SURVEY: Do you agree with the adding of 360 baht 'Maintenance Fee' on tourists?

[dageurreotype]

They're going to push it as far as they can. What will be next?

I couldn't get past this post. With the Idiocracy this country is currently labouring under, there will be no Next. Come on down to Fuckit On Sea and see for yourself.

On the other hand GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Edited January 24, 2016 by dageurreotype

[Asiantravel]

are they too embarrassed to call it an arrival tax to complement the 700 baht departure tax?

[hawker9000]

Thailand sure has learned its way around a tourist's pockets, hasn't it? Well, it'll eventually pretty much just be the Chinese who're bothered ...

[Ulic]

This will sound silly but it could well be the straw that breaks the camels back for me.

Just tired of BS charges/taxes and hoops to jump through.

[tomacht8]

The $ 10 per person not break the bank, but the variety of these additional charges for tourists adds up and make a holiday trip to Thailand relatively expensive.

A good example is a friend of mine, who has visited last year Thailand with his family (wife and 2 children, 13, 15 yo) for there annual holiday.

Typical three week family tourist with typical travelroute.
Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, PiPi and Phuket.

Here are some expenses:
Flights 4 persons: 3000 US (Europe – Thailand- Europe)
Flights 4 persons: 500 US (BKK - Samui)
Rest with bus and train.

Bangkok: King Palace: 4.000 Baht
Ocean World: 3.500 Baht
Dinner River Cruise: 10.000 Baht
Muay Thai Fight: 2.000 Baht
Wat Pho Bangkok: 400 Baht
1 hour Bangkok longtail boot canal tour: 2.000 Baht
Baiyoke Sky Tower: 1.600 Baht

I will spare me here the rest, as entrance fees to national parks, transportation, elephant trekking in Chinag Mai, tuk tuk and taxi money, hotel accommodation, food, etc.

His 3 week Thailand holiday has cost him a total of more than 10,000 US dollars.
For this year, he has booked Greece (Crete). He was there many times before.
He says the sea and the beaches are more beautiful, no wild dogs and no smelly garbage on the beach.
For a 3 weeks vacation he paid there always around 5000 US dollars.

Edited January 24, 2016 by tomacht8

[MrTee]

10 Turkeys voted for Christmas..

[KED]

As they are proposing to to tax every tourist entry at all points of entry it could end up being like Bali (and the rest of Indonesia?) where you have to pay $25USD in USD to the immigration officer to get your passport stamped. If they go that way good luck with getting the money from the Immigration Department TAT.

Indonesia (and Bali) removed this visa on arrival fee for most western countries months ago - they felt that by removing this fee it would attract more tourists. By the same logic, Thailand adding another fee will discourage travelers - albeit only a slightly. But, if someone is planning a trip to Vietnam or Malaysia or Thailand - they just might choose another country in SE Asia than Thailand .

[arunsakda]

Yes, but it should be more dear at least 750 baht to start.

Sent via a series of tubes

[bangon04]

If done it will most likely be added to the price of the air ticket. No one will notice.

and therefore nothing to do with tourism - it will be levied on every visitor and resident who enters the kingdom, every time, even for short business meeting.

Just another tax.....

Surely nobody here seriously expects them to use the money to improve tourist infrastructure, do they?

Edited January 24, 2016 by bangon04

[phoenixdoglover]

Among the responses to this thread, and the other longer thread, there appears to be no one that believes the money collected would go towards its stated purpose.

The stink of corruption and incompetence overshadows so many issues.

Thailand, you must get your house in order. Then your dreams of "quality" tourists might come true.

Eliminate TAT first. Take the money you save and clean up your beaches, parks and roadsides. Every tourist picture tells a story. Internet memory is long and brutal.

[stickylies]

Bangkok: King Palace: 4.000 Baht

Ocean World: 3.500 Baht

Dinner River Cruise: 10.000 Baht

Muay Thai Fight: 2.000 Baht

Wat Pho Bangkok: 400 Baht

1 hour Bangkok longtail boot canal tour: 2.000 Baht

Baiyoke Sky Tower: 1.600 Baht

been coming here since late 90s. never visited any of these except for 1x lumpini stadium (2009) where i paid 300thb (under table) and was let in through some side entrance

Edited January 24, 2016 by stickylies

[Cylon]

Jet Ski maintenance, They seem to have a lot of crashes. .

[The Deerhunter]

Only to Chinese tourists.

[impulse]

I’d like to see Thailand come up with a sustainable target number for tourist arrivals that doesn’t thrash the resource, then drive the price up to maximize revenue based on a quality experience for those who do choose Thailand.

And if that means some tourists will choose Vietnam or Cambodia or Bali over Thailand, let them thrash those places until nobody wants to go there any more.

Thailand doesn’t have enough beach and National Parks and temples to offer a quality experience for 30 million + tourists year in and year out, even if they did spend the money on maintenance (doubtful). Environmental conditions are getting worse and worse every year and at some point, it will be time to call it over with- no matter how pretty the girls are.

I have no problem with the tax increase. I wish they’d make it high enough to drive several million tourists away every year. Even if they don’t spend it on maintenance, the improvements in the resource and the tourist experience just from reduced wear and tear may draw in more of the higher dollar tourists that they’ll need to perpetuate tourism for anything but the cheap sex. Because on their current trajectory, that's all they'll have to offer in the near future.

Because I don’t even remember how much the airplane ticket cost, much less whether it was $1,500 or $1,510. But I do remember that I couldn’t even move for the crowds in the more popular venues. And I do recall the smell of raw sewage walking down the beach. That's what steers my holiday money.

[Asheron]

Easy solution against thirld world countries like Thailand trying to flex their anorectic muscles... just impose a 1000% tax on all products made in Thailand and lets see how long this rice producing country will try to flex.

[jaywalker]

I support raising it to Bt3,600.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Yeah, make it 36,000 baht.

"You! You! You farang. Have big money. Must to pay. All farang have big money. Must to pay"

[Maestro]

I would be in favour of it if it came with a voucher for a free massage at Health Land or Bellezza Skin Care Center & Spa, my favourite places for an aromatherapy body massage.

[sawadee1947]

who cares?

I don't know anybody who would stay home or change destination because of 10 USD. The question is ridiculous.

[stickylies]

Easy solution against thirld world countries like Thailand trying to flex their anorectic muscles... just impose a 1000% tax on all products made in Thailand and lets see how long this rice producing country will try to flex.

lol. u think any foreign government can't be bothered "punishing" thailand for its supposed grabbyness towards tourists ?

where i come from everything is overpriced! public transport, internet, taxes, postal service, etc. the only thing cheap there is... antidepressants

[Basil B]

As most tourists arrive by air it is likely to be the airlines that will have to add it to the cost of ticket and pay it along with the landing fees and current passenger duties, the rise in cost of a ticket for most would be less than 2%, given that the cost of fuel has dropped so much recently I expect the price of tickets fall quit a lot more than any increase due to this tax.

Who will it hurt most, those doing visa runs, the Chinese tour buses and those travelling round Asia by land, but even still the 360B should be offset by the drop in fuel costs.

But these charges are only needed due to Thailand's inefficient and corrupt revenue departments ability to raise the appropriate taxes from many of those who benefit from the countries tourism industry.

[AyG]

given that the cost of fuel has dropped so much recently I expect the price of tickets fall quit a lot

Naïve, muchly.

[tomacht8]

Bangkok: King Palace: 4.000 Baht

Ocean World: 3.500 Baht

Dinner River Cruise: 10.000 Baht

Muay Thai Fight: 2.000 Baht

Wat Pho Bangkok: 400 Baht

1 hour Bangkok longtail boot canal tour: 2.000 Baht

Baiyoke Sky Tower: 1.600 Baht

been coming here since late 90s. never visited any of these except for 1x lumpini stadium (2009) where i paid 300thb (under table) and was let in through some side entrance

No visit the King Palace?

No enjoyed the views from Baiyoke Tower?

You should do it.

It is nice, but pricy.

What my friend has visited, are the typical "first timer" tourist attractions,

as done so far by millions of tourists.

Guess, you're not the flagship Tourist, of which the TAT dreams.

[Mousehound]

The Kingdom is going further along a dead end street. Huge corruption, scams, dual pricing , insecurety and overall greed get known more and more. Notorious stories of Koh Tao - murders and the way the police handled things, of the stop & search actions in BKK and of the Red Bull cop killer will not blow over. And then of course there's the horrible traffic situation: the second unsafest country in the world. Oh yes, those that read up a bit before deciding where to go for the holiday may very well stumble upon the remarkably high number of farangs falling from balconies all over the place.

Quite a few richer farangs - the desperately wanted quality tourists - already turned their backs on the country and only visit as tourists for meeting family members. Everpresent dirt and filth, even on the once most beautiful beaches of the world give lasting impressions. Foreign investments are dropping.

The past ten years the number of tourists in Vietnam has risen bigtime, About 4 times to some 6 - 7 million. Part of that group once would have gone Thailand instead.

Nobody will notice the extra 360 baht. The incompetence of running country and society however is impossible not to see. This, independing which government is in charge. Ignorance and incompetence can be put in the nickname LOS => LIIOS. The land of ignorence, incompetence and smiles.

Thailand could learn about a thing or two on how to run a corrupt society from the Vietnamese. Way more corrupt than Thailand and I find it more expensive and I have to say that generally I really like the Thai people. And I do visit Thailand to meet up with old Thai friends. I would be happy if they put the entry fee up to say 2500 Bht. Keep some of the tourists away. Let the hoards from the North go to Vietnam instead. All the expat farangs that complain all the time can bugger off as well. Just sell me your condo really cheap - thank you.

[arjunadawn]

Any tourist who understands the fact that he or she will have to pay and a maintenance fee and pay double, triple, or even tenfold the local price once visiting 'the attraction' will feel insulted and cheated. Not a good way to treat tourists. Tourist tax ok, but then stop the double pricing.

Also, I wonder what the price saturation threshold for visiting Thailand is, because once over this, it will be tough to woo the visitors back,

There is a certain predatory mindset in some humans that always looks toward others' stuff and conceals their rationale as improving the life of the whole, or "for the children (tourist attractions)." Consider the West, France specifically, as one example of the same approach- confiscation with its own raison d'etre (earlier stupid polices that also sucked the life from the economy). Efforts within past few years to grossly tax the rich resulted in the rich leaving, fleeing, avoiding, and even giving up citizenship. This is evident in too numerous to count examples.

Under the cover of share the wealth or protect the resources/attractions predatory thinking seeks to take more of what belongs to another person, but always concealed as redistribution for the whole. When its pushed too far or unfairly, it always blows-back. With a collapsing economy, debatable national image internationally, and numerous local problems, this idea will injure Thailand's single greatest asset- its visitors. The real "maintenance fee" should come from the local community of tuktuk drivers, hoteliers, eateries, etc. who's livelihood is made better by their gracious visitors. One more example of the decline of human reasoning.

http://mic.com/articles/21042/gerard-depardieu-leaves-france-for-russia-over-misguided-75-tax-on-the-wealthy#.4JSRHcFeK

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/31/france-drops-75percent-supertax

Edited January 24, 2016 by arjunadawn

[Thailand101]

Simple and great idea in theory, but I can not see the money going anywhere, but the pockets of the corrupt at the top. After all, this is Thailand.... I live in Pattaya hill near the big Budda and the lookout, both wonderful locations and loved by the Thais, but in my opinion, disgusting....... There was 12 stray, mangey, horrible looking dogs around, some stray cats, the shit and food that goes with them, at the Big Budda, and the Thais are happy with that.... Start by getting rid of these animals, and pug some rubbish bins around, AND teach Thais to use them would be a good start. I have seen so many times, Thais just throw rubbish over their shoulder, as though it just disappears. This is just ANOTHER money grab from stupid Falongs......

[joshstiles]

sure I agree....

I also agree with another uprising and govt overthrow by thai rice farmers

[impulse]

This is just ANOTHER money grab from stupid Falangs......

Anyone who doesn't like money being sucked out of their back pocket had better give up on the thought of international tourism.

Their blood pressure will go down in leaps and bounds, regardless of what country is doing the hoovering.

[Pattaya28]

Wonder how much of the 360 Baht will find its way to a "corrupt-pocket" ?

[lee68]

I live near a tourist beach Al Manao in Phrachuap

In the week a few foreign tourists, beach and surroundings clean

Weekends and holidays the Thai masses descend resulting in filth and rubbish everywhere they are the ones that need to pay for cleaning and maintenance ... not foreign tourists

I totally agree with you,there is a small national park in the mountains near where i live NE of chaing mai, threre is a beautiful waterfall there,the only people that go there are mostly Thai and the amount of rubbish they leave there is a disgrace, they just dont care!

[Asheron]

Bangkok: King Palace: 4.000 Baht

Ocean World: 3.500 Baht

Dinner River Cruise: 10.000 Baht

Muay Thai Fight: 2.000 Baht

Wat Pho Bangkok: 400 Baht

1 hour Bangkok longtail boot canal tour: 2.000 Baht

Baiyoke Sky Tower: 1.600 Baht

been coming here since late 90s. never visited any of these except for 1x lumpini stadium (2009) where i paid 300thb (under table) and was let in through some side entrance

No visit the King Palace?

No enjoyed the views from Baiyoke Tower?

You should do it.

It is nice, but pricy.

What my friend has visited, are the typical "first timer" tourist attractions,

as done so far by millions of tourists.

Guess, you're not the flagship Tourist, of which the TAT dreams.

Paying 1600 baht to see a polluted stinking town from a high rise? I would rather google images and drink beer with that money. Or why not burn it up, would still be more fun and enjoyable.