New Maintenance Fee for foreign tourists proposed by Tourism Governor

The head of the Tourism Authority has proposed a new plan to charge all foreign tourists entering the Kingdom 360 baht each time the arrive.

Yuthasak Supasorn said during an interview that the proceeds from the fees could be reinvested in tourism across the Kingdom but was quickly down played by his own organisation. During the interview he said that each tourist could be charged UDS$10 or 360 baht whether they arrive in Thailand by air, land or sea, he went on to say that the measure could also enhance security measures. The new scheme will come under a title of tourist attraction administration fee and would be used to maintain and improve tourist attractions across the country and support the tourism sector. By his calculations with 30 million tourists arriving each year Thailand will earn 10.8 billion baht a year “this will help each province earn around 142 million to use to improve its tourism” he said. However the prospects for the new plan are unclear as hours after the Voice TV interview an official from the Tourism Authority said that it was only Yuthsak’s personal idea and not official policy. “it still needs additional study” said authority spokesperson Sunantha Montri, “its only an idea”. In the Voice TV article, Yuthasak dismissed any concern the fee would adversely affect tourism, saying many countries already had similar policies.

“I believe it won’t affect [tourism] that much, because at the present time many countries already collect this fee in subtle ways,” he said without elaborating

 

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