The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) will officially launch a fully implemented e-ticket system at six major marine national parks on Oct 15, coinciding with the start of the tourist season.

The initiative, a pilot project, is expected to increase park revenue by 10% and enhance transparency in entrance fee collection.

At Monday's press conference, DNP Director-General Attapol Charoenchansa emphasised the department's commitment to addressing long-standing public concerns over corruption in ticket sales.

He said an earlier version of the e-ticket system has been used at selected parks since 2023. However, issues such as not being user-friendly and limited functionality in remote areas highlighted the need for improvements. The upgraded e-ticket system, to be rolled out in October, will initially cover six marine parks and later be expanded to the top ten national parks with the highest visitor revenues.

Mr Attapol said that entrance fees are a critical source of funding for the department, supporting forest protection, conservation, and the promotion of sustainable nature tourism. Under the current revenue allocation model, 5% of entrance fee income is distributed to local administrative organisations (a total of 102.23 million baht this fiscal year), 20% is given to individual park management teams (316.59 million baht), 60% is allocated for park conservation activities (1.22 billion baht), and 15% is reserved for emergencies (540.55 million baht).

From Oct 1 last year to April 20 this year, Thailand's national parks welcomed 11.74 million visitors, marking a 2.36% increase over the same period the previous year. Revenue during this time reached 1.55 billion baht, up 2.6%. Marine parks accounted for 65.8% of total entrance fees, with Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park in Krabi generating the highest revenue at 450 million baht.

"Our hope is that the e-ticket system will prevent any loss of revenue and eliminate opportunities for corruption," said Mr Attapol.

"The income is crucial to our mission of conserving natural resources and promoting sustainable tourism. We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting nature despite any controversies that may arise."

Looking ahead, the DNP chief noted that additional revenue from the e-ticket system will help fund a new initiative to support communities living within forest zones.

The six marine national parks where the e-ticket system will be fully implemented are Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi (Krabi), Ao Phang Nga (Phangnga), Than Bok Khorani (Krabi), Mu Ko Similan (Phangnga), Mu Ko Surin (Phangnga) and Mu Ko Lanta (Krabi).

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