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Extended Bar Closing Times Discussed in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the possibility that the closing times on bars and pubs may be extended in the future here in the Kingdom.    

In a recent article from the Nation, that is nationthailand.com, the article is titled: Tourism Minister Wants to Extend Pub Closing Hours. Quoting directly: "Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn has proposed that bars and pubs in some tourist destinations be allowed to stay open until 4 a.m. to attract foreign tourists to spend more." Quoting further:  "The closing time for pubs and bars is 2 a.m. Phiphat said he believed that if closing is extended to 4 a.m., tourists will spend 25% more on eating and drinking. He added however that the proposal did not apply to all areas but would cover such popular tourist spots as The Silom Nightlife Zone in Bangkok, Patong in Phuket, Ao Nang in Krabi and Koh Samui in Suratthani. There is far more in this article. I urge those who are watching this video to check out this article. Again it is titled: Tourism Minister Wants to Extend Pub Closing Hours. 

But again folks have often contacted me and said sometimes your channel seems a little bit, not pessimistic but it is just kind of dry and stern, for lack of better term. Well first of all, we are a channel that is devoted to talking about legal subjects and unfortunately for me sometimes this isn't the most fun loving topic to discuss. I mean it is just dry stuff from time to time. That being said it can seem a little negative because we do tend to deal with things that oftentimes will have an adverse impact on either business or individuals or people in an Immigration context.

This is something that I think is welcome news. I definitely think that this gentleman that is the Tourism and Sports Minister is on the right track with this. I think that there is very solid evidence to suggest extended opening hours especially in certain tourist oriented zones would have a tremendously beneficial impact while not necessarily having a detrimental impact that it could have in the non-tourist areas. I am not going to get into whether or not that is a good idea or not but I can understand the logic of the argument that having a closing time on bars is a good idea. There is some logic to that. It is debatable about whether or not you want to do it but that being said, if they were to do this in the sort of Tourist zones if you will, I think it probably would have a substantially positive impact on businesses operating in those zones. I think that you would probably also see an uptick in revenue generation and therefore you would also see an uptick in tax collection associated with that. So overall, I think that this is a proposal that is perhaps not particularly broad but I think it is mindfully limited in its scope because it is trying to get a substantially positive impact without a substantially negative impact simultaneously.