Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the proposed Tourist Fee. As we have discussed in other videos, that has been this proposal to tack on sort of a Tourist Tax. It has also been discussed as an insurance fee for those coming into Thailand to be used in the event that they undertake medical care in Thailand etc. 

The reason I thought of making this video was I was reading recent article in the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Tourist levy hits further turbulence with fears it could harm Airlines effort to boost flight numbers. "Efforts by Thailand to introduce a new tourist levy to be known as the Thailand Tourism Fee (TTF) are making slow progress after it was confirmed this week that the plan is currently being delayed over discussions to formulate a method to collect the charge for incoming Travelers by land and sea. It has also emerged that the proposed collection method has generated resistance from the international airline industry who are being asked to charge the fee which involves communication between Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports and aircraft with the finalized passenger manifest required to be transmitted to Bangkok 15 minutes after takeoff for each incoming flight to the Kingdom. Industry sources fear this may jeopardize efforts to increase flight frequency into Thailand this year to boost foreign tourist numbers." 

My immediate response to that of the cuff is yeah, I mean of course it is going to have a tremendous impact on the possible frequency of future airline travel into Thailand. Quite honestly, I don't know what it is among policymakers here in Thailand where they think that added bureaucracy and added paperwork is just not a big deal and these private enterprises should just kind of go along with it or something. But honestly why should airlines have an extra burden, setting aside and we have discussed this at length setting aside whether this fee is necessary or a good idea substantively, why should the airlines be burdened with having to essentially do the Government's work for them. If the Government wants to add on a fee of some kind well they need to do it themselves; they need to figure out how to do it. Why make the airline do it? I don't really see how that's a good idea and it puts Airlines off of wanting to fly into Thailand at a time when we need as many tourists as we can get here, as we have discussed in many other videos. I mean the fact that the Tourism Sector is literally decimated and we are trying to get back in as many tourists we can, we have got a bunch of policy makers coming along now trying to decide that "oh let's add this, not only add this extra fee but make it the burden of the airlines to not only charge for it but to essentially administer and facilitate the charge". They don't get anything out of it; they just have to deal with, again 15 minutes after take-off they have to do a bunch of paperwork presumably while that flight is in the air to then get the money to Thailand. I mean come on, this just doesn't seem like a really reasonable thing to impose on any level on anyone.