Tourists in Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – The Thai NationalTourism Policy Committee has approved the proposed guidelines for thecollection of a 300 THB (10 USD) tourism fee from each international visitor forthe management of local tourist destinations.
The money will also be used to provide insurance benefits tointernational tourists visiting the country.
Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said each foreign visitorwill be charged 300 THB (10 USD) per visit. The details of the fee collectionwill be announced in the Royal Gazette oncethe policy has taken effect.
Accordingto Phiphat, Thailand expects to receive some 10 million visitors this year.
He said the merit of the 300-THB tourism fee is that foreign tourists who fallsick or are injured will be taken care of and given adequate medical care,adding 34 THB of which is expected to be used for the insurance coverage.
Tourism permanent secretary Chote Trachu on January 14 said the feecollection was initially due to begin last year, but it was put on hold due tothe Covid-19 pandemic. He said the National Tourism Policy Committee hasassessed the situation and agreed the tourism fee collection should go aheadthis year.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said the country had been forecast toclose last year with merely 6.7 million international tourists, not much morethan the number prior to last year's outbreak of Covid-19 despite governmentattempts to activate entry schemes for foreigners via Special Tourist Visas.
With a second wave of outbreaks gripping many countries around the world,particularly during the winter months, triggering new rounds of lockdowns,Thailand is expected to wait longer, until the second half of this year, to seemore visitors file back into the kingdom and revive the ailing industry.
While the TAT previously predicted the domestic market would reach 100 milliontrips last year, the recent spike in local cases led the agency to revise downthe target to 95 million trips, a result of the partial lockdowns in someprovinces./.
VNA
