Thailand studies a three-tier tourist insurance plan that would cover rented vehicles
As a proposed 450-baht entry fee goes to public consultation, officials are floating basic medical cover for every arrival, extra insurance for high-risk activities, and third-party liability cover for visitors who rent a car, motorbike or jet ski.
Thailand is consulting on a plan that would pair a proposed 450-baht fee for foreign tourists with a layered insurance system. Under the idea, every foreign arrival would receive basic accident and medical cover, while travellers who take part in high-risk activities or rent their own vehicles would buy additional protection on top.
The fee, often called the tourist entry levy, is going through a public consultation of at least 30 days. Weerasak Kowsurat, a former tourism and sports minister who chairs the advisory team to Deputy Prime Minister Suphajee Suthumpun, said the ministry wants to hear directly from people who work in tourism, not only from online responses. Comments are open from 24 August to 28 September through the government law portal at law.go.th and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. He estimated the levy could raise close to 10 billion baht a year, forming what he called Thailand's first large-scale fund dedicated to tourism.
The first tier would apply to everyone. Part of the 450-baht fee would go toward accident and emergency medical insurance for each visitor, so that unpaid hospital bills for foreign patients do not fall on Thai taxpayers or state hospitals.
The second tier would ask travellers doing higher-risk activities, such as scuba diving, rock climbing or bungee jumping, to buy extra cover. Under the proposal they would purchase it at the activity site through a QR code run by the local operator, and the price would vary with the risk involved. Responsibility for holding the cover would sit with the individual traveller rather than the operator.
The third tier is the one most relevant to anyone who plans to get around on their own. It would introduce third-party liability insurance for tourists who rent and operate a vehicle themselves, including a car, a motorcycle or a jet ski, or who fly a drone. The cover would pay for a visitor's liability if they caused an accident, damaged property or injured another person. Weerasak said the same system could formalise jobs across the tourism supply chain, with staff registered as insurance agents earning commission and joining the tax system.
On collection, the draft keeps the mechanics light. A single payment would cover multiple entries within 30 days, air travel would come first with land and sea crossings following a year later, and groups such as work permit holders, diplomats, transit passengers and children under two would be exempt. Officials are studying several ways to pay, from adding the charge to an air ticket to using the online TM6 arrival form, with airport kiosks and QR points as backups. The draft is still under consultation and is not yet in force.
For visitors who rent transport, the shared thread across these tiers is clarity about cost and responsibility before anyone gets on the road. That is the same need a marketplace like Balm Rentals is built around. Balm shows the price, the deposit and the rental conditions in the traveller's own language before payment, and it lists legal, verified rental operators in one place through its iOS and Android apps. Seen that way, the platform sits alongside Thailand's local rental businesses and the wider effort to make travel safer and better documented, not in competition with them.
None of this is fixed yet, and the consultation may reshape the detail. Even so, the direction is clear enough to be useful today. A traveller who expects to drive in Thailand can already choose a rental that spells out its terms and paperwork up front, which is the habit a tiered insurance system would reward.
