News Forum - Domestic tourism stimulus scheme gets 9-billion-baht budget approval for phase 4

[Thaiger]

The government’s domestic tourism stimulus scheme enters phase 4 from February, with Cabinet approving a 9-billion-baht budget. “We Travel Together’ (Rao Tiew Duay Kan) will run until July, according to a government spokesperson. According to a Thai PBS World report, participants can benefit from a 40% discount on hotel rates, up to a maximum of 3,000 baht a night and a total of 10 room nights. There are 2 million room nights available under the scheme. In the latest phase of the scheme, the number of reduced air fare entitlements has been reduced to 600,000, as the government says not […]

The story Domestic tourism stimulus scheme gets 9-billion-baht budget approval for phase 4 as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

[longwood50]

 

9 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

The government’s domestic tourism stimulus scheme

 Lets see, testing before arrival, testing, upon arrival, quarantine, then testing again, 300 baht tourist fee.

Can someone help me out, I am having difficulty figuring out if Thailand does or does not want tourism. 

[Bluesofa]

(from the original source, Thai PBS World:)
"the revival of the program is to encourage Thais to travel and spend domestically"

It might refer to 'domestic tourism', but does that mean specifically and only Thais, or are expats allowed to participate too?

[LoongFred]

13 minutes ago, longwood50 said:

 Lets see, testing before arrival, testing, upon arrival, quarantine, then testing again, 300 baht tourist fee.

Can someone help me out, I am having difficulty figuring out if Thailand does or does not want tourism. 

No worries if you aren't contaminated.

[Noble_Design]

18 minutes ago, longwood50 said:

 Lets see, testing before arrival, testing, upon arrival, quarantine, then testing again, 300 baht tourist fee.

Can someone help me out, I am having difficulty figuring out if Thailand does or does not want tourism. 

7 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

(from the original source, Thai PBS World:)
"the revival of the program is to encourage Thais to travel and spend domestically"

It might refer to 'domestic tourism', but does that mean specifically and only Thais, or are expats allowed to participate too?

I think this is another round of Rao Thiaw Duay Gan in which the government subsidize a portion of the hotel room fees and food at participating restaurants. So I think strictly for Thais only as you need the Thai ID card in order to utilize the app.

Oh expats can participate too but indirectly via their Thai partners/spouses/kids. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Noble_Design
Add info for expats

[Bluesofa]

1 minute ago, Noble_Design said:

I think this is another round of Rao Thiaw Duay Gan in which the government subsidize a portion of the hotel room fees and food at participating restaurants. So I think strictly for Thais only as you need the Thai ID card in order to utilize the app.

That's a bugger. Looks like they've lost out completely then. When we get some money, my wife wanted to go away for a couple of nights, and it would have made it more affordable, but not now.
Looks like the bleedin' government are off my Christmas card list.
 

[HolyCowCm]

8 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

(from the original source, Thai PBS World:)
"the revival of the program is to encourage Thais to travel and spend domestically"

It might refer to 'domestic tourism', but does that mean specifically and only Thais, or are expats allowed to participate too?

You funny guy! Take from the foreing tourists and give the domestic Thai the carrot. I would think only way to get that would be to travel with your Thai family or a freind as it will be scanned on their phone. This seems a spark to get the travel going for the Lunar New Year.

[Noble_Design]

Just now, Bluesofa said:

That's a bugger. Looks like they've lost out completely then. When we get some money, my wife wanted to go away for a couple of nights, and it would have made it more affordable, but not now.
Looks like the bleedin' government are off my Christmas card list.
 

Yes it is unfortunate but nothing much we can do about it. C'est la vie

[AmySukwan]

I was under the impression that Thai Nationals already in Thailand didn't have to test, retest, quarantine et cetera

[HolyCowCm]

4 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

That's a bugger. Looks like they've lost out completely then. When we get some money, my wife wanted to go away for a couple of nights, and it would have made it more affordable, but not now.
Looks like the bleedin' government are off my Christmas card list.
 

Never thought if we could sign up using our pink cards or not and if that would go through to get the code to get the discount.

[Bluesofa]

3 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

Never thought if we could sign up using our pink cards or not and if that would go through to get the code to get the discount.

A good point. However, I took what was stated below as correct:

15 minutes ago, Noble_Design said:

So I think strictly for Thais only as you need the Thai ID card in order to utilize the app.

I wonder if the Pink ID might work?
Did anyone try registering with one for this promotion on previous incarnations of this?

[Stonker]

20 minutes ago, Noble_Design said:

I think this is another round of Rao Thiaw Duay Gan in which the government subsidize a portion of the hotel room fees and food at participating restaurants. So I think strictly for Thais only as you need the Thai ID card in order to utilize the app.

Oh expats can participate too but indirectly via their Thai partners/spouses/kids. 

Correct on all counts.

Bound to be as successful as Phase 1, at Songkran last year.

[Noble_Design]

2 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

A good point. However, I took what was stated below as correct:

I wonder if the Pink ID might work?
Did anyone try registering with one for this promotion on previous incarnations of this?

I'm not sure if the pink ID may work or not. But the Pink ID are also given to migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos etc. and to be honest since I have been going to the local market quite frequently I have yet to see a foreigner or migrant worker pay using the Khon La Kreuang app. 

Of course those are just my observation maybe somebody else have seen foreigners/migrant workers able to utilize the Khon La Kreuang/Rao Thiaw Duay Gan/Rao Chana/Pao Tang apps etc.

[HolyCowCm]

16 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

A good point. However, I took what was stated below as correct:

I wonder if the Pink ID might work?
Did anyone try registering with one for this promotion on previous incarnations of this?

I would think that if able to do so or even using one of your phones from your family that most of the Thai would have zero problem with you scanning, and if said something then maybe a small tip would make all ok.

There are different starting numbers to represent who the card belongs to, so this might be something that also comes into play. 

Paste from Wikepedia:

 

Category	Description
0	(Not found on cards of Thai nationals but may be found in the other issued identity cards below)
1	Thai nationals who were born after 1 January 1984 and had their birth notified within the given deadline (15 days).
2	Thai nationals who were born after 1 January 1984 but failed to have their birth notified in time.
3	Thai nationals or foreign nationals with identification cards who were born and whose names were included in a house registration book before 1 January 1984
4	Thai nationals who were born before 1 January 1984 but were not included in a house registration book at that time, for example due to moving residences
5	Thai nationals who missed the official census or other special cases, for instance those of dual nationality
6	Foreign nationals who are living in Thailand temporarily and illegal migrants
7	Children of people of category 6 who were born in Thailand
8	Foreign nationals who are living in Thailand permanently or Thai nationals by naturalization

.

 

 

[HolyCowCm]

16 minutes ago, Stonker said:

Correct on all counts.

Bound to be as successful as Phase 1, at Songkran last year.

Ouch!

[Bluesofa]

3 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

I would think that if able to do so or even using one of your phones from your family that most of the Thai would have zero problem with you scanning, and if said something then maybe a small tip would make all ok.

There are different starting numbers to represent who the card belongs to, so this might be something that also comes into play. 

Paste from Wikepedia:

Category	Description
0	(Not found on cards of Thai nationals but may be found in the other issued identity cards below)
1	Thai nationals who were born after 1 January 1984 and had their birth notified within the given deadline (15 days).
2	Thai nationals who were born after 1 January 1984 but failed to have their birth notified in time.
3	Thai nationals or foreign nationals with identification cards who were born and whose names were included in a house registration book before 1 January 1984
4	Thai nationals who were born before 1 January 1984 but were not included in a house registration book at that time, for example due to moving residences
5	Thai nationals who missed the official census or other special cases, for instance those of dual nationality
6	Foreign nationals who are living in Thailand temporarily and illegal migrants
7	Children of people of category 6 who were born in Thailand
8	Foreign nationals who are living in Thailand permanently or Thai nationals by naturalization

 

Am I correct in thinking you have to register using the App per phone, and then everyone has to use a different registered phone for every guest  when checking in, or am I barking up the wrong tree?
I was thinking if I could register in advance, it might actually work?

[Noble_Design]

10 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

Am I correct in thinking you have to register using the App per phone, and then everyone has to use a different registered phone for every guest  when checking in, or am I barking up the wrong tree?
I was thinking if I could register in advance, it might actually work?

No, it's 1 app per room so even if your room has more than 1 guest you only need 1 app (or phone) per room. But then again during check-in the hotel staff will also request for ID card that matches the one registered in the app for confirmation purposes.

[HolyCowCm]

15 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

Am I correct in thinking you have to register using the App per phone, and then everyone has to use a different registered phone for every guest  when checking in, or am I barking up the wrong tree?
I was thinking if I could register in advance, it might actually work?

It is first register first come and then only up to a set cut off number given for this program, and it is on one phone only. Luck if you get in and for the last one my son was successful and so we used his phone for the program. Wife was before that one. You could try to register and then feed back what happened.

I just asked my daughter and she thinks most Thai wouldn't care if you scanned or not using any phone. As for the hotels or flights, wouldn't that be prepaid booked in prior? I will ask my son and wife when she gets home after she closes up shop today for how the hotels and airfares work. We have Thai friends who have travelled on one of the prior programs. For my family they use them for local things and even restaurants when we go out. There is a set limit to how much can be used.

[Stonker]

2 hours ago, AmySukwan said:

I was under the impression that Thai Nationals already in Thailand didn't have to test, retest, quarantine et cetera

Nor any non-Thai nationals .

[Stonker]

1 hour ago, HolyCowCm said:

It is first register first come and then only up to a set cut off number given for this program, and it is on one phone only. Luck if you get in and for the last one my son was successful and so we used his phone for the program. Wife was before that one. You could try to register and then feed back what happened.

I just asked my daughter and she thinks most Thai wouldn't care if you scanned or not using any phone. As for the hotels or flights, wouldn't that be prepaid booked in prior? I will ask my son and wife when she gets home after she closes up shop today for how the hotels and airfares work. We have Thai friends who have travelled on one of the prior programs. 

All phases of this programme and the parallel one for flights and tours were undersubscribed.

IIRC, the tour programme was only about 20% subscribed.

1 hour ago, HolyCowCm said:

For my family they use them for local things and even restaurants when we go out. There is a set limit to how much can be used.

A different programme / subsidy - I think  you're probably referring to the "go halves" subsidy of up to 150 baht a day that starts up again in March.

[HolyCowCm]

33 minutes ago, Stonker said:

All phases of this programme and the parallel one for flights and tours were undersubscribed.

IIRC, the tour programme was only about 20% subscribed.

A different programme / subsidy - I think  you're probably referring to the "go halves" subsidy of up to 150 baht a day that starts up again in March.

I think it falls under the same sort of criteria thinking no matter how the program gets rolled out, except this one is a "We Travel together Theme". But my family di certainly take advantage of it several times. For the travel one before our Thai friends did that one and took a trip down to Surathani. Honestly I don't pay too much attention as just let the family do it. I am thinking of traveling with friends right now, but we will stay in no higher than 500 baht guest houses on our motorcyle journey.

[HolyCowCm]

5 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

I think it falls under the same sort of criteria thinking no matter how the program gets rolled out, except this one is a "We Travel together Theme". But my family di certainly take advantage of it several times. For the travel one before our Thai friends did that one and took a trip down to Surathani. Honestly I don't pay too much attention as just let the family do it. I am thinking of traveling with friends right now, but we will stay in no higher than 500 baht guest houses on our motorcyle journey.

And I gather you can use both of the schemes in conjunction with each other but the 50/50 subsidy I think is capped at 150 baht per day and maybe 1500 or 2000 per month if i remeber what my wife said. So eat of the street food or cheapo restaurant or fruit from a market and you would be ok happy.

[Marc26]

3 hours ago, Thaiger said:

The government’s domestic tourism stimulus scheme enters phase 4 from February, with Cabinet approving a 9-billion-baht budget. “We Travel Together’ (Rao Tiew Duay Kan) will run until July, according to a government spokesperson. According to a Thai PBS World report, participants can benefit from a 40% discount on hotel rates, up to a maximum of 3,000 baht a night and a total of 10 room nights. There are 2 million room nights available under the scheme. In the latest phase of the scheme, the number of reduced air fare entitlements has been reduced to 600,000, as the government says not […]

The story Domestic tourism stimulus scheme gets 9-billion-baht budget approval for phase 4 as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

Sounds great 

3k/nt for 10 nights is huge savings if I end up going in April/May we will use this for sure 

[LoongFred]

4 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

Sounds great 

3k/nt for 10 nights is huge savings if I end up going in April/May we will use this for sure 

Be careful that's the potential savings not the room rate. A room that goes for 2500 baht/ night could cost you 1500 baht/ night and that's probably rack rate. 

I usually get a deal contacting them directly. April-May except Songkran is not high season so you might find deals. 

It's good they are promoting things but I manage best on my own. You could have your wife contact a friend or relative in Thailand to make a direct contact. 

[longwood50]

7 hours ago, LoongFred said:

No worries if you aren't contaminated.

I think you missed my point.  One minute they are shaking your hand with incentives to come. the next minute they are slapping you in the face with two covid tests, longer quarantine periods, closing bars, limiting the sale of alcohol past 9 pm.  

They should make up their minds.  Either you want tourists and have a comprehensive program to entice them to come and that includes making it easier to arrive and have things to do when you get here.  Alternatively, shut down the country tell the foreigners you don't want them here and let the country continue to slide into economic morass.