Thailand is considering charging a 30-baht daily fee for tourists, or 500-baht (about US $16) for stays longer than 3 days. The government believes it will bring in “better quality tourists,” and deal with foreigners who overstay their visas, estimated at over 100,000.
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I think this idea will backfire. A dollar or so a day fee will not discourage anyone from visiting as a sex tourist. A $16 fee might discourage some from even visiting the kingdom.
So the sex tourists will likely still fly in for their weekend jaunts. Good serious tourists, say young backpackers on a budget, might be offended by the extra fee and bypass Thailand for one of its neighbors.
I find the idea that fees will bring better tourists a bit bizarre, myself–although it’s also clear to me that they would not be too unhappy about discouraging some of the young backpackers who stay “too long.”
I suspect that if they really wanted to end the sex tourism, they’d have done it long since, simply by shutting down places and arresting customers. That would only have to happen once or twice for the word to spread…
57 days in Thailand!!!….I’m jealous. Enjoy yourselves, and be sure to include us on your journey with some pics on “Gumbo on the Go”, Mac.
(But I’m still jealous)
I consider it infinitely better to pay a relatively small fee to enter the country than to go through hoops & bother for a visa as we must for a number of Asian countries. Thailand was the first, and I think the only country, where I was required to stop at a booth to pay a departure tax upon leaving the country by air so what possible difference if we pay coming or going (or both?). And I actually prefer the idea of an up front fee rather than having it buried as taxes that can increase the price of everything we buy such as the egregious taxes airports can require the airlines to collect when we buy our tickets..
Ah but this has some merits! We are going to Thailand for 57 days, hence we are buying the 60 day visa for GBPounds 25 each (USD 40 – quite good value, I guess). However, if we want to come back in again for 7 days to use Bangkok as a point of exit back to Europe, we appear to have to be prepared to pay the same amount again
. At least a daily charge is manageable.
Actually, on reflection, it seems a unfair to expect genuine tourists (who will probably spend quite a lot of money in the country) to have to pay for visas in any case….
Sex tourists are quite another (unwanted) issue….