▲Click above to subscribe 点击上方蓝字关注我们
Tourism accounting for about 12% of GDP and nearly a fifth of jobs in the country, Thailand plans to relax its visa requirements for Chinese and Indian tourists.According to reports, Thailand would relax its visa requirements for Chinese and Indian tourists.In an effort to increase tourism earnings to close to $100 billion the next year, the Southeast Asian nation may also permit visitors from all countries to stay for longer periods of time.According to Bloomberg, Srettha Thavisin, the nation's prime minister, spoke with officials from Thailand Pcl and a number of other airlines about possible solutions.PM Srettha stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that "the airport operator agreed to reduce bottlenecks to augment flight capacity by 20% and find ways to speed up immigration clearances."The travel sector is believed to provide "the best short-term economic stimulus," according to the paper, which cited Srettha. The new government wants to increase foreign visitor revenue to 3.3 trillion baht next year.Data from the Bank of Thailand show that the tourist industry contributes almost 12% of Thailand's GDP and almost 5% of all jobs.According to the Thai premier, China, which had the highest number of visitors before the Covid-19 outbreak, has a difficult time obtaining visas because the process is expensive and time-consuming.In the meanwhile, visitors from India must pay 2,000 baht ($57) upon arrival for a 15-day visa.According to the Bloomberg story, Srettha wants the number of nations that do not require visas to be extended. He also wants the duration of stays for the majority of international travellers to be increased, with many nationalities having a cap of 15 or 30 days.The elimination of the application price, according to Thaneth Tantipiriyakij, president of the Phuket Tourism Association, would be preferable to granting visa exemptions to travelers from China and India."Visa fee waivers help the tourism industry right away. The percentage of foreign tourists to Phuket through July was almost 70% of pre-pandemic levels, but the recovery rate for Chinese arrivals is only 30%, according to Thaneth.In 2023, there will be roughly 30 million foreign tourists arriving, about quadruple the 11.2 million that came in the previous year, according to data from Nomura Holdings Inc.Despite being the country with the most travelers last month (420,000), the return of Chinese has been slower than anticipated.Before the pandemic, in 2019, around 28% of Thailand's record 40 million foreign visitors came from China, bringing in an estimated 1.9 trillion baht in income.
*The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author.* Follow Us
GBA Expats: Free services offered by BAFLA and Bay Area International Exchange Service Center
外语圈: BAFLA's Chinese channel 中文频道
Contributions will be appreciated！
欢迎投稿！
add to communicate or join groups