Bangkok, Thailand
Thailand’s Finance Ministry is considering a new departure tax that would initially charge 1,000 baht each time a traveller leaves the country by air, regardless of nationality, under draft legislation now open for public consultation.
The Revenue Department has published the principles of the proposed Departure Tax Act, which would replace the approach under Thailand’s existing 1983 legislation. Public consultation runs from the 30th of September to the 29th of October 2026. Under the proposal, the tax would apply to people of all nationalities departing Thailand, with a statutory ceiling of 5,000 baht per departure. The initial rate would be set at 1,000 baht for air travel, while departures by land and sea would initially be exempt.
The draft is meant to update collection for current economic conditions, stay inside the fiscal-discipline framework, and give the state more flexibility if an emergency arises. That is a shift from the 1983 emergency decree, which applied only to Thai nationals and foreigners with permanent residence in Thailand. Its stated goal at the time was to limit excessive capital outflows and protect the balance of payments.
The old rates were 1,000 baht by air and 500 baht by land or sea. Land and sea travel was exempted from 1 May 1986, and air travel from 1 July 1991. The Revenue Department says the existing regime is currently exempt in all cases.
In the first phase, anyone leaving by air would generally pay 1,000 baht on each departure unless exempt. The rate could later be set by ministerial regulation, but not above 5,000 baht. Airlines or ticket agents would collect the tax with the fare. If no ticket is issued, payment would follow procedures set by the director-general of the Revenue Department. Proposed exemptions broadly follow those for the airport Passenger Service Charge and include specified members of the royal family and their entourages, the Supreme Patriarch, foreign heads of state, official government guests, children aged two or under, certain transit passengers who stay in designated areas, and crew travelling on duty without paying a fare.
If enacted, the law would take effect 180 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. Travellers who bought tickets before that date would not be liable, even if they depart afterwards. Unpaid tax could draw a penalty of up to twice the amount due and a surcharge of 1.5 percent a month.
The proposal sits beside a separate arrival charge that tourism officials are advancing for foreign visitors. On the 6th of October, Tourism and Sports Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul chaired talks on a 450-baht fee for eligible foreign tourists. Air arrivals would pay first; land and sea collection would wait about a year. Officials are hoping for the first quarter of 2027, subject to the National Tourism Policy Committee and Cabinet. An online consultation from 24 August to 28 September drew 5,954 responses: 80.5 percent backed the draft announcement and 78.3 percent backed the 450-baht rate.
Surasak and ministry officials say the fee would fund visitor insurance covering death and medical costs, restore and develop attractions, and leave at least about 8 billion baht a year for the Tourism Promotion Fund after collection and insurance costs. They argue it would reduce reliance on the annual state budget and ease the burden of unrecovered medical bills involving foreign patients, a figure discussed in the meeting at around 7 billion baht a year, though the ministry is still checking the scope of that estimate with public-health agencies.
Earlier in 2026, the same minister had also discussed reviving the 1983 departure levy only for Thai travellers, estimating about 10 billion baht a year that could subsidise domestic trips under a “Thai travel Thai” scheme, without charging foreign tourists twice.
Critics, especially foreign visitors and businesses that depend on them, have treated the two ideas as stacked costs. International air tickets already include a Passenger Service Charge of about 700–730 baht for airport facilities, and travellers have long complained that a further exit tax plus an entry fee would amount to paying to arrive and to leave. Private-sector participants at the October 6th meeting said more than 80 percent of tourists from Europe and America already hold travel insurance, so the bundled cover can look redundant.
Hotel operators have warned that 450 baht matters more to backpackers than to high-spending visitors; Khao San Road occupancy has been falling from about 70 percent early in the year to about 50 percent, with owners arguing a new fee would add friction while arrivals remain soft. Former finance minister Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech told Thai media that average foreign spending is on the order of 47,000 baht a trip, so 450 baht is small in itself but the inconvenience could cut arrivals and cost more revenue than it raises. Travel agents earlier this year also opposed a 1,000-baht exit levy on Thais, saying it would hit families, students and short-haul trips and weaken two-way tourism.
Neither measure is in force and are only proposals and ideas at this time. The departure-tax draft remains in consultation until the 29th of October, and the tourist fee still needs Cabinet approval.