Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so called "Zero-dollar" tours. We have discussed this in the past and for those who are unaware, this became kind of a euphemism for the practice of various tour operators, at the time it was primarily out of China but the model could operate from anywhere as we will get into here in a minute. In the past, there was a situation where there were a lot of Chinese tourists coming into Thailand but effectively it was like a closed circuit kind of thing where the fees and taxes and everything associated with the travel to Thailand was all paid offshore, and then it was sort of like a closed circuit syndicate if you will of various venues that the tourists were brought to and money, very little money would change hands, again it was all sort of paid in advance and the money was kept offshore. Thai Authorities, especially the Revenue Department did not like that because it resulted in a lack of being able to collect taxes. Meanwhile, those same tourists were acting as a burden on infrastructure and roads, airports, all that good stuff that the taxes go to, go toward I should say, those folks were effectively sort of circumventing the system if you will. Thai Immigration and Thai Authorities took a pretty hard line on that some years back. So it's interesting that when reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, and I urge them who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. As usual we are going to quote a couple of excerpts but there's a ton of information in that article, very useful, very interesting. As usual Thai Examiner does a good job on that. Again, thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Crackdown on foreign tourism abuses with police in hotspots targeting Chinese and Russian gangs. Quoting directly: "Zero-dollar tours have returned and it's not just tourists from China that are being abused by this commercial scam that damages Thailand's reputation. Returning home to China, many visitors blame Thailand for the experience through deflection by the tour operators who blame Thai Authorities and the nature of tourism in the country for their poor experience." Quoting further: "Often the retail outlets and service providers used by these tours in Thailand are in fact managed and owned by Chinese firms meaning the foreign tourism activities generate little or no benefit to the Thai economy." Quoting further: "This has been accepted by industry leaders such as Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn. Despite new laws and regulations introduced in 2016, the scale of the Chinese operators and the establishment of Thai Companies in the Kingdom allow such tours to be operated with virtual immunity. Up until now. Thai Officials are reported to be ready to ringfence or control the operation of incoming tours to Thailand by ensuring that only vetted or approved firms are allowed to operate while strong inspection and examination of non-approved firms is to be used to deter bad operators." Again I really do urge people, there's fair bit of information we quoted there but there is even more in the article, the article is pretty darn long. 

The thing to understand about this video, excuse me about this article though, again “strong inspection and examination of non-approved firms”. Thailand is going to take, I think Thai Authorities are going to take a pretty strong stance on Zero-dollar tourism so-called in the future because again there are tax implications here. We have discussed in other videos, the Revenue Department seems pretty keen to start thickening their revenue stream coming off the last couple of years of having very little economic activity, especially in the tourism sector. So again I think a lot of authorities who have jurisdiction over possible tourism in Thailand, I think a lot of authorities are going to be pretty proactive when looking at the possibility of an operation being a Zero-dollar scheme so-called. So what does this mean? Again as I have said in other videos what can sometimes appear to be a narrow issue can often have broader implications. So I simply think prepare for more scrutiny just across the board in terms of Thai Immigration moving forward at least in the immediately foreseeable future. I can see a situation not unlike last year where, as high season gets going again perhaps Thai Immigration gets a little bit more relaxed going into that period but we are not there right now. We are sitting here in May of 2023 going into the summer, that is kind of going into low season. That is usually the time of the year in my experience where Thai Immigration rolls out new protocols for scrutinizing foreigners, trying to combat folks working illegally in Thailand and trying to combat folks working in sectors of the Thai economy that are restricted to foreign nationals. This is kind of the time where those crackdowns start happening. 

So for purposes of this video and the thing to take away from this video is going into the summer, if you are not in proper legal status here in Thailand, it is a good idea to be really looking hard at getting into proper legal status. If you are in proper legal status don't particularly worry, if you are in status then you don't really have much to worry about. For those who are sort of on the line somewhere, they are kind of trying to talk themselves or self-rationalize that what they are doing is in line with the rules as they understand them, it is probably not a good time to be doing it because it is clear to me that Thai Immigration is going to be undertaking a lot more heightened scrutiny of foreign nationals' activities here in the Kingdom in the coming days and weeks.