Doubling visa fee could kill the golden goose
If it achieves its stated goal, our doubling the visa-on-arrival fees to B2,000 will kill the goose that lays golden eggs for us.
The objective of the fee boost is to shorten queues for such visas at immigration checkpoints, eg, Suvarnabhumi airport. Yet as procedures stand now, this will drastically chop the number of arrivals - and tourism is the bright star in our otherwise lacklustre economy, accounting for a forecast 10 per cent of 2016 GDP. Also, the fee boost of B1,000 will not shorten immigration queues, as the rise is a very small proportion of total trip cost.
We must shorten queues, but there are much more effective ways to do that, eg, (a) Can applicants give their data in advance via their tour agency or airline, so that all that needs to be done on arrival is verify identification? (b) We recently began asking highly intrusive questions, supposedly for security purposes, eg, bank account information. Why would criminals give correct information - and do we check the data given? (c) Tourism Minister Kobkarn estimates about 32 million tourists will visit Thailand this year; historically , are even 5 per cent of them likely carry out crimes against national security? Are we spending massive amounts of time and money to catch a few rogues? (d) Minister Kobkarn said that 60-70 per cent of 2016 arrivals would be repeat tourists; we should not need to screen them as thoroughly as first-timers. (e) Is our Immigration Division a rigorous meritocracy, using transparent, measurable, and job-related key performance indicators, so all are evaluated and rewarded on performance?
Shorten the lines, by all means, but don't kill the goose.
Burin Kantabutra
