Thailand has postponed its 300 baht (8 euros) tourist tax until mid-2026 due to declining tourism and economic hardship.
This tax has been announced for years, then postponed or cancelled.
Alternative measures to revive tourism
Airports of Thailand (AOT) held a special event to welcome visitors to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Samut Prakan province during the Songkran Festival in April. Photo: Airports of Thailand
Initially planned for 2025, this tax is now expected around mid-2026 , according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
It aims to finance tourism infrastructure projects and travel insurance.
Tourist arrivals have fallen 5% to around 17 million since the start of the year, impacting the country's crucial tourism sector, which accounts for 20% of GDP.
Factors such as the strength of the baht , rising airfare costs and economic problems in key markets such as China are reducing demand.
See: Thailand: Cancellations or fear-inducing trips for Chinese tourists
Strengthening the vital tourism sector
Tourists outside the entrance to the Grand Palace in Bangkok in June 2025. Photo: Somchai Poomlard/Bangkok Post
At the same time, Thailand is improving its tourism infrastructure.
Although the tax may be temporarily suspended, the country is actively exploring ways to strengthen its vital tourism sector.
At the beginning of the year, a new digital entry system was introduced, replacing time-consuming paperwork with a more efficient online check-in process before arrival.
See: Everything you need to know about the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC)
Thai officials say the digital form will improve data collection and streamline processing at airports and borders, making travel easier.
While bureaucracy isn't usually the country's strong point, Thailand offers many other advantages that have made it one of the world's most popular tourist destinations.
See also:
Mass tourism in Thailand: Phuket island is overflowing with garbage
Tourism: Thailand under pressure from its neighbors and US taxes
Thailand's Tourism Trends 2025 According to Agoda
Thailand's tourism faces a difficult year: a change of strategy
Thailand: Subsidy to boost domestic tourism flops
Source: Thailand Business News
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10 comments
An English friend has just been notified upon arriving in Bangkok that he is banned and can no longer return as a tourist.
Apparently, because he came too often. (I would say 3 entries/year over the last 2 years).
Never had any particular problems with the police or immigration before.
And they didn't even tell him how long the ban would be.
They want more tourism, but they see a guy with impeccable behavior and more than decent financial means.
I admit I don't understand the logic.
Paddy, there is surely another, more serious reason for this decision that your friend would rather not tell you.
He must have received written justification from the immigration police.
Why him and not thousands of others who use the "90" days repeatedly without being worried?
And he was not informed of the duration of this entry ban?
Very weird!!!
I am skeptical…
The problem is the major vagueness of the taxation of foreigners on income from 180 days of presence in the country and which seems to be applied more or less depending on the region and the client, therefore a feeling as always of a great fog and in the end a possible deviation from the objectives.
And here is the eighty-eighth and a half time that the most famous tax issued by a Thai government and which exists only in the state of a ghost which haunts the corridors of the Thai Parliament for several years, turning in the hemicycle of the House and the Senate without ever clinging there!!!
We should make a movie about it... after all, Thailand also has its own national anti-tax Casper!
You have to be in Thailand to experience this...
Despite the general climate, there are still some who manage to make people laugh, if not cry in despair at so much political and economic naivety, as if 8 euros more or less would attract hundreds of thousands of additional tourists!!!
On the other hand, the famous "public insurance" supposed to cover tourists who are victims of domestic accidents during their holidays in the country also falls ipso facto out the window!
Errare Humanum Est… Ave Caesar!
Total deletion.
What a tax!
Or replace it with insurance as was once said.
The insurance was bogus anyway.
And the 60 days + 30 days will still be relevant.
To Paddy,
Did he meet the deadlines on his passport?
Between December 2022 and 2025, I returned at least 4 times while respecting the dates on my passport.
Since the beginning of 2023, I have had to enter 8 times, I think, as a tourist.
No worries, always respecting the durations of course...
But now I'm afraid the same thing will happen to me as happened to my friend.
I'll know in a month, when I go back...
If you're not sure, Thaivisa has agents at airports who will let you through even if your passport is full to the brim for a small fee of course.
Go check it out on FB…