Thailand’s dual pricing shame

Posted by admin on October 6th, 2007 filed in Activities, Day tripping, Family fun, Living here

Thailand has a rather discriminatory pricing policy for National Parks, where Thais pay 20 baht and foreigners pay 400 baht. And although the foreigners are generally richer it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

Dual pricing for national heritage sites isn’t new, several countries in Africa have been using this  system for decades, afterall, they need to derive a decent income from these treasures without denying locals entry. With such disparate wealth between locals and visitors it makes sense and I think most visitors don’t complain about being charged a little more.

But there seems to be no sensible application of this for the maximum benefit of all. There seems to evolved a general sense of ‘milk the farangs for every bean you can’ mentality here, and unfortunately those on holiday have no choice but to pay and go home feeling a little short changed. Thailand is a cheap and good value place but Westerners aren’t fools.

Two hundred baht(or $5), which is what the fee was until recently,  is about what you would pay to visit a basic National Heritage site in Britain (one without facilities or an information centre). In the US many parks are free for the enjoyment of all. For 200 baht you can alternatively enjoy a good meal, or rent a motorbike for a whole day of exploring the countryside or get a 1 hour massage. Compare that to a 30 minute visit to some out of the way waterfall that happens to be in a national park.

Now, this is where the decision makers at the National Parks Board just don’t get it. If you spend a day driving around the Chiang Mai area you can see several beautiful waterfalls. Some are in the same park and one ticket works for all, other’s aren’t, so you pay again, and again and again. Miss out on something and you have to come back and pay again the following day to get into the same park. What do you get for your 400 baht? Usually a toilet block, some picnic tables and car parking.

There are few information boards in English at many, no ranger on duty, no properly maintain nature trails, no emergency rescue services. In fact often you’ll notice how the installation of services has resulted in hastily installed ugly blue plastic water pipes that run from the waterfall or along rivers. If anything the nature has been spoilt by their prescence. After a weekend of visiting locals the place (if it’s popular) becomes a rubbish tip and the clean up isn’t very satisfactory. So this is what they now want to charge you 400 baht for!

They are fully aware of the resentment this might cause because the display signs announce the Thai price in Thai, complete with old Thai numbering so foreigner don’t notice. How clever! The trouble is, psychologically foreigners get fed up with forking out 400 baht everywhere they go, for they know that there are better value things in life. A survey conducted by an English language paper some time ago determined that 70% of those arriving at a certain park simply turned away when they discovered the fee.

Apparently a research survey was done before this new decision to raise the price, but will people be prepared to pay $10 several times in a day to experience Thailand’s wonderful resources? Or will they pay once, skip the rest and go home telling everyone that there isn’t that much to see in Thailand’s NPs. It has been suggested to introduce a multi-day pass, say 1 week for 500 baht and 1 month for 1000 baht. Afterall. Is someone really going to shell out 400 baht more than 5 time during their stay. Unfortunately these sort of good-value solutions are beyond the comprehension of those making decisions. It never occurred to them that income might increase if you were to sell these and encourage more people to visit these beautiful spots.

The biggest fallout from this propose 100% hike in fees is to the tour operators. Many have day trip packages that take in national park sites and include the cost of entry in the tour price. Add another 400 baht to this and you’re effectively increasing the price by 20%. One guy I know runs mountain bike trips down Doi Pui mountain in Chiang Mai, which is an ideal venue for this sport. He has an arrangement to pay 50 baht per person, since he brings in lots of them and simply uses the dirt road (no facilities). Now he will suddenly have to pay 400 baht each, which pushes the net cost sky high and will kill his business. For the price he has to charge, visitors can get much better value going elephant riding or trekking or ATV riding in non park areas. His business will die. And the parks will no longer get the 500 baht every day from this company.

There is also a hilltribe village on the mountain that has a coffee shop that has prospered off all these people. If they no longer come, the micro economy suffers. Within every park, or near the entrance is a whole bunch of food vendors who rely on lots of visitors, and they too will suffer. None of this was really properly considered I imagine. If anything a rise in entry fees will result in an overall fall in total income for all. The visitors will take their money elsewhere, the tour operators will sell less tours. Talk about a lose-lose situation.