Doi Inthanon officials plan to curb visitor number during peak season

[webfact]

Doi Inthanon officials plan to curb visitor number during peak season

CHIANG MAI, 17 October 2014 (NNT) – The cold weather in the North has prompted an influx of tourists to Doi Inthanon National Park, where the temperature reached as low as 6 degrees Celsius this week.

Since last weekend, more than 5,000 tourists have visited Doi Inthanon National Park to make their way up to Thailand's tallest peak to experience the cold. The visitors typically experienced morning temperatures of 8 or 9 degrees Celsius at the highest points of the national park. Of the 5,000, 4,600 were Thais.

National park officials are planning to limit the amount of tourists by only allowing a limited number to visit each site at a time.

The parking spaces at each of the national park's attractions will be considered; full parking lots means no more visitors will be allowed into the area until the next time period. The measure to curb visitor numbers is expected to be put to use during December and January, the peak season for tourism.


-- NNT 2014-10-17

[CMHomeboy78]

It would be nice to think that this is the start of the authorities taking into consideration things other than profit.

Edited October 17, 2014 by CMHomeboy78

[finnomick]

Good, entry to the park is over-priced for what you get. They've got my vote and I certainly won't be visiting when I next visit CM.

[MESmith]

Good, entry to the park is over-priced for what you get. They've got my vote and I certainly won't be visiting when I next visit CM.

So true. Much better hiking, & nature outside of the paid for NPs. Don't see the attraction of visiting the countryside with hordes of other folk. Baaaaaaa.......

[connda]

Just quadruple the entrance fees for farangs. The TAT and other government agencies are on a roll. Guaranteed not to stop until they have completely destroyed the 'farang' side of the tourist industry. Great job dudes!

[rickirs]

Might there be a possibility that Chinese tour groups will dominate visitors to the point that even Thai citizens and resident foreigners can't get in to visit, especially since recently Chiang Mai has been targeted by the governments of China and Thailand for higher volume of Chinese tourists?

[Thailand]

Put up the prices for locals to the same as foreigners.

That will do it overnight.

[Tokay]

1) It's not really that impressive. Better views and grounds elsewhere.

2) They hammer foreigners on the price, and it isn't worth even what Thais pay.

3) Why go somewhere that is PACKED full of locals driving like idiots around the curves, drunk as a skunk.

We went once. It is over-hyped and not really that special. Much better places to visit.

[Goshawk]

1) It's not really that impressive. Better views and grounds elsewhere.

2) They hammer foreigners on the price, and it isn't worth even what Thais pay.

3) Why go somewhere that is PACKED full of locals driving like idiots around the curves, drunk as a skunk.

We went once. It is over-hyped and not really that special. Much better places to visit.

Well, as they say . . . it's, 'horses for courses' i suppose.

Doi Inthanon is still the premier birdwatching site in the north, if not the whole country. So i guess it depends on what exactly you want from your NP's that determine your opinion of them. For me DI is, has always been, & will continue to be a 'Mecca'. It's that good. I love the place.

[Mapguy]

Wow! What an astonishing series of so many cynical and critical posts !!

I am not a fan of traveling to the peak of Doi Inthanon. I find climbing to the "summit" boring and usually overcrowded with people taking photos of people taking photos, but I endure it relatively often because of visitors who think (for whatever reason) traveling to the highest elevation in Thailand is significant. And most don't even make it all the way, just going to the monuments to the king and queen with a stop at the popular waterfall en route. BUT...a couple of points!

Travel to the Doi Inthanon peak is overstressed. It is a huge area altogether with much to offer. I admire the extent of the national parks in Thailand, and in my limited experience I find them generally quite underused and underappreciated. Not every site can be the highest, have the splashiest waterfalls, or whatever.

Second, no doubt this thread will be diverted into some discussion about "racist" double-pricing to enter parks. That is really shortsighted and tiresome! There is tiered pricing for all sorts of reasons throughout the world. "Racist" my bunghole!

Edited October 20, 2014 by Mapguy