BANGKOK — Thailand will temporarily waive tourist visa requirements for visitors from China and Kazakhstan as it tries to attract more visitors and boost spending during the year-end peak season to stimulate an economy slowing due to weak exports.
At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s new government approved the visa-free policy, which will allow Chinese and Kazakh tourists to enter Thailand freely from 25 September until the end of February 2024.
“We [will] implement the policy temporarily to see the impact,” Srettha told reporters after the meeting.
Currently, Thailand exempts tourists from more than 50 countries and territories, including Singapore and Indonesia, from visa requirements and allows them to stay for up to 30 days. China is not among them. Chinese tourists must apply and pay for visas to enter the country.
Boosting tourism is one of Srettha’s immediate goals as he seeks to stimulate private spending and boost the Thai economy, which grew at a slower 1.8% year-on-year pace in the second quarter. The slowdown was largely due to falling exports, which account for more than 60% of the country’s gross domestic product.
The National Economic and Social Development Council now forecasts that Thailand’s economy will grow by 2.5% to 3.0% this year, down from a previous range of 2.7% to 3.7%.
Thailand’s tourism industry, which accounts for around 18% of GDP, began to recover in the second half of 2012 when Bangkok lifted all entry restrictions. The recovery accelerated strongly in the last quarter.
In the first eight months of this year, Thailand welcomed 17.9 million foreign tourists, up from 3.2 million in the same period last year. China accounted for a large share of the total, with 2.2 million. But this was less than half of the target of 5 million for the whole of 2023.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand forecasts that the country will receive 29 million foreign tourists this year, up from 11.5 million in 2022. This is still well below the 39 million people who travelled to the country in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The business community welcomed the government’s new policy ahead of Wednesday’s official announcement, believing it will attract more Chinese tourists and bring more money into the Thai economy in the last quarter of the year, which is the high season.
Thai Airways International chief executive Chai Eamsiri said the national carrier was prepared to increase flights and use more wide-body aircraft to accommodate more passengers from China and India.
“The company also expects travel to increase sharply in the upcoming high season due to the visa-free policy,” Chai said in a statement on Monday.
Kriangkrai Tiennukul, president of the Federation of Thai Industries, said on the same day that it was the right time for the government to adopt the visa-free policy as it would help boost tourism spending, a key driver of the Thai economy at a time when exports are falling. “Increased spending from the tourism industry will eventually support Thailand’s GDP,” he said.
