Thailand began this Monday to apply visa exemptions to travelers from China, a measure in force at least until February 29, to reactivate tourism, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin welcomed the first group of visa-exempt Chinese tourists at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
Chinese travelers accounted for nearly a third of the nearly 40 million foreign tourists Thailand welcomed in 2019, but numbers declined due to the pandemic and did not recover as expected after travel restrictions were lifted.
Thailand, highly dependent on tourism, saw the number of foreign travelers fall to 428,000 in 2021, although it recovered to 11.2 million last year, according to official data from the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
However, as China continues to impose a quarantine period of up to three weeks in designated facilities on those arriving in the country, only 273,567 Chinese tourists arrived in Thailand in 2022, compared to 11.1 million in 2019.
The temporary visa exemption for the Chinese is part of the plan of the new Thai Government, formed on September 5, to recover the country’s economy, in recession between 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic.
Thailand’s economy began to recover in 2022, although at a slower pace than authorities anticipated.
The strong return of tourism and the recovery of consumption, investments and exports are some of the priorities set by the new Executive, which took power after almost four months of political impasse in parliament for the election of the prime minister.
In early February, Beijing reopened group tourism to about 20 countries, including destinations such as Thailand and Indonesia.
Portugal was included in the second round, approved the following month, as were Brazil, France and Spain, while in August it was the turn of Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe.
China was the largest source of tourists in the world until the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: TSF
