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Thailand to set minimum fees for Chinese package tour

Xinhua, October 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Thailand is going to set a minimum price for each individual of Chinese package tour - 1,000 baht (28.74 U.S. dollars) per night in a bid to curb zero-dollar tour which once lured many tourists from the Chinese mainland.

"We are going to set 1,000 baht per person per night or 3,000 baht (86.23 U.S. dollars) per package as the minimum price for package tour of Chinese tourists, which is agreed by all participants," Thai Deputy Prime Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of a meeting concerning tourism for Chinese travelers.

Thanasak also said that Thailand will set recommended prices for package tours of different standards later this year, namely price for Silver Package, Golden Package and Premium Package.

The Thai government ordered earlier last month to crack down on the zero-dollar tour, which lured foreign tourists to buy much cheaper tour packages in their own countries, but only to find higher expenses once they arrived in Thailand as they were usually asked to shop in certain stores.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) had expected 280,000 tourists from the Chinese mainland during the Oct. 1-9 period, or China's "Golden Week" holiday this year, but adjusted their expectation to 220,000 now, which, if achieved, would still be a 30.4 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

The TAT had once expected over 10 million tourists from the Chinese mainland to visit Thailand throughout 2016, but adjusted the number to some 9.3 million now, compared with 7.9 million in 2015.

"It (the decrease of tourists) hurts, but we have to end it (zero-dollar tour)," said Charoen Wangananont, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), adding that his association will try to explain the government policy to the tourism industry. Endit