Indians and Taiwanese will be able to visit Thailand without a visa from November 10

Thailand will allow people from India and Taiwan to visit the country visa-free from next month until May 2024. They are doing this to attract more tourists during the peak season. Before this, they did the same with tourists from China, which they used to visit long before the pandemic.

According to official data, Thailand received around 22 million visitors in the first ten months of this year, and they earned around 25.67 billion dollars from these visitors.

The Thai government relies on foreign tourists to boost its economy. For Chinese tourists, the Thai government allowed visa-free entry from the end of September to the end of February 2024. Before this, Chinese visitors could obtain a visa on arrival, but had to present travel insurance, reservations hotel, and proof of enough money for a stay of up to 15 days.

Thailand relies heavily on its tourism sector, which accounts for almost 20% of the country’s GDP. However, the COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges. Chinese tourist arrivals decreased significantly last year, with around 11 million Chinese tourists in 2019 before the pandemic.

The government expected to receive 5 million Chinese tourists this year, but the actual figure was much lower: only about 1.4 million Chinese tourists visited the country in the first half of the year. Overall, foreign tourist arrivals to Thailand have also decreased, with 9.47 million visitors from January to mid-May, down from 11.15 million for the full year 2022.