Officials look to Phuket insurance program as model to resolve Pattaya jet ski scams

PATTAYA:--Pattaya officials plan to require jet ski operators to carry insurance that, they hope, will end the extortion scams that have ravaged the city’s image.

At a Sept. 17 meeting of the emergency committee formed to resolve the long-running issue, Chonburi Gov. Khomsan Ekachai said Thaisri Insurance plc has been signed to provide insurance cover for the 452 jet skis operating in Pattaya, Jomtien Beach and Koh Larn.

Combined with other regulatory changes, Khomsan said, tourists no longer would be victimized and forced to pay tens of thousands of baht in compensation for alleged damage to the watercraft.

The governor told the more than 100 jet ski operators in attendance that their premiums would cost less than operators pay in Phuket, which local officials looked to as a model solution. However, Phuket’s local police commander recently called the island’s compulsory insurance program a failure and foreign embassies are complaining tourists are still being ripped off.

Phuripat Theerakulpisut, chief of Phuket’s Marine Office 5, insisted to foreign embassy counsels Sept. 17 that tourists need not pay any money to jet ski operators even if they are involved in accidents. The diplomats disagreed, however, saying rogue jet ski vendors still are charging victims up to 16,000 baht for alleged damage, with some even making customers sign rental contracts promising to pay 3,000 baht a day for each day a boat is out of the water.

Full story:http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/officials-look-to-phuket-insurance-program-as-model-to-resolve-pattaya-jet-ski-scams-17062

-- Pattaya Mail 2012-09-28

However, Phuket’s local police commander recently called the island’s compulsory insurance program a failure and foreign embassies are complaining tourists are still being ripped off.

Well, it might work in Pattaya.

It's not gone to work... Wake up Fools.... So what if they have insurance, they still will scam the tourist. The police are not going to enforce them to make claims from the insurance companies. They make to much money from there scams to stop doing it... The Only way to stop the scams in the do away with the Jet ski scammers.

The diplomats disagreed, however, saying rogue jet ski vendors still are charging victims up to 16,000 baht for alleged damage,

They obviously haven't been in Pattaya, over here they start at a multiple.

The headline should read:

Pattaya Officials look to Phukets (failed) insurance program as model to resolve Pattaya jet ski scams.