Tourism what are they thinking?

[lazerlab]

I hope the bankers will end this charge. Because it will not gain the tourism business in the long run. Thailand can not afford to lose more foreign visitors. This unvise move are now spreading as a fire in a dry forest. I also hope that the leaders of the industrilised world will bann this gready act, and punish Thailand for it`s greed. Maybe we should charge 10% extra for all exports to Thailand. Maybe we should doubble our oil-prices.

[lazerlab]

I know Thai logic. But i am not comfortable with it. Ps. I have been living her for 3 years. I am not a stranger to Thailand. My first visit to the land of the smiles was back in 1986. Eat it rookie !

[Hattrick]

I suppose visitors to LOS can get around paying these new ATM
fees by taking Traveller's Checks and/or cash with them.

If they are staying for a long time they could deposit these items
into a Thai bank account that would not charge them for WDs.
Whether that was making the WD in person with a teller at the
bank, or via the Thai bank card at an ATM of the same bank.

However there seems to be some confusion in this thread as
to whether or not all Thai ATM's are charging the new fees.
Is it some banks are not doing so?

Another related matter would be whether CC payments and
WDs are subject to the same fee increase. I suppose it may
depend on how one is using the card, e.g. to pay a hotel
bill, WD from an ATM, etc.

[MekhongKurt]

I first encountered the 14-day "visa on arrival" in December, after having re-entered Thailand in late November -- just 3-4 days before the whack-it-in-half rule came into affect. Naturally, I was astonished.

As for the run-up in ATM fees, I first encountered that just a couple days ago (April 21st), and thought the fee from zero to 150 baht astounding.

Both give whole new meanings to "Amazing Thailand."

[punter]

Mekhong Kurt, do you think that all the new 14 day travellers are going to do a visa run and return to BKK or just keep on going? I think they'll spend the extra holiday time in the direction of thier travels. That means that 50% of the tourist dollars that came to Thailand are going to end up spent in Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam etc. The Government geniuses that though up the new rules are either incredibly math challenged or are wanting to give up this revenue to thier Asean brothers and sisters out of generosity. Thailand had become so rich it no longer need any revenue from tourism.

I'm sure many travellers will realise that it's way cheaper in Indonesia and will catch one of those super cheap JetStar flights out of the country to the neighboring countries rather than go through the hassle of travelling to a border point for a crappy two week squat in expensive, farang hating and tourist negative Thailand.

What ever the government is thinking it surely isn't for the benefit of Thai citizens, buisness people or tourist oriented workers.

The new advert policy of the Phuket buisness association is a lie and a misleading misrepresentation. Theere is no 'summer season' in Phuket. When the monsoon hits there is no sunshine, no beach time, very rough and cloudy water and no visting outer islands due to the danger of monsoon storms at sea. It's a sweaty ghosttown with little more than the worst bar girls waiting for the dregs and perverts who are addicted to vice. Phuket was a beautiful place once. It's a toilet bowl now.

The tourist association is not doing itself any favours. Do they think we're stupid? Do they not know that the first thing a tourist does before booking a trip is check the annual weather patterns? What liars and fools the purveyors of Thailands tourist industry have become.

[pachangamac042]

They forgot to mention, that this low season in Phuket, will come with ASEAN meetings, maybe more protests and riots, possible state of emergency and the matters. Real strong selling points for a “paradise”.

Dear foreign friends of ManU and Liverpool, should you come for a holiday to Phuket, then I strongly suggest that you leave your football shirts at home. Well, at least your red home shirts, better bring over the kit for away games.

[Git]

It is my believe all banks will be doing this. I made withdrawel from the Bangkok Bank today and it notified me it would take 150 baht, gave me the opportunity to stop if I wished. there a lot of ATM'S in Thailand which may be why we saw some doing it at first and others not.I picked an ATM machine that hd beemn listed locally as still charging 20 baht to see what would happen.

Just seems counter productive to me, if make a withdrawel here your intent must be to spend the money in the community. Frankly if they had done this over a period of time doubt anyone woudl have even noticed it. But, when you increase it this much this fast. Really doesn't look good for a Country spending billions to attract foreign visitors.

Many many countries are competing for limited amount of tourist money these days. I'm not a tourist this is my home, lots of ways I can limit the impact on myself. I just think it sends the wrong message to people who want to travel in the Orient and the timing is terrible.

Maybe this is how we pay for the free hotel rooms in Pattaya, or is there really going to be any free hotel rooms in Pattaya.

I'm sorry but I think they have made a huge mistake. I assure you when I got nicked for that 150 baht today, didn't really make me feel to welcome. Knowing that the same transaction in my home country would have been one dollar and fifty cents.

[Hattrick]

Now we see a seven times increase in foreign ATM card usage.

Where did you see this?

[Hattrick]

for example: you take out 10,000 baht from you bank account, 10,000 plus 250 baht plus currency fee of 1 percent (100 baht) plus my banking fee of 53 baht.

Thats 403 baht in fee's for a 10,000 baht transaction. pretty insane if you ask me. that's around 12 dollars US for a single transaction/

Is this for real? I don't recall any fee charges mentioned on ATM slips in BKK
last year or in January-February 2009. Where did you hear of this 250 Baht
figure? BTW, my bank charges me $5 CAD for each WD, although my plan
allows me the first 5 free each month.

[kronen1669]

i am from the uk and recently opened a bank account with kasikorn bank and have started to transfer money from the uk into this account. will these charges apply to a falang holding a thai atm card for a thai bank account.
my own uk bank does not charge for using my english atm card overseas, no matter which country i am in to use it. but i take it the thai banks are applying these charges themselves. if 1 does not pay the 150 bhat transaction fee then you cannot withdraw money from the machine ? with regards to foreigners now staying away from thailand i have to admit i was due to return early may again for 3 months and i have decided to cancel due to the unrest there at the moment and i am not the only 1 here in the uk who has made this decision. you can get on thai airways for around 400 sterling.. its usually 600/650.
they are not the only airline to be reducing ticket prices. i wonder why.