Foreigners divided on ‘tourist entry fee’, says poll

The Phuket News conducted the online poll from last Tuesday through to midnight Friday (Feb 21-24), asking the simple question, ‘Do you support the B300 tourist entry fee?’

The entry fee, now approved by Cabinet, will see the government charge B300 for people arriving by air and B150 for people arriving by land or sea. The issue has sparked much debate over whether the fee should be introduced at all, and what the money should be spent on.

The primary reason given by government officials so far is that the entry fee will be used to provide health and accident insurance coverage for tourists during their stay in the country.

“The entry fee will support care for tourists. From 2017 to 2019, foreign tourists used services at public hospitals and that cost the state as much as B300-400 million,” Tourism & Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn explained.

However, the move is projected to collect B3.9bn from the introduction of the fee this year alone, and more than B10bn from 40 million visitors estimated for next year.

Asked if they supported the move to introduce the entry fee, 45.56% of people voting in the online poll chose, “No, we can’t trust that the money collected will be spent properly”.

A further 28.40% voted, “No, let the tourists spend the B300 while on holiday here”.

In support of the fee, 20.12% of respondents voted, “Yes, but only if the use of funds is transparent”.

Only 5.92% voted, “Yes, without any conditions”.

Of note, while the issue stirred much debate and comments online, the poll last week garnered only 169 responses.

Of those, 68% of the respondents marked themselves as ‘Local expatriate residents’ and 30% considered themselves to be a ‘Foreign visitor to Phuket’. Only 2% of the respondents said they were Thai nationals.

Although the poll represents a small sample of those to be affected by the entry fee, a consistent response in the comments provided marked that many foreigners in Phuket ‒ and Thailand ‒ already have health and accident insurance, and thus should be exempt from the entry fee.

Similar comments suggested that Thai officials make health and accident insurance mandatory for entering the country, and offer a range of Thai-based policies at the point of entry.

The entry fee does not apply to Thai nationals.