Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing this notion of a 300 Baht, for lack of a better term, “Tourist Tax” here in Thailand.

In a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 300 Baht Fee for Foreigners Visiting Thailand. Quoting directly: “The National Tourism Policy Committee has approved the proposal guidelines for the collection of a 300 Baht tourism fee from each international visitor. The money will be used for the management of local tourist destinations and to provide insurance benefits. Tourism and Sports Minister, Phiphat Ratchkitprakarn said each foreign visitor will be charged US$10 (300 Baht) per visit. The details of the fee collection will be announced in the Royal Gazette once the policy has taken effect.” So notably this hasn't apparently gotten into the Royal Gazette yet and until it does it presumably is not officially promulgated policy.

The reason for making this video is it looks like this is something they are trying to implement.  I am not going to get into an op-ed on that. I am going to do another video contemporaneously with this one where I do discuss tourism in Thailand, and we will talk about that with this specifically in mind.

Long story short, with this video, yeah it looks like this is coming into view.  Exactly what this is going to look like remains to be seen. As noted by some folks, in fact the people that sent me this specific article, with respect to they mentioned management local tourist destinations and provide insurance benefits. Well pretty much anyone entering Thailand currently has to have insurance, at least for COVID, possibly for other things if they are on different types of Visas, so insurance coverage kind of seems out of sync with current policy that further Insurance coverage is necessary. 

That said I don't know the ins and outs of this specifically so we will keep researching this issue and we will do updated videos as the situation evolves.