1,000 baht/day minimum overhead charge set for Chinese tourists

[webfact]

1,000 baht/day minimum overhead charge set for Chinese tourists

 

 

BANGKOK: -- Effective as of Wednesday October 5, the lowest overhead charge for a Chinese tourist to be levied by package tour operators is 1,000 baht/day, said Deputy Prime Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn on Wednesday.

 

The minimum overhead charge for arrivals from China in the form of package tour was made possible by virtue of Section 31 of the Tourism Business and Tour Guide Act B.E. 2551 which stipulates that package tour operators are prohibited from charging their clients below costs, hence, the 1,000-baht/day minimum charge was set.

 

The minimum charge was intended to weed out the zero-dollar package tours from China which has resulted to several problems such as tourists were taken by Thai tour operators against their will to jewelry shops which overcharge the tourists. The operators, in return, will receive commissions from the sale to recoup their costs.

 

General Thanasak said that all parties involved in the tourism industry agreed with the invocation of the Act to impose minimum overhead charge for Chinese tourists to weed out zero-dollar package tour business and to improve the quality of tourists from China.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/1000-bahtday-minimum-overhead-charge-set-chinese-tourists/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2016-10-06

[starky]

1000 baht a day, now that's a quality tourist. If that's the benchmark that your run of the mill sexpats should get elite visa status on arrival for free.

[Rorri]

8 minutes ago, starky said:

1000 baht a day, now that's a quality tourist. If that's the benchmark that your run of the mill sexpats should get elite visa status on arrival for free.

"Quality" tourist or not, no government has the right to demand a tourist must spend a minimum  amount each day.... period. Now how would they monitor it and what stops them spending at all the same shops they are already herded to.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Rorri

[starky]

2 minutes ago, Rorri said:

"Quality" tourist or not, no government has the right to demand a tourist must spend a minimum  amount each day.... period. Now how would they monitor it and what stops them spending at all the same shops they already are herded to.

Honestly mate couldn't care less. Just another one of the ridiculous statements made by this farce of government that is impossible to enforce and will never happen anyway. Cheers. 

[smedly]

4 minutes ago, starky said:

Honestly mate couldn't care less. Just another one of the ridiculous statements made by this farce of government that is impossible to enforce and will never happen anyway. Cheers. 

so they are going to charge the tour operator a levy of 14k baht for every Chinese tourist on a 14 day package holiday

 

BTW George Best - same school as me lol

Edited October 5, 2016 by smedly

[IMA_FARANG]

What happens to a Chinese tourist then if by chance one day they only spend 900  Baht?

Wull they be detained, arrested, and fined for not meeting the daily minimum?

And who keeps track of how much that tourist spends daily, anyhow?

 

[smedly]

13 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

What happens to a Chinese tourist then if by chance one day they only spend 900  Baht?

Wull they be detained, arrested, and fined for not meeting the daily minimum?

And who keeps track of how much that tourist spends daily, anyhow?

 

read my post above

 

The tour operator will be charged 1000baht per head per day as a levy on the package holiday so they will pay it as part of the booking

 

so if you booked a Thomas Cook package holiday to Spain for 14 days, TC would be charged 1000baht per tourist per day  - this charge would be passed to the tourist

 

How that is going to work I have no clue

 

So in effect each package booked Chinese tourist is paying Thailand a 1000naht a day for the pleasure of having a holiday in Thailand

Edited October 5, 2016 by smedly

[PatOngo]

At a minimum of 1000 thb per day the breakfast buffet will even more chaotic than it already is, they'll be bringing buckets to fill with food.

[BuckBee]

What a load of fluff it got sweet fa do with jewellery shop scams, it all down to Chinese enterprise running low cost in Thailand and cheating the Thai system and sending profits back to China .

TAT have basically raped themselves by suckling on China tourists and been to dumb realise they not making much contribution to the system beside helping tat figures seem very slightly more possible rather than fantasy .

Majority of western traveller will spend more than 1,000bt in buses, trains, mrt/bts and taxis a day.

I've got a lot of Burmese friends in mbk, asiateak, hotels etc and profit reports ain't good. Tourism income has taken a HUGE downturn .

[gk10002000]

haha.  Love it. Find a leak in the system and then try to plug it. 

[Thailand]

The Chinese social media will be all over this one.

These geniuses are shooting themselves in both feet as tourism crashes and burns around them, absolutely no idea!

[waldroj]

Needless to say, the Department of Land Transport will impose a ฿1,000 fine on OA Transport Company, and all will be forgiven (http://news.thaivisa.com/thailand/mother-and-son-ordered-jailed-as-evidence-is-gathered-in-zero-dollar-travel-case/153846/).

[Crossy]

If I am understanding correctly, this is not a charge being made by the Thai government, it is the minimum that the tour operator can charge their clients for a trip to Thailand.

 

The idea being that tourists cannot be charged below cost then taken to iffy outlets to buy over-priced tat for which the tour operators receive commission.

 

Just how they intend enforcing this is anyone's guess.

 

Chinese tour advert, "Pay 14,000 Baht for 14 days in Thailand, receive 14,000 Baht to spend in one of our many tat outlets".

 

 

[smedly]

lets face it, we are all fully aware that Chinese tourist comes here - stay in specific prepaid hotels - get ferried around on prepaid buses to prepaid attractions staring out the windows - eat at specific prepaid places - the buses cause massive congestion  ............they spend FA then go home and never come back.

 

Farangs on the other hand - book their own flights - book their own hotels - pay for taxis - eat everywhere - spend loads everyday - enjoy themselves and come back 6 months later for another 3-4 weeks, yes economies poor and money is tight - exchange rates are a challenge so that is going to have an impact, can you imagine if Thailand decided to charge everyone on entry 1000baht a day at the airport for all tourists lol.  Don't laugh about that because that is how they think, bar have no customer so put price up - a fine example of that is walking street in Pattaya were they just got too greedy and out priced the market, in other parts some have realised this and dropped their prices and are now doing a roaring trade

[yellowboat]

3 hours ago, Rorri said:

"Quality" tourist or not, no government has the right to demand a tourist must spend a minimum  amount each day.... period. Now how would they monitor it and what stops them spending at all the same shops they are already herded to.

Also picking on the Chinese is lame.  Other nationalities are allowed to pay less ?  Good thing Thailand is not striving to be an open and fair society.  Otherwise, it would be making a fool out of itself. 

[maoro2013]

How can that possibly be enforced? Probably cost more to police than the amount to be collected as stated B1,000.

 

The whole idea is ridiculous.

 

I back the government in wanting some funds to get into the Thai economy though, but this new method might not be the way to go.

[madmitch]

I really don't know what they are trying to do? Is it a levy? Is it a minimum cost? Is it an amount that has to be seen to be spent in Thailand whether on accommodation, food or something else?

 

It's very vague, perhaps deliberately, and there's probably much lost in translation.

 

But I reckon the long and the short of it is basically business as usual.

[watcharacters]

12 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Also picking on the Chinese is lame.  Other nationalities are allowed to pay less ?  Good thing Thailand is not striving to be an open and fair society.  Otherwise, it would be making a fool out of itself. 

 

 

 

 

I kind of think fairness is one of the last considerations of Thailand's government.

[overherebc]

Looking at average wages in China of around 12,000 yuan a month and 14,000 baht, (2000 plus yuan) added to a holiday for the average earner it seems quite a large increase added to the cost of the holiday.

How it is to be applied I really don't know. If they add to what they are charging now it might have a significant effect.

Figures are from google search so anyone can argue if they wish.

 

[Emster23]

3 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

haha.  Love it. Find a leak in the system and then try to plug it. 

Like drilling a hole in bottom of boat to let the water out....

[bkk6060]

How many ice creams can they buy on Walking Street for 1000 b?

[Sphere]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

1,000 baht/day

 

Does it include b&b and sightseeing? Happy ending?

[jackspratt498]

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

If I am understanding correctly, this is not a charge being made by the Thai government, it is the minimum that the tour operator can charge their clients for a trip to Thailand.

 

The idea being that tourists cannot be charged below cost then taken to iffy outlets to buy over-priced tat for which the tour operators receive commission.

 

Just how they intend enforcing this is anyone's guess.

 

Chinese tour advert, "Pay 14,000 Baht for 14 days in Thailand, receive 14,000 Baht to spend in one of our many tat outlets".

 

 

You are correct.

 

This is a levy on the operator to ensure that the cost of each tourist is being recouped by the operator before getting to Thailand instead of after.

[new2here]

"Quality" tourist or not, no government has the right to demand a tourist must spend a minimum  amount each day.... period. Now how would they monitor it and what stops them spending at all the same shops they are already herded to.

I remember years ago going to parts of central/southern Africa where we were required to exchange X amount of our hard currency, into local currency and: a) it could not be exported or reconverted back to hard currency - effectively making it a "minimum spend" scenario (things like hotel had to be paid in hard currency)

I'm a bit torn here ... I agree that the government should stay out of your business in terms of how much and where a tourist choose to spend their money (so long as such spending is on legal products/services)...

That said, I also think there's a legitimate argument to be made for insuring tourist spend is principally or majority beneficial for the local economy and not only or principally a foreign entity.




Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[flyingdoc]

As I understand it, it is a levy to ensure that tour operators include a spending sum of at least 1,000 baht per day, which can be spent in any way chosen.  Exactly the same is applied in Bhutan, except that the fee is far higher at a minimum of $250 USD per day, but can be spent on hotels, transport, meals etc.  By going in as a backpacker, you would still have to pay the daily levy, except you would lose out heavily !

[overherebc]

43 minutes ago, jackspratt498 said:

You are correct.

 

This is a levy on the operator to ensure that the cost of each tourist is being recouped by the operator before getting to Thailand instead of after.

 

In most cases the operator would be Chinese owned so the cash would just be doing a circle and coming back to the operator.

[williamgeorgeallen]

5 hours ago, Rorri said:

"Quality" tourist or not, no government has the right to demand a tourist must spend a minimum  amount each day.... period. Now how would they monitor it and what stops them spending at all the same shops they are already herded to.

very true, and how do they police that? i had a work permit for my business for 8 years and i had to income tax on 50 000thb per month even in low season when we were barely breaking even. i guess this means operators are going to have to pay more tax based on the perceived higher income. if they put their prices up they are going to loose business.

 seems to be another effort to try and not get tourists to come to thaiand. 

[Time Traveller]

First they want you to report where you stay, AND report it every 90 days.

Then they want you to report your bank account information, social media accounts as well as all the personal information to answer the security questions for these accounts when you don't have your password.

Next it was special SIM cards to track your location constantly.

Now they are demanding you spend a minimum amount each day if you are allowed to stay in the country.

You couldn't make this stuff up!

 

I guess some anti western weirdo will be along soon to say how things are much worse in western countries and that "bad" forgeigners are making it difficult for the "good" foriegners like them living in Thailand.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Time Traveller

[topt]

1 hour ago, overherebc said:

Looking at average wages in China of around 12,000 yuan a month and 14,000 baht, (2000 plus yuan) added to a holiday for the average earner it seems quite a large increase added to the cost of the holiday.

How it is to be applied I really don't know. If they add to what they are charging now it might have a significant effect.

Figures are from google search so anyone can argue if they wish.

 

I doubt any of the zero package tours are for 14 days - most Chinese I knew when I worked there until a few years ago would go for 3-5 days max as normally was dependant on the national holidays. Those who stay longer tend not to be on the packages.

[Bulldozer Dawn]

This is non news. 

 

Wait till they require those of us on retirement extensions to spend all of our 800,000 Baht every year...

 

Then Thai Visa will have the mother of all click bait stories.