Visa fee increase won’t even be noticed

Any increase in visa fees brings the response that tourism will collapse, but it’s invariably fantasy. The decision to raise the visa-on-arrival fee from Bt1,000 to Bt2,000 affects only a handful of countries whose nationals receive a two-week pass at Suvarnabhumi Airport. 

Mostly they are Chinese and Indian short-term visitors who travel on zero-sum packages in which the visa fee is built into the cost before they set off. Given fluctuations in the exchange rate, the visa-fee increase is peanuts. Of course, the visa on arrival is not required for citizens of Southeast Asian countries, Australians or most Westerners, including Britons and Americans. Their vacations remain visa-exempt, as they always have been.

Barry Kenyon