THAILAND'S new 300 baht tourism fee that will take effect in April is drawing mixed reactions from tourism operators as the sector's recovery remains fragile.
Thai Hotels Association president Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi said the tourism fee has to be put off until at least 2023 if the country wanted to welcome back tourists.
She said the sector had to be rebuilt from the ground up because of the Omicron variant and even though the fee was small, it would have a psychological impact on tourists.
According to a Bangkok Post report, she said this would particularly affect those who travel as a group as well as cross-border travelers who frequently visit the country.
Marisa said the idea of using the fund for tourist insurance and developing tourism sites was worthwhile, but the timing was off because the country will lose out amid intense competition.
Association of Thai Travel Agents president Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn said the new fee will worsen travel confidence following the indefinite suspension of the Test & Go scheme and the country's ongoing battle against Covid-19.
He said a more appropriate time to enforce the fee would be when Thai tourism returns to 2019 levels, after Chinese tourists start to come back and global travel properly resumes.
Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said the fee collection was delayed because the tourism industry has yet to recover, while Omicron is expected to impact the domestic tourism sector and the overall economy in the first quarter.
THe said the new entry fee will be collected from foreigners entering Thailand by air, land and sea.
The scheme is part of a 20 year national strategic plan that requires government agencies to have recurring income to sustain and stabilise the national economy.
The fee is expected to be placed in the Tourism Transformation Fund that is managed by the Tourism and Sports Ministry.
This fund aims to rebuild and develop tourism supply chains as well as offer safety and security for tourists.
Thanakorn said the fee also sponsors an insurance programme for tourists in case of accidents, offers tourists benefits worth 1 million baht in case of death or a minimum of 500,000 baht for medical expenses.
He added that the fee is included in plane ticket prices for visitors entering via airplane.
The idea of collecting entry fees from foreign visitors has been discussed since 2019, but it was delayed because of the pandemic.
According to Thanakorn, the Tourism and Sports Ministry expects revenue from tourism this year to be between 1.3 and 1.8 trillion baht, from five to 15 million foreign tourists.
He said if tourists were mainly from Europe or the US, arrivals were estimated at five million this year.
This figure rises to about seven million if arrivals also come from India and if China allows its citizens to travel abroad in the second half of the year, it could reach about nine million.
If Thailand reopens its borders with Myanmar, Laos and Malaysia for travel, the number could even hit 15 million, Thanakorn said.
The ministry predicts the annual number of domestic tourism trips at 160 million, generating about 700 billion baht in income.
Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, the tourism and sports minister, said his ministry has held discussions with most airlines that provide service to Thailand and an agreement may be reached to include the fee in their airfares by March.
For land transport, tourists will be encouraged to pay the fee via an app before crossing the border.
He said foreign workers who have to cross borders on a daily basis will be exempted from this policy.
The fee will not affect travel sentiment as the government has publicly discussed the policy since last year and many countries already collect such a levy, said Phiphat.
The tourism fee is expected to generate at least 1.5 billion baht this year from 5 million tourists, of which 1.25 billion would be allocated to tourism sites to upgrade services, such as building accessible facilities for the disabled and providing public toilets, he said.