Thailand turns back tourists - too many ?

Thailand wants to reduce the quantity of tourists, but increase the quality of its visitors. The country and its tourism industry has grown weary of the cheap, backpacker holiday-makers, who throng to the country in their thousands each year. It wants to attract a better class of visitor – especially those who are going to spend big.
At a time when the Philippines is accused of being overly ambitious in its target of attracting ten million tourists a year by 2016 – double the five million expected this year – Thailand, it seems, has too many tourists.
To keep the riffraff away, the Thai government is proposing to tax all foreign visitors. From January, tourists will have to pay 500 baht (P687) if staying in the country for more than three days.
Tourists staying less than three days will be charged 30 baht (P40) day for the privilege of visiting the kingdom.
“Now is the time for Thailand to have quality tourists,” said Thai Public Health Minister Pradit Sintavanarong.
“The scheme would also prevent foreigners staying in the country after their visas have expired. There are about 100,000 foreigners in Thailand whose visas have expired, but they refuse to leave the country.”
Pradit said officials from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Ministry of Public Health and Royal Thai Police all agree with the idea.
His deputy, Charnvit Phrathep, added that the proposed tax is also the result of foreign tourists who have accidents or fall sick in the country and seek treatment at local hospitals but then can’t pay their bills.
“We try to send the bills on to the respective embassies but they always say they have no budgets,” Charnvit said
The tourism industry hasn’t responded favorably to the proposal. Tourism experts from Thailand and other parts of Asia have labelled the idea as unreasonable.
But Thai officials say that sustainability and the quality of the overall tourist experience may be improved with the new tax.
“The money will be used for many purposes by the tourism, health and foreign affairs ministries and the immigration bureau,” Pradit said.
Sidiwat Cheevarattabaporn, chairman of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, was surprised at the tax proposal and said it’s not a good move and not in line with the government’s plan to promote tourism.
“The plan will affect the tourism industry, both in the short term and the long term, because tourists will feel bad about Thailand and they may feel they are being cheated,” he said.
In 2012, Thailand welcomed over 22 million tourists worldwide.
Western tourists have also reacted negatively. British backpacker Mike Spain said: “Despite getting billions each year in tourist revenue, Thailand has always treated tourists very badly. This is yet another example.”
But officials at the Philippine Department of Tourism must be relishing the thought of the tax as it might well encourage more tourists to choose the sunny Philippines for their holidays.
“We’re not snobs and, as we all know, it’s more fun in the Philippines,” quipped one Manila-based tour guide.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong continues to laugh all the way to the bank with its 40 million visitors a year. I’m just back from a short trip there staying at my favourite hotel, the Ibis in North Point. Hong Kong really knows how to pull the tourists in – both the hoi polloi and the big spenders.