Soon you’ll have to buy National Park tickets at 7-Eleven

Thinking of visiting a national park sometime soon? Better plan in advance and buy your tickets at 7-Eleven because, according to a new plan, park authorities want to control the number of people visiting the parks by making sure that they purchase tickets in advance.

Officials hope that this will help them to better control the overcrowding that happens in the parks when people buy tickets at the gate.

This will help because, only a certain number of tickets will be sold for any given day. Once those tickets are sold, the park is at capacity and no more tickets are available, so would-be visitors can save the drive to the park knowing that they can’t gain entry.

The director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Thanya Netithammakun, said Wednesday that the change was purely for conservation reasons.

The first parks to be affected by the change would be the popular national parks. He noted that these parks are usually far too crowded on holiday weekends.

The change to convenience store ticketing would mean that absolutely no tickets are for sale at the park’s gate.

Thanya said, “This way, we can control the number of visitors to individual parks. If the number of tourists reaches the set maximum, no more tickets will be issued until some visitors leave that place. The system is still being developed, but will be finished soon,” he told Bangkok Post.

The director-general was not concerned over lowered income for the parks. He said that admission money is not the main point of the parks. He said it was more important to conserve the parks than to promote tourism.

Other initiatives being taken to improve conditions at the parks are that rangers are being trained in first aid and that ambulances will always be at the country’s five most popular parks: Ao Phang Nga National Park in Phang Nga, Doi Inthanon National Park in Chiang Mai, Hat Noppharat Thara – Mu Koh Phi Phi National Park in Krabi, Khao Yai National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima, and Namtok Phlio National Park in Chanthaburi.