Categories: Travel

Thailand plans to waive visa-free travel for more countries, ET TravelWorld

FILE – Chinese tourists takes selfies with Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, right, on their arrivals at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Samut Prakarn province, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023.

Thailand‘s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Friday the government plans to offer visa-free travel to citizens of several more countries.

Thailand has recently waived visas for citizens of China and India to boost tourism, a key driver of Southeast Asia‘s second-biggest economy.

The visa-free programme for China has helped stimulate the economy “quite a lot”, he said.

“Not just for China, we’ll continue to do this with several more countries,” he said without elaborating.

From Jan. 1 to Feb. 11, Thailand received 4.39 million foreign tourist arrivals, up 48 per cent from a year earlier, with China the top source market.

The government expects about 34-35 million foreign visitors this year, up from about 28 million last year. There were a record of nearly 40 million foreign visitors in pre-pandemic 2019.

Even though fewer Chinese are travelling than before the pandemic, Chinese account for the bulk of visitors to Thailand, which launched its visa waiver in September, and tourism authorities there say they expect 177,000 Chinese tourists for the Lunar New Year holiday, more than three-times 2023 levels. While waiving visas can make a destination more attractive, China’s slowing economic growth, job uncertainties and decline in income this year are likely to temper any outbound travel, analysts say.