticeable. The last time I look the Chinese is the second largest economy in the world and is manipulating their money yet they rarely help anyone but themselves. If everyone that comes has to pay so should they!

Edited March 10, 2011 by thailand49

[a51mas]

I thought Thailand was trying to attract a better class of tourists. I doubt the relatively small visa fee would play any part in such a tourist's decision as to where to vacation. I never give such fees a second thought when traveling, and someone who does is obviously a borderline tourist by Thailand's definition, and they don't want them so why eliminate the fee? Are the Chinese too poor or too cheap? If either, then why does Thailand want them? If not, then why get rid of the fee as they should be able to afford such a nominal amount? Funny thing is that Thailand could have a huge market in the west if they just stopped treating tourists like crap. Remember, all farang rich right? But people with money from the US won't come here because Thailand has a reputation in our country of being a total scam and extremely racist, both of which are true. Without addressing those issues, lowering fees will make no difference to Americans as we don't give a few hundred dollar fee a second thought, but we don't like being scammed and treated like second class citizens in a third world country!.

I live in USA and I've never heard of anyone here saying Thais are racists, you're full of sh*t.There are plenty of Americans living in Thailand, so it is stupid to claimed Americans would not travel to Thailand, and yet you are here, <<<<togib<<<<<< like you are one of the reasons why Thailand needs better class of tourists. Have you ever wonder why you are being treated like a cancer,but not the other people.:jap:

[dunkin2012]

If you ever get involved with trying to get a visa for a Thai to visit another country (other than immediate neibours) for tourist purposes you will realise how cheap and simple it is to get a visa to Thailand.

I.E. Tourist visa to NZ; an inch thich stack of paper a couple of intervies and 3 months later, granted.

To OZ; gave up in disgust and did not go.

These countries are actually protecting the interests of NZ'ers and Aussies by making it tough. How many girls try to get into these countries via false pretenses. i.e. Love and marriage.

NZ: Took me a month over Christmas holidays to get my Filipino gf a visitors visa. Look into limited purpose visas next time - no interview required - but you only get a month.

This 's dam_n discrimination. right? The world without any boundaries would be nice. As Citizens of the world, goin' anywhere is freely to do. (imagination)

[cardholder]

If you ever get involved with trying to get a visa for a Thai to visit another country (other than immediate neibours) for tourist purposes you will realise how cheap and simple it is to get a visa to Thailand.

I.E. Tourist visa to NZ; an inch thich stack of paper a couple of intervies and 3 months later, granted.

To OZ; gave up in disgust and did not go.

China and the US have already been mentioned.

Fortunately, I have no burning desire to go (back in some cases) to any of these countries.

Edited March 10, 2011 by cardholder

[12346]

As foreigner you are alow to build your own house in Thailand but you are not allowed to own the ground where the house is standing. You are also not allowed to stay in the country without to have a Visa. Why not give the foeigner who build a house in Thailand a free Visa so long you have your house in Thailand. Foreigners has invest a lot of capital when they build their house and with an easier Visa there are a lot of more foreigner who wants to invest also let the foreigners own the land maximum 1 Rai where they have their house on. This will give Thailand a lot of more investment and alot of more works to the THAI-people.

Do something positivt. Have a look at your nabor-countries.

sounds like a very good idea, and along with that, the 1,900 THB fee every few months would be nice!

[wlcart]

My calculations, the key number is how many MORE come because of the no fee.

let's say for every 100 tourist you gain 10 extra from no visa fees. that means Thailand lost 100*1,900 baht or 1,900,000 baht from the missing visa fee.

So the 10 extra tourist would have to make up the total loss, (1900000/10 = 190,000 each) in VAT fees.

Now for the government to get 190,000 in VAT fees from each tourist, each of the 10 would need to spend 2,714,286 on their vocation to Thailand.

I think we all know that will not happen.

[a51mas]

I expect in time Chinese tourists will be visa exempt, we farangs will see our fees continue to rise.

What would Thaiand do IF Farang blacklisted Thailand as a no go area for tourism - would the Chinese keep the economy going. I have never known any race of people be so outwardly racist and discriminatory against another race of people whom they evidently need. Double pricing, VISA fees, uninvestigated murders - see what they do IF nobody from Europe and the USA and Australasia visits Thailand.

I would say good ridden.

You remind me of a mythology character that falling in love with his reflection in the water.

[12346]

Everytime I am in my house for 2 month I spend more than 100.000 Bath. How many foreigners with house do you have? Say 500.000 and they spend 50000 each it gives 25000 million bath.

[Payboy]

Now for the government to get 190,000 in VAT fees from each tourist, each of the 10 would need to spend 2,714,286 on their vocation to Thailand.

It's still doable if you can also count the fines they would collect for littering around the tourist areas.

[wlcart]

I expect in time Chinese tourists will be visa exempt, we farangs will see our fees continue to rise.

What would Thaiand do IF Farang blacklisted Thailand as a no go area for tourism - would the Chinese keep the economy going. I have never known any race of people be so outwardly racist and discriminatory against another race of people whom they evidently need. Double pricing, VISA fees, uninvestigated murders - see what they do IF nobody from Europe and the USA and Australasia visits Thailand.

I would say good ridden.

You remind me of a mythology character that falling in love with his reflection in the water.

Darn could you imagine how much p_ssy one would get if they were the only white guy in thailand!

[stevensdling]

And of course more discrimination about other nationalities ... what about the other tourists ?

Easy answer: Farangs will always have to pay.

[inmysights]

I vote to drop all this nonsense 90day reporting crap + paying for extension of stay visa + re-entry ripp off

Plus 1. Bloody waste of time reintroduced by bloody Taksin very soon after taking office as part of his particular 'whip up the nationalist crap' program at the time.

Just for all of you who still labour under the delusion about what 'a very nice chap' he was. Pah!

[inmysights]

Of course the travel industry as a vested interest is asking for visa fees to be waived, but let's hope the government doesn't fall for it again.

The visa applications still have to be lodged and processed. Who pays for that?? Taxpayers. I'd rather the tourists pay their visa fee and the proceeds pay for the processing, rather than being subsidized by government funds that could be spent on something more worthwhile, like healthcare, schools and infrastructure.

If people can afford to come to Thailand, they can afford to pay the pretty reasonable fees for tourist visas.

I'm with you.

Okay, lets backup on the bullshit.

Why do Chinese have no 14-day stamp at arrival placed in their passport like people from a good number of countries in the world receive upon arrival at Thai Immigration check points?

Or is this a case that Chinese are very slow people due to having to take lots of pictures of Thailand to decide were and what kind business venture(s) to start in Thailand when on vacation and the 14-day stamp in the passport is not enough time.

The more you read this forum the more you find out about the never ending string of shenanigans making the rounds in Thailand.

As for the 90-days reporting, well, stop moving around like a gypsy, buy your own residence and produce the Thai Gov. Land Office Document(s) to show them that you are a serious established in one place resident in Thailand. Thailand already has more than enough trouble keeping track of Thais and their residence address to the point that the Police takes the driver license which will be returned when coming to the police station because half the driver licenses in circulation the residence address is not were the holder of the driver license lives.

In many cases Thailand has screwy ideas, but also in many cases there is a reason for what to a farang looks like screwy ideas. As for the 90-day reporting, it should be made every 30-days with all the undesirables from all over the world using Thailand as a place to hide. After consistently having the same residence address as checked out by Immigration Police for 3-monhs then the person should be given a 90-days reporting.

What are you on?! Even retirees settled for many years in the same abode still have to report every 90 days. And even those under retirement age and who have established businesses here must 'border run' every 90 days..

And by the way Khun Ingenue, what you quite possibly term 'undesirables'(a)get around the visa thing (Utapao Pattaya/Phuket/everbloodywhere, anyone?) And most certainly do not trip up to their local imm office every 90 days.

You really should get out more.

Edited March 10, 2011 by inmysights

[a51mas]

Everytime I am in my house for 2 month I spend more than 100.000 Bath. How many foreigners with house do you have? Say 500.000 and they spend 50000 each it gives 25000 million bath.

Should I believe you?, look at your Screen Name, it tells me you can't count.

[diehard60]

And of course more discrimination about other nationalities ... what about the other tourists ?

Don't you know that the ELITE and YELLOW Shirts are all from China? My God isn't there enough here now?

[inmysights]

And of course more discrimination about other nationalities ... what about the other tourists ?

Don't you know that the ELITE and YELLOW Shirts are all from China? My God isn't there enough here now?

ALL Thais are from China. Diktet.

[dunkin2012]

I can tell you why this is happenin'? cos' Thai people can go to China without any hassles. It's a piece of cake. Only they can afford to pay the visa fee that is around 1000 baht for a single entry and without any racist interviews conducted. Moreover, there are a number of Chinese ethnics in Thailand(millions). Thai and Chinese have very close relationship long ago. The origin of Thai is from the southern part of China, Somewhere in Yunnan. Geographically and Ethnically, they are blend together. The visa fee for Chinese will be lift off sooner or later. It's the same as Russia, Korea and Mongolia then.

[brianb1944]

So how do i understand this? people don't come to Thailand because the visa is too expensive? is this for real? Wow, Now, Thailand has no visa fees,everybody is going to come here and spend lots and lots of money,they saved on the visa fees............PUKE...

Whole thing is academic anyway as Consuls have replaced waived visa fee with an Admin fee.

[Kilgore Trout]

Isn't this something that is already planed as part of the ASEAN treaty? I think the business operators should be careful what they wish for because I think free labor is also attached to the ASEAN treaty.

Last time I checked China was not an ASEAN country

[Shurup]

I live in USA and I've never heard of anyone here saying Thais are racists, you're full of sh*t.There are plenty of Americans living in Thailand, so it is stupid to claimed Americans would not travel to Thailand, and yet you are here, <<<<togib<<<<<< like you are one of the reasons why Thailand needs better class of tourists. Have you ever wonder why you are being treated like a cancer,but not the other people.:jap:

You obviously haven't been here long enough.

Thais aren't being very obvious about their racist habbits, but once you learn to see it - you see it everywhere, every day.

If you have a white skin, they know you have money and they want to get it all.

[jazzbo]

PR China is not currently a 'Visa Exempt Country' or free 30 day Visa available upon airport arrival.... A citizen of China qualifies for the Visa upon arrival good for 15 days and costs 1000 baht.

According to the TAT statistics for April 2007 (the latest available online) the average stay in Thailand for persons from PR China was 6.65 days... The average stay for persons from Europe was 14.26 days and from Americas 10.45 days ...

Regardless of the poorly written headline, the article is discussing eliminating fees for short-term tourists who are now paying Visa-on-Arrival fees not visas for persons who want to stay on a succession of tourist visas.

Edited March 10, 2011 by jazzbo

[Shurup]

If the US is so wonderful, you might consider returning soon. By the way, there are no rip off merchants in the good old USofA.................Madoff rings a bell for some reason. His efforts probably paled Thailands little scams into insignificance.

It's like comparing apples to oranges... Madoff didn't pull money out of fools' pockets, they willingly gave him their money. That's totally different kind of scam comparing to what's going on here.

[DoctorG]

PR China is not currently a 'Visa Exempt Country' or free 30 day Visa available upon airport arrival.... A citizen of China qualifies for the Visa upon arrival good for 15 days and costs 1000 baht.

According to the TAT statistics for April 2007 (the latest available online) the average stay in Thailand for persons from PR China was 6.65 days... The average stay for persons from Europe was 14.26 days and from Americas 10.45 days ...

Regardless of the poorly written headline, the article is discussing eliminating fees for short-term tourists who are now paying Visa-on-Arrival fees not visas for persons who want to stay on a succession of tourist visas.

Unless I missed it, it took 86 posts for someone to point out that in all probability, the tourist group want Chinese to enjoy the same visa waiver program as other countries. This would seem sensible, especially as they don't usually stay long in LOS anyway.

[brahmburgers]

Could be they just give Chinese a free entry and charge everyone else

They already do that unintentionally. Many Chinese have come here over the decades, and simply wrangle a Thai ID after a few years. Do they come with a valid visa? I'll let you answer that. Early members of the Shinawatre family probably just came over, whether legal or not, and just stayed, and pulled a few strings and ...voila, Thai ID. Indians and Lebanese do it also, effectively 'slipping between the cracks.'

I know a couple Chinese laborers who slipped over to northern Thailand, and got Thai ID in 8 years.

Could farang do that? No. We don't have Asian features, so we will forever be 'farang'. The rules change, depending on the physical appearance of the person affected.

Can a Thai go to the US and, after awhile, assimilate and get a Green Card? Yes. It probably happens hundreds of times per month.

[rfukata]

Lets first analyze how many Chinese (PRC) who traveled to Thailand during this visa exemption period Overstayed or strayed off course and<div>became an illegal immigrant into Thailand?</div><div>IF the findings are insignificant compared to other nationality paxes then there is a compelling reason for this request.</div>