Tourism Authority Of Thailand Elite Card Failure

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:20:48 +0000

Another failure for the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand Elite Card was a doomed program from the very start. The brainchild of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, started in 2003, is set to close down business after losing a ton of baht.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Elite Card

This is just one more reason not to do business in Thailand or trust the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

This brilliant plan was supposed to attract the rich and famous to Thailand for a mere 1 million baht lifetime, non-refundable fee. Special privileges were to be granted – like fast track at immigration, free golf, hotel and airline upgrades, and the right to purchase land in the kingdom.

The plan was to sell one million of the Thailand Elite cards generating one trillion baht. Lots of baht to line the government’s pockets.

However, the Tourism Authority of Thailand only sold about 2,500 of these special cards. Far short of one million.

But, sales from the 2,500 cards still generated 2.5 Billion Baht and now the Thailand Privilege Card, under the Tourism Authority of Thailand claims to have lost 1.4 Billion Baht.

Doing some digging after reading yesterday’s article in the Bangkok Post, I found a similar article from the Bangkok Post in 2009. The numbers quoted are just about the same for amount of cards sold and total money lost by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

But, the article in 2009 mentions that the card was abused by local Thais, something not mentioned in the 2011 article. Having the ability to play golf from free every day is a big temptation and I am sure that some Thai gave the money to some foreigner to acquire a card for him.

I am not sure what, if anything happened in the last two years but I have seen where this elite card, which started out at 1 million baht had a big price increase to 2 million baht and then down to 1.5 million. This is typical Thai economics. If it doesn’t sell, raise the price.

One of the bigger reasons that folks did buy the card was the opportunity to purchase land – something no foreigner can do in Thailand – legally. The other biggie, was the 5-year visa with no visa runs required and renewable every five years.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand is asking the Thai Government to set aside 2.5 Billion baht to compensate staff and members. The Thai Government said “NO”. The request will go before one more cabinet meeting to see if TAT can get the money.

What the Tourism Authority of Thailand really wants the money for is this:

The TAT must come up with 500 million baht to pay for overdue registered capital to pave the way for termination, and plans to seek the sum from the Budget Bureau.

And, add to that 1.4 Billion Baht deficit. I doubt staff will get anything other than a token farewell and members are actually not entitled to a single satang.

But the Tourism Authority of Thailand is fearing lawsuits.

The Tourism and Sports Ministry, whose state agency the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is TPC’s sole owner, was instructed to prepare to compensate the 2,500-odd members should any of them take legal action once their membership is revoked.

Apparently there is only one smart person in the travel industry in Thailand:

Prakit Chinamourphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said the project should have been shut down a long time ago.

There you have it. The Tourism Authority of Thailand – over promise and under deliver. Wonder what will happen to the poor suckers that bought these elite cards. Will their visa still be valid? Can they still get it extended for 5 more years?

Be very careful when conducting business with Thailand and doubly careful about anything that the Tourism Authority of Thailand promotes.

Tourism Authority Of Thailand Elite Card Failure is a post from: Khon Kaen

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Electric Bill Shocker

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:10:40 +0000

Arranging to get electricity run to our property was a bit more costlier than I expected. The property is on a small, dirt Soi with no other houses built yet. We will have the first building on the block.

So, we get stuck with bringing power to the Soi. This will involve a couple of utility poles and some wire to run from the main road to our land. I am guessing about 150 meters.

Cost for this service – 63,117 Thai baht – approximately $2,000 US dollars! I knew it would cost a bit but this is a bit more than I expected. And, we will still have to pay an additional 8,000 Thai baht to have the electric meter installed once the lines are run.

My wife said that she will try to ask our future neighbors to chip in to help pay but I seriously doubt if anyone will kick any baht in.

Lesson learned – don’t be the first on your block to build a house or be prepared to pay.