FOREIGNER=ATM

Re: The great tourist rip-off, (PostBag, Jan19).

The debate has been unfolding in this country for a very long time and Jack Gilead is right that it is blatant theft but the dual-pricing strategy practised by the Neon Market food vendor is nothing more than the extension of the government practice of overcharging non-Thais at all national parks, monuments, famed temples and museums.

Other tourist attractions have just followed suit and that is why many taxis, restaurants and hotels will maintain separate price details, one for locals and another for non-locals.

Dual pricing relies on information asymmetry, that is the intended target shall preferably not be aware that it exists; some restaurants often have a menu in English with inflated prices and a menu in Thai for the locals with much lower prices.

Information asymmetry stops working when everybody knows what is happening as with the case Mr Gilead has highlighted. Social networks are a great tool to combat such crass policies, but for the time being we can only vote with our feet and stop visiting these establishments.

With the development of the internet, dedicated sites are widely publicising this Thai practice — just search for “dual pricing Thailand”.

One of these sites takes pains explaining in detail how the trick is performed by advertising the entrance fees in Thai numerals for the local prices and with Arabic numerals for non-locals, thinking (wrongly) that such shameful dishonesty will not be discovered.

As another website concludes: “Charging a higher price to your guests is just greedy and creates ill-will.” Although duplicitous, this practice is seemingly not illegal (it is in other countries), therefore do not get your hopes too high expecting a transparent pricing system any time soon. This unethical behaviour of perceiving non-locals as walking ATMs will continue as long as some will silently pay the inflated prices without complaining. Just walk away and talk about it!

Michel Barre