Dual pricing at Thai attractions

[Gérard]

Just watched a TV programme about Rwanda where they charge 30 euros to visit à National park with monkeys. If you want to see gorillas, it will be 550 for one hour...

I agree with Frank La Rue for this : "Having said as much I have met many decent Thais when it comes to money, not trying to exploit me at all. Rather than Thais versus non-Thais, is this about poor people versus not - poor people?

I think if you are really poor, where survival is the only issue, principles fall by the wayside, the deterioration of integrity could befall many of us, we have not been truly tested.

As for paying the "farang price", I do it only if I really want to see something that I judge good value for money and, all in all, I have lived here many years for 1/3 of the money I would have spent in France with much less pleasure.

[TingTongJohn]

Just watched a TV programme about Rwanda where they charge 30 euros to visit à National park with monkeys. If you want to see gorillas, it will be 550 for one hour...

I agree with Frank La Rue for this : "Having said as much I have met many decent Thais when it comes to money, not trying to exploit me at all. Rather than Thais versus non-Thais, is this about poor people versus not - poor people?

I think if you are really poor, where survival is the only issue, principles fall by the wayside, the deterioration of integrity could befall many of us, we have not been truly tested.

As for paying the "farang price", I do it only if I really want to see something that I judge good value for money and, all in all, I have lived here many years for 1/3 of the money I would have spent in France with much less pleasure.

All good points. And is it really that much skin off your nose to pay a higher price. I think ones feet speak volumes. You don`t like it and feel it is unfair/unfare give the event/area/park a pass and feel vindicated that you have stood the higher moral ground. Most grumble but still pay the tourist price.

[Gérard]

And we have another example in Europe too :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... cking.html

[Spitfire]

Dual pricing is complete BS. One of the reasons I like shopping for everything I can at malls/Tesco/Big C etc is that everyone pays the same for everything.

When it comes to attractions like palaces or a national park etc then I'll use the work permit to try and get in for normal price but won't ruin the day of who I'm with over a little extra if it doesn't. It's still a cheesy day-light robbery practice by sleazebags.

I can just imagine what would be said in the UK if they started an entrance policy to Buckingham Palace of English people for free and everyone else US $25......

[Big Boy]

Dual pricing is complete BS. One of the reasons I like shopping for everything I can at malls/Tesco/Big C etc is that everyone pays the same for everything.

That is exactly how I feel.

I can just imagine what would be said in the UK if they started an entrance policy to Buckingham Palace of English people for free and everyone else US $25......

Visitors to Bath experience exactly that in some of their parks. Bath residents get in for a fraction of the price.

IMHO dual pricing opens up a huge door for corruption. My experience that started this thread was at The Swiss Sheep Farm. As far as I know, admission prices (dual pricing or not) were not displayed (I did not go to the ticket office). My ticket was exactly the same as everybody else. At the end of the day, how does the boss know how many Farangs paid the surcharge?

Likewise, when we went to Sam Roi Yod. We had 2 Farang tickets, but the Thais were not issued with tickets - how does anybody know how much cash has to be handed over for Thai admissions?

[REEM]

The rich Thais may know how to keep downthrodden people down. For a start they speak thai.

I also speak and read Thai, and when I have been asked to pay a higher price than Thais I question the reasoning behind this, the responses I have received have varied from that inane grin one is given when you ask a Thai a difficult question to the standard "you are all rich and can afford to pay", when the mass of BMWs and Mercs parked in the car park is pointed out to them the shoulders are shrugged and a wall of silence is thrown up. I have never been given an answer that makes any sense.

On one occasion, at the palace on the hill near Phetchaburi, I engaged the chatty ticket seller in a long conversation about the rights and wrongs of this, and eventually asked her how she would feel if she visited the USA , wanted to enter a tourist attraction and saw a sign stating that the admission price was $5 for everybody except Thais, for whom the admission price was $15. Would she pay, and how would she feel. She thought about it for a while, apologised and gave me entrance at the Thai price, asking me not to tell anyone or she would get into trouble !!!

The most galling part of all is that in nearly all cases, the Thai price is displayed in Thai script, using Thai numerals, and the foreigner price is displayed in English, it is the sneakiness and hypocrisy of it all that angers. At least let them display their policies openly, so the consumer can choose, not hide it in such a way that one can only feel disappointment and feel cheated when one finds out.

It is not about the money, although B300 to enter a poorly maintained national park, with no English language information available is nothing but a rip off. If they want to charge foreigners 10 times the Thai price then they should at least provide some service for that extra fee.

If I cant talk my way in at the local price, then I turn my car round and leave, but not before my Thai wife and myself have made our feelings clear, given the ticket booth attendant an earful and asked them to pass it on to their superior.

It wont make an iota of difference of course, but at least I stood my ground and refused to be taken advantage of, which is exactly what it is, so long as foreigners meekly pay up, or stand aside whilst their Thai wives pay up. Why not make a stand against this abhorrent discriminatory practice based on greed, deception and nastiness. You would back in your home countries.

Asians in general and Thais in particular have little or no respect for those that are not clever with their money, seeing it as a weakness to be taken advantage of, and with little or nothing in the way of laws or government control to oversee businesses, or to protect consumers from price fixing cartels and scamming it is open season here for the unscrupulous to run amok. Double pricing is just another of these practices, and one that some foreigners seem to think is quite OK. Government run parks may have some dubious justification in that Thais pay taxes which contribute to National parks, museums and important temples.
Privately run attractions have absolutely no justification though. It is purely naked avaricious greed, with no shortage of bemused, weak and willing victims to prey on.

And of course, there are always those who repeatedly trot out that old chestnut, that whiny and pathetic refrain one hears from the sucker who cant be bothered, or lacks the reasoning power to argue his case "well if you dont like it why dont you go back to where you came from" or "everything is so cheap here, whats another B30"

BOYCOTT DUAL PRICING BUSINESSES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nereus]

^ ^ ^ ^
Post of the year, Reem. Absolutely spot on in fact and reasoning!

[buksida]

agree 100% Reem, but when you have two kids it is not always easy to just walk away with your western pride in tact.

On the up side at least three of us can get in for the local rate in Thailand, in Malaysia we're all charged double as foreigners!

[REEM]

but when you have two kids it is not always easy to just walk away with your western pride in tact.

I fully sympathise with those who turn up with children at these places and are "forced" into complying.
I would also pay up.

It is a dilemma for which I have no answer, especially if the kids are too young to understand or appreciate the principle involved.

[Pleng]

If I cant talk my way in at the local price, then I turn my car round and leave....

BOYCOTT DUAL PRICING BUSINESSES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like a very firmly grounded boycott then...

[caller]

Visitors to Bath experience exactly that in some of their parks. Bath residents get in for a fraction of the price.

Likewise, many towns in the UK offer discount schemes to their residents on a variety of services, usually including leisure centre and swimming pool membership. Some extend that to cheaper parking in local town centre car parks used for shopping. That will add up to quite a saving in the course of a year compared to a mere visitor!

No-one seems to complain.

[REEM]

Likewise, many towns in the UK offer discount schemes to their residents on a variety of services, usually including leisure centre and swimming pool membership. Some extend that to cheaper parking in local town centre car parks used for shopping. That will add up to quite a saving in the course of a year compared to a mere visitor!

No-one seems to complain.

Because it is not based on race or nationality.

[Pleng]

So it only becomes an issue when it's discrimination is based on nationality[when you can't talk your way out of it]? Discrimination based on locality doesn't count?

And what about reduced/free bus fares and heating allowances for pensioners (many of who also have Mercedes) based purely on age? This discrimination is fine, so long as it's not based on nationality?

Some students also can afford Mercedes cars, only a very few (but I imagine it's a similar percentage to the amount of Thais that can actually afford them) so shall we do away with student discounts? Oh no... this discrimination is not based on nationality, so it's fine?

[dtaai-maai]

I understand exactly where REEM is coming from, and I have to say that I agree there is no real comparison with the marginal benefits residents of some areas of the UK receive on the basis that they pay local taxes for the privilege.

HOWEVER... at the risk of being a whiny and pathetic sucker who lacks reasoning power, I believe that life is far too short to spend it fuming over such trivial issues. The dual-pricing system may be wrong, but it's there, and it isn't going anywhere.

Choices?

1. Accept it with a wry smile and pay up.

2. Marry a Thai... Have a work permit and a driving licence. That cuts it down substantially. As does smiling rather than making a twat of yourself by getting your knickers in a twist.

3. Turn into the stereotype red-faced farang, spluttering in outrage at every perceived indignity encountered, spend your life in Thailand turning into Mr Angry, boycotting every public facility, tourist attraction or market stall that wants to charge you more than the locals, and presumably, if you're really sticking with your principle, refusing point blank to pay any on-the-spot fine you deem to be unfair.



(EDIT: I forgot 4. - which is, of course, try to find true paradise elsewhere... )

[buksida]

2. Marry a Thai... Have a work permit and a driving licence. That cuts it down substantially.

Not anymore, despite having all of these I've had to pay the farang rate in the last 4-5 places we've been to in Had Yai, Krabi, Phuket and Surat provinces - all have asked for a Thai ID card which is impossible for a farang to obtain. Things maybe a little more relaxed up north though.