Just now, Puccini said:

 

There is obviously no national park entrance fee for those parts of Ko Chang island that are not part of the Mu Ko Chang National Marine Park.

but they did not go to the marine park, they spent their money on the island. there is one waterfall that you have to pay 200bht to visit,  otherwise it is only the ferry you have to pay for, or diving on the reef in the marine park, best diving is at the shipwreck anyway and they do not charge you for that.

 

 

Just now, Puccini said:

 

There is obviously no national park entrance fee for those parts of Ko Chang island that are not part of the Mu Ko Chang National Marine Park.

 

I don't think that cashed up tourists are going to complain about the 200bht fee not much to pay for a look around and a break from sitting on the ship ?

 

 

I ran the paragraph of Thai text that mentions the park through Google translate but the result makes no sense to me.

 

11 hours ago, Inn Between said:

The TAT is thrilled to see 2.4 million spent quickly by the type of quality tourists they hope to attract, so to show their gratitude and entice these ocean liners to repeat such generous stops, they spring a fee of almost $US 10,000 on them.

 

And people actually study for MBA's here? I guess according to the Thai business model, we'll be paying admission to the likes of Big C and Tesco to enter their stores for the privilege of giving them our money. 

 

I believe that is an American business model. Costco.

I'm giving up trying to make sense of this news story.

This blog entry says that the P&O cruise ship in Ko Chang on 8 August was the first visit of a P&O ship to that area. Therefore, the tourists in this Thairath photo with the P&O tags must be from this visit:

 

 

Where exactly on what island in the Ko Chang Park region was this photo taken?

The other two Thairath photos showing tourists include nobody with a P&O tag.

12 hours ago, cumgranosalum said:

Koh Samed is a National Park and you pay to go on the island - as far as I'm aware the National Park on KC doesn't cover all the island and the PUBLIC ARE NOT ADMITTED - so tell me I'm wrong but at present I can only conclude that this is a barefaced scam.

 

This bill should be at the cruise liners expense.... They should be aware of applicable fees that are incurred during the course of their cruise.... But were not

 

 

15 hours ago, robblok said:

No quite normal every foreigner pays to enter Thai national parks (though I was not aware Koh Chang was one of those as i never paid to enter it)

 

Why would big spenders be exempt from paying the National park fee ?

Why didn't you pay? 

You all missed the point.  They were upset they weren't warned ahead of time. No one minded the 6 dollar fee.

Heads up Euros and Trollers out there at least have an idea, don’t come in swinging clueless. Check this out

“I believe that is an American business model. Costco.”

It’s better in these cases to just not post so people DO NOT know you have no idea what you are posting about, than posting it up so everyone knows you have no idea.

Note Costco has sourced all their shrimp from non thai sources in the last year. A direct result of customer complaints regarding slave labor in the Thai fishing fleet. Believe me you wont see that in Thai papers, or posts by whaleboneman 

The way in which it was implemented was the problem! 

17 hours ago, cumgranosalum said:

Koh Samed is a National Park and you pay to go on the island - as far as I'm aware the National Park on KC doesn't cover all the island and the PUBLIC ARE NOT ADMITTED - so tell me I'm wrong but at present I can only conclude that this is a barefaced scam.

 

 

you are correct....the tourist areas of koh chang are not covered by any national park.

20 hours ago, robblok said:

No quite normal every foreigner pays to enter Thai national parks (though I was not aware Koh Chang was one of those as i never paid to enter it)

 

Why would big spenders be exempt from paying the National park fee ?

visitors to KC are NEVER charged a national park entrance fee - so why change for the Cruise Ship?

16 hours ago, Rent in Chiang Mai said:

Its a huge confusion here.

First, they talk about Koh Chang Noi. Note it is not the same as Koh Chang!

Koh Chang Noi is located in Andaman, in Ranong province.

But later they talk about "Thai tourism officials in Trat", so it must be related to Koh Chang and not Koh Chang Noi.

On top of that, there is yet another, very small island near Koh Chang named Koh Chang Noi. But this island is too small and completely uninhabited, the liner could not come there.

 

So, where all that really happened??? 

 

You need some lessons in reading comprehension son. The liner anchored next to Chang Noi--a tiny islet a few hundred meters from the pier at Koh Chang's Ao Sapparot--and the passengers disembarked into shuttle boats and landed on 'Big' Koh Chang...

7 hours ago, Maestro said:

Where exactly on what island in the Ko Chang Park region was this photo taken?

 

Taken at the old ferry pier at Ao Sapparot on Koh Chang (next door to the new ferry landing)...

Anyone who has spent time in South East Asia knows you should ALWAYS ask the 2 most important words before taking on a venture "HOW MUCH" Yeah, it gets old and repetitive but the one time you don't ask BAMM,  Sneaky roosters got ya.. 

2 hours ago, lvr181 said:

The way in which it was implemented was the problem! 

So a "made up" charge without notice or precedent is acceptable in your book?

22 hours ago, DLang said:

 

What, you mean charging people the correct price for entering a National Park.

 

How DARE they.

 

Ocean Liner Company does rubbish job preparing trip and blames Thailand - do they not prepare a list for passengers of local notices, banned produce and/or visa requirements.

 

But sure blame the Thais for collecting their publicized entry fee of 200 baht to foreigners without a work permit or Thai driving license.

 

If the headline read Thai island charges long weekend holiday makers over 1 million baht to visit island would you be oh so up in arms? As in 5,000 people went to an island over 3 days and paid 200 baht!

4 hours ago, samuibeachcomber said:

 

 

you are correct....the tourist areas of koh chang are not covered by any national park.

 

The Koh chang national park occupies 650 s/km and 47 islands, of which koh chang is the largest.... A 200 baht fee is collectable..... That doesn't mean it will be, but it could be (legally)

 

perhaps those visitors who who were not charged, had the price hidden elsewhere, like within hotel accommodation... Perhaps they were just lucky.

 

especially so, because a couple of years ago, they had gazetted plans to up the rate to 400 or 500 baht per farang adult.

17 hours ago, Puccini said:

 

Agreed. Let's hear it from people who have visited Chang Noi and know, or perhaps someone can find the information on the web and post it here. Somebody mentioned a list of national parks but I could not find it.

 

Good grief, puccini...get with the program. Chang Noi is irrelevant. Forget about Chang Noi--it's just a big, old rock (as pictured in seajay's post #119) that nobody visits except fishermen. Nothing to see except smaller rocks. I could probably piss from one side to the other . It wouldn't hold 100 people, let alone 1200. The liner anchored in the bay between Chang Noi and Ao Sapparot and shuttled the passengers to Ao Sapparot

 

Look at the map...

 

 

Chang Noi is in far upper-left corner. Got it???

lets hope that the tourist agencies know about this scam and never come there again

 

that will teach 'em

On 11/08/2016 at 6:20 AM, robblok said:

No quite normal every foreigner pays to enter Thai national parks (though I was not aware Koh Chang was one of those as i never paid to enter it)

 

Why would big spenders be exempt from paying the National park fee ?

It is my recollection that a parks fee is not required for tourists to visit koh chang, but is required if they go inland into the parks proper.

To not give them the choice is wrong. Why should 'big soenders' be gouged like this.... because Thais are greedy.

This tidbit of Thailand's anti-tourism gossip will spread around the world and TAT will be left scratching their collective heads as to why cruise ships won't go there again. Cruise ship operators will not want to embarrass themselves or lose their reputations because of such blatant greed.

Whose pockets did the fees go into?

18 hours ago, sabaii69 said:

 

I got a receipt. Chap had a book with about 25 so how did they issue over 1,000?

 

Hmm--lets see...

 

Maybe they had 40+ books? Or 40+ 'chaps' with 25 books each?

 

Rocket science it ain't...

 

The cruise ship company created the problem for themselves if they did not check in advance for disembarking fees, etc. at their ports of call. Bad management!

These fees are not new, the U.S. Navy used to pay for each person coming off the ships during their liberty calls in Pattaya.

Some 1400 disembarked, if all were adult it should be 280 000! 320 000 Bath means 1600 adults!

On 8/11/2016 at 1:42 PM, DLang said:

 

What, you mean charging people the correct price for entering a National Park.

 

How DARE they.

Why should non-thais have to pay 10x the thai price to visit a national park, I'm from Oz and there'd be an uprising if it was tried there!

Just now, TPI said:

Why should non-thais have to pay 10x the thai price to visit a national park, I'm from Oz and there'd be an uprising if it was tried there!

That has happened here.  A group of tourists not long ago refused to pay the outrageous fees.  Good on them!

On 8/11/2016 at 3:09 PM, LomSak27 said:

Whats the big deal ... that they did not tell them before hand, Doh!

 

and what did they say ..."The TAT were thrilled that the liner came here as not too many drop in at Asian ports"

 

I guess now we know why! and why likely they won't be any more in the future!      

Maybe the cruise liner staff should have done it's job an asked.They pay every other port they land at.