Bid to extend tourism insurance
April 26, 2012 by Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
Filed under News, Thailand
BANGKOK, 26 April 2012: An insurance scheme that offers security incident related cover for tourists visiting the country could be extended beyond the expiry date of 30 June.
Introduced 1 March to offer tourists insurance cover in the case of injury or death linked to a security incident, the Thai Cabinet is expected to extend the period beyond June.
Ministry of Tourism and Sports permanent secretary, Suwat Sidthilaw, said the extension aims to build confidence at a time when there are regional terrorist threats and concern that Thailand could be a target.
“The scheme was supposed to expire at the end of June, but the ministry is asking the Cabinet to extend this advantage to September as it is a plus point that builds confidence.”
Suwat Sidthilaw
Mr Suwat noted that the car bomb in Hat Yai’s Lee Garden Hotel killed three foreigners and in Yala it caused over 400 injuries late last month.
“There are good reasons to keep the insurance scheme alive,” he said.
The scheme only covers foreign tourists. Domestic tourists injured in security incidents such as the one at Hat Yai would gain treatment under a national insurance scheme.
Insurance covers up to US$10,000 per person in the case of death, while it covers the actual costs of hospital treatment in the case of injury. It also compensates financially those who lose limbs or suffer impairment due to a bomb or other kind of security-related incident.
Extending the insurance will cost the ministry Bt100 million in additional budgets.
This is idiotic. $10,000 in case somebody is injured or killed by terrorists? This piece of nonsense tells the traveling public “It’s dangerous here, but come anyway and we will pay you if you get hurt, or make your family a dazzling $10,000 richer if you go home in a box.”
If a wealthy/influential Thai person kills someone more expendable while driving recklessly here, $10,000 might be adequate compensation to the family. To the rest of the world, where people value lives in thought of in the millions of dollars, this is a joke and only shows visitors how little Thailand values the lives of visitors. I would be horrified to see TAT actually promote this program in North America and Europe. (We know that would not happen because they would have to spend another 100 million on foreign marketing consultants first.)
Why would any tourist in his or her right mind go to Hat Yai in the first place? “Foreigners” can also include extremists who visit The Kingdom for reasons other than tourism. Was the Iranian who blew his own legs off in Bangkok recently compensated under this program? Did taxpayers and the tourism industry pay for his hospitalization and rehabilitation?
Is the 100 million baht addition to the budget a fund or is it a premium to an underwriter? If it goes into a fund, what happens to the money if there are no claims? How much of what was originally budgeted actually spent on claims?
One has to wonder if 100 million spent on strengthened immigration and customs might be effective to keep the bad guys out in the first place.
Is it better to keep all the budget allocated to MTS with the Budget Bureau and Ministry of Finance and when someone dies or gets injured, MTS will draw the money from this budget and pay to the victims. As far as we have seen, not many people died or were injured. It would be better to save the budget rather than pay an insurance fee to the insurance company, wouldn’t it ?