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21 More Countries in Thailand’s Free Visa Program

21 More Countries in Thailand’s Free Visa Program
Phuket, Thailand © The Telegraph

The good news for many travellers heading to Thailand is that it has extended its free visa programme to August for people from 21 countries. This will benefit those who are attracted to the country because of the beautiful beaches in resorts like Phuket and Krabi, as well as the vibrant nightlife in Bangkok.

Andorra, Bulgaria, Bhutan, China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan are the countries who will benefit from the scheme.

Thailand has extended its free visa programme to travellers from 21 countries. Image: Paul Sarawak
Thailand has extended its free visa programme to travellers from 21 countries. Image: Paul Sarawak

 

The Thai cabinet has waived visa fees at its consulates and embassies for a further six months until August and the visa-on-arrival fee has been halved to 1000 baht. The original decision was to implement the measures for three months from early December to 28 February, which was found to raise the number of tourist arrivals by 12.4%.

The extension is an attempt to offset the effect of the reduced number of Chinese tourists following the Thai government cracking down on low-budget tours from the world’s most-populous country in late September last year. It wants to focus on smaller groups of higher-spending visitors to bolster the tourism industry longer term.

Thailand has extended its free visa programme to travellers from 21 countries. Image: Jirawas Teekayu
Thailand has extended its free visa programme to travellers from 21 countries. Image: Jirawas Teekayu

 

This latest move comes months after Thailand’s decision to approve long-stay visas of ten years for senior tourists to promote medical and wellness tourism.


Source : Lonely Planet

Indah Gilang Pusparani

Indah is a researcher at Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Daerah Kota Cirebon (Regional Development Planning and Research Agency of Cirebon Municipality). She covers More international relations, tourism, and startups in Southeast Asia region and beyond. Indah graduated from MSc Development Administration and Planning from University College London, United Kingdom in 2015. She finished bachelor degree from International Relations from University of Indonesia in 2014, with two exchange programs in Political Science at National University of Singapore and New Media in Journalism at Ball State University, USA. She was awarded Diplomacy Award at Harvard World Model United Nations and named as Indonesian Gifted Researcher by Australian National University. She is Researcher at Regional Planning Board in Cirebon, West Java. She previously worked as Editor in Bening Communication, the Commonwealth Parliament Association UK, and diplomacy consulting firm Best Delegate LLC in USA. Less
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