(NITN): Thailand will charge 300 baht from foreign tourists who enter the southeast Asian nation April onwards.
This charge is a recovery measure taken to stabilize the country’s covid19 affected travel industry.
As a country that boasts about royal palaces, tropical beaches and ornate temples, Thailand is heavily dependent on tourism for revenue.
The country witnessed a major downtrend in tourist arrivals with only 2,00,000 people visiting previous year compared to the 40 million arrivals in 2019, according to media reports.
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The fee charge to be imposed on travellers will be utilized for tourist care, said a Thailand tourism official.
“We’ve encountered times when insurance didn’t have coverage for tourists … which became our burden to take care of them,” said Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
The payment has also been added into the list of covid related payments like insurance, covid tests, hotel stays and quarantine.
After the announcement of a tourist fee imposition, the decision has faced a mixed reaction.
President of the Thai Hotels Association Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi said the government should put off the fee until at least 2023 as the sector has to rebuild itself because of the impact of Covid-19, reported Pattaya Mail (PM).
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It is possible that the fee can have a psychological impact on tourists, especially those who travel as a group and among travelers who cross borders frequently, she said.
President of the Tourism Council of Thailand Chamnan Srisawat said he liked the idea of imposing a fee to develop the travel industry but wanted the funding mechanism to reflect better clarity.
At least 1.5 billion baht is expected to be raised from the new tourism fee this year from 5 million tourists, PM reported.
