Parks dept launches E-Ticket to curb fee fraud October 15

Atthapol Charoenchansa, Director-General of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), clarified on Monday (April 28, 2025) regarding the management of national park revenue to enhance public understanding of the revenue collection and management system.

This follows the policy of Chalermchai Sri-on, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, who has instructed the agency to expedite the full implementation of the E-Ticket system in time for the upcoming tourist season, starting October 15, 2025, to improve transparency in revenue collection.

Atthapol stated that the DNP places great importance on transparent revenue collection and ensuring that the funds are utilised to maximise the conservation and development of national park areas. In particular, the department has recently designed and developed a digital revenue management system called "e-National Park" to upgrade the transparency and auditability of revenue collection while minimising direct cash handling by staff.

Although the DNP has already been using the E-Ticket system, there are still limitations, especially in covering all types of activities and areas. Therefore, the system is being further enhanced.

Currently, cooperation is being sought from tourism operators, particularly those in marine national parks, to use the E-Ticket system for ticket sales, thereby eliminating direct cash transactions with officials.

"However, risks remain in certain areas, such as inaccurate data entry, discrepancies between the reported and actual number of visitors, and errors in recording visitor nationalities. To address these issues, we have established a central inspection committee chaired by the Deputy Director-General in charge of national parks, with external experts invited to participate in the auditing process to ensure credibility at the local level. In addition, regional offices responsible for conservation areas have formed dedicated teams to conduct periodic field inspections. I have instructed them to increase the frequency and rigour of these inspections to prevent any revenue leakage," Atthapol emphasised.

e-National Park System

The e-National Park system comprises three key components:

e-Ticket

An electronic ticketing system for national park entry, featuring a real-time database for bookings and payments.

e-Payment System

All entrance fees are transferred directly to the provincial treasury within the same day, bypassing park officials entirely. An automatic notification system updates the Department of National Parks and the Protected Area Regional Offices, significantly reducing the risks associated with handling large amounts of cash on-site.

e-Permit System

A system for managing permissions related to park activities, such as booking accommodations, organising special events, filming, and operating businesses within park areas. All applications must be processed through the e-Permit system to ensure full transparency at every step.

Currently, all three systems are undergoing procurement processes. The e-Payment system is nearing completion, while the e-Permit system is in its final stages of development. Once fully operational, these systems will enhance the transparency of revenue management at the Department of National Parks, in line with government policies and public expectations.

"October 15 has been designated as the start of the marine tourism season, making it an ideal time to fully implement the e-Ticket system. We will initially launch it in marine national parks, as these areas generate the highest revenue and pose the greatest risk for revenue leakage."

However, nationwide implementation will not be achieved by that date, as installing the e-Ticket system requires substantial investment in both hardware and software, such as floating piers, mooring buoys, kiosks, CCTV cameras, face detection systems, and other infrastructure. These require time for procurement and installation.

Implementation Approach

The rollout will begin with marine national parks and large parks such as Khao Yai, Doi Inthanon, and Erawan.

In parks where the system has been fully installed, e-Ticketing will be used exclusively—there will be no more paper tickets or cash payments. Visitors must purchase tickets online or through kiosks at the park entrance.

For terrestrial national parks that already have designated ticket checkpoints, surveillance cameras, and entry gates in place, where the risk of revenue leakage is lower, the existing systems can continue to be used during the initial phase.

Budget Trends and Support

Atthapol stated that he believes once the system is implemented in key areas, the increased and fully accounted-for revenue will help generate a self-sustaining budget, which can then be used to expand the system to other parks. In the near future, it is expected that the system will cover the entire country. The department is currently coordinating with other agencies, such as the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), to request additional integrated funding support in order to accelerate the successful completion of this project.