Thailand Will Add a New Tourist Fee Starting in April
If you’re planning a trip to Thailand later this year, get ready to pay a bit more to get into the country. Thailand is planning to collect a 300 baht ($9) fee from foreign tourists, starting in April.
The fee will be used to develop attractions and cover accident insurance for foreigners unable to pay costs themselves, senior officials said, as reported by Reuters.
Travelers will have to pay the extra $9 fee when booking airline tickets. It will be included in the price.
In addition to the new tourism fee, foreigners traveling to Thailand must pay for COVID-19 tests, hotel accommodation or quarantine before arriving and show proof of insurance with coronavirus treatment coverage of at least $50,000.
“Part of the fee will be used to take care of tourists,” Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Yuthasak Supasorn told Reuters. “We’ve encountered times when insurance didn’t have coverage for tourists,” he added.
Thailand expects between 5-15 million foreign arrivals this year, according to government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana. That is expected to inject about $23.97 billion into the local economy. Those numbers are still far from 2019 when 40 million tourists visited the country.
Thailand suspended most quarantine-free entry last month amid the spread of the omicron variant. But visitors are still allowed to travel to certain areas under the country’s “Sandbox” program like Phuket, Krabi, Phang-Na, and Ko Samui. You can find more details about the program here.
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Thailand hasn’t even opened yet. Confusing and confounding policies as always. They added extra fees years back then later just added them to the airline ticket price. I normally travel there twice a year but will wait until they return to some sense of normalcy.