Thailand’s tourist entry fee is back in front of the National Tourism Policy Committee — as a draft sent to public hearing, not as a fee already approved. On Friday 14 August 2026 a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun considered the draft principles and the draft collection notification so they could enter the prescribed public-hearing process, according to the ministry write-up of that meeting. That release does not name a rate, an air-first rollout, or a 180- or 360-day clock. Tourism and Sports Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul put the figure at ฿450 per person across air, land and sea, as reported by Thairath the same day, The Nation on 15 August, and Thai PBS on 17 August. A 30-day public hearing comes next, then the results return to the committee before the draft goes to Cabinet. Officials quoted in that press coverage expect collection from air passengers to begin in early 2027, 180 days after the notification is published in the Royal Gazette; land and sea crossings would follow a further 360-day preparation period, which the Thai originals do not clearly date from Gazette publication versus from the start of air collection.
For a Phuket owner the ฿450 itself is the least of it. The questions that matter — who is exempt, whether a visitor who comes every month pays every time, and how much of the money reaches the island’s tourist infrastructure — are exactly the ones the draft leaves open.
A flat rate, priced off a model
Tourism and Sports Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul put the rate at ฿450 per person across all three entry channels. That replaces the two-tier framework Cabinet approved in February 2023, which set ฿300 for air arrivals and ฿150 for land and sea, and it is higher than what his own ministry was proposing in June, when the plan was a fee of no more than ฿300 starting in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to ThaiPublica’s report of 10 June.
Permanent Secretary for Tourism and Sports Natthriya Thaweevong said the figure came from an updated costing study that folded in economic growth and inflation since the original 2023 work. Some model runs pointed above ฿490; the committee settled on ฿450 as a level it judged would not turn visitors away, as reported by Thairath on 14 August.
Hearing first, then Cabinet, then 180 days
The sequence from here is procedural but each step has a date attached. The public hearing runs for 30 days. Its results go back to the National Tourism Policy Committee, and only then does the package move to Cabinet. Once the collection notification is published in the Royal Gazette, air arrivals start paying 180 days later — which is how officials arrive at early 2027. Land and sea entry points get a further 360-day preparation period; Thai-language reporting (Thairath, Thai PBS) describes that as time to get land borders ready, and does not clearly start the 360 days from Gazette publication or from the day air collection begins.
How the fee is paid is still a menu rather than a decision: built into the airline ticket, paid online through a website or app, or paid at kiosks and mobile devices at the border. The committee is also weighing multiple-entry arrangements tied to the duration of the insurance cover the fee buys, so that a visitor who enters several times within a covered period — a month, in the example officials gave — would pay once.
The machinery behind the fee moved the day before the committee did. On 13 August the Tourism Promotion Fund’s management board, chaired by Natthriya, reviewed the draft collection notification and the fund’s budget plan for fiscal 2027, according to the ministry’s own release. Revenue from the fee goes into that fund, earmarked for visitor accident and health insurance, upgrades to tourist attractions and infrastructure, research, and training tourism staff.
Three years of never quite starting
This fee has been approved before. Cabinet signed off on the ฿300/฿150 version in February 2023 with collection set to begin on 1 June 2023, as Thai PBS reported at the time. It never started. The start date slid, governments changed, and by June this year the ministry was reworking the number and the mechanics. The 2023 framework exempted work-permit holders, diplomatic passport holders and children under two, among others; whether the new draft keeps that list has not been announced.
The record explains the careful phrasing around 2027. Every date in the current plan sits downstream of a hearing that has not opened, a Cabinet decision that has not been scheduled, and a Royal Gazette publication that starts a 180-day clock only once it happens.
Who is affected
Every foreign visitor, and air passengers first if the ministerial timetable holds — which for Phuket would mean the fee reaches the island’s direct international arrivals and its Bangkok connections at the same time. A family flying in for two weeks pays ฿450 a head once. The people for whom the design matters are the ones who come often: owners who visit their condo monthly, seasonal residents on multi-entry visas, business travellers. For them, paying per entry against paying once per insured period separates a rounding error from a standing cost, and that choice is still open.
Whether long-stay visa holders, work-permit holders or Thailand Privilege members will be exempt is not yet published. Thai passport holders are outside the scheme’s scope as reported in 2023; the 2026 draft’s exemption list has not been released.
What it may mean for Phuket property
This is Houseviser analysis rather than anything the sources say about the island. As a cost, ฿450 disappears into a Phuket trip — it is a fraction of an airport transfer, and officials chose the level specifically so it would not register in the decision to come. Nothing in the draft touches ownership, transfer costs or rental income. The direct effect on a property investment case is nil.
The indirect effects are worth more attention. The fund’s intended uses, as reported, include visitor accident and health insurance, upgrades to tourist attractions and infrastructure, research, and training tourism staff. Who would be insured, what the policy would cover, and whether that changes a premises-injury dispute are unpublished. The infrastructure spending is directed at tourist destinations, and Phuket’s direct international arrivals put the island in the first phase if air collection is what starts first. And for owners who commute to Phuket, the multiple-entry question is the one to watch through the hearing: a per-entry fee taxes exactly the visit pattern that ownership creates.
What remains unknown
The hearing’s dates and platform have not been announced, and the rate could still move — it has already moved this year, from no more than ฿300 in June to ฿450 in August. The exemption list, the insurance policy’s coverage terms, and the final payment mechanics are all unpublished. Cabinet has not scheduled its consideration. And the scheme’s history since 2023 is a history of start dates that did not hold — worth remembering when reading the current one.
Related guides and data
The guides below cover the ground a repeat visitor ends up on anyway: the visa routes that fit property ownership, from the LTR visa to Thailand Privilege, and the licensing rules that apply when guests stay in your unit.