TOURISM FOR TRANSIT PASSENGERS TO GET BIG BOOST

Transit passengers catching connecting flights through Bangkok International Airport will get a waiver of the 500 Baht airport tax if they sign up for one of the wide variety of tours in and around Bangkok that will be offered as of February 2002.

Final arrangements are being made for the project which is targetted at the hundreds of passengers who transit through Bangkok every day and have to wait several hours before catching their onward connecting flights.

The Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) is to be the sole official tour organiser. It has been given special permission to operate a tourdesk inside the terminal area, and staff it with professional managers.

The airport tax-waiver is an additional incentive offered by the Airports Authority of Thailand to passengers who have to wait for transit within 12 hours to take the tours.

Said Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Pradech Phayakvichien, “These tours will give transit passengers a chance to enjoy a brief tour of the country, and perhaps come back for a longer stay in the future.”

Initially, eight tour programmes are to be offered with a duration of about four to five hours each. These include:
1) City and Temples Tour, 2) Thonburi Khlong and Shopping Tour, 3) Grand Palace and Shopping Tour, 4) Thai Boxing and Shopping Tour, 5) Ayutthaya, Bang Pa In Summer Palace and Shopping Tour, 6) Bangsai Arts and Craft Village and Shopping Tour, 7) Thai Food, Night Market and Shopping Tour, and 8) Thailand Grand Sale Tour.

Tour costs will vary accordingly. The great shopping opportunities offered along with most tours are in line with the TAT’s effort to promote Thailand as a world-class shopping destination.

Information on the tour programmes will be provided to all transit passengers arriving at the airport through a number of inflight collaterals, especially on THAI Airways International aircraft, and in the Transit Halls.

Passengers keen to join the tours will need to follow these simple procedures:
Check whether their stopover time is enough to take any of the tours, and then select the appropriate one. Full tour programme details including travel times to and from the airport will be provided.

Contact either of the two tour counters that will be set up on both sides of the Transit Hall and fill in the application form requesting the exemption of airport tax.


Tour counter officials will assist the passengers with all immigration formalities and take them to join the selected tours. After the tour, guides will take the passengers back to the airport for their departure flight and help them with immigration formalities.