BANGKOK – The Tourism Minister is planning to hold discussions with related parties about offering an insurance service to foreign tourists.
Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said this week that the ministry will invite representatives from the Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited, the Immigration Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a meeting to discuss the implementation of insurance coverage for international visitors.
Mrs. Kobkarn said that a meeting is needed because no decision has yet been taken on the budget to be used as the insurance premium for Thai General Insurance Association, which has been estimated at between 150 million baht and 180 million baht each year.
She said that many parties have objected to the plan to use the government budget for this insurance scheme.
The Tourism Minister added that there has been a suggestion to incorporate this expense with other costs of travel, such as the visa fee or as an air fare add-on, but the idea is complicated by the fact that there are many airlines operating to Thailand and the number is increasing. This means that the Ministry may not be able to reach a conclusion on this deal with all of them.
One option is to impose the fee as a mandatory cost, which would not affect tourists at all, as each traveler is expected to pay only six baht as an insurance premium.
