China, Thailand to introduce visa-free regime for tourism industry development
Thailand and China have agreed on the introduction of a visa-free regime on March 1st to ensure development of the tourism industry between the two countries, TASS reports
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said that tourists from both countries will no longer have to apply for a visa in advance to visit another country.
In February, Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara will pay an official visit to China to sign a bilateral agreement on visa-free travel.
In 2023, more than 27m foreign tourists visited Thailand, and the largest number of guests came from neighbouring Malaysia: 4.1m. China was in second place (3.4m), followed by South Korea (1.6m), India (1.57m), and Russia (1.5m). The total volume of tourist flows last year decreased significantly compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, when a record number of foreign tourists (40m) arrived in the country and the tourism industry accounted for 12 percent of GDP. At that time, about 11m Chinese visited Thailand.
The decrease in the number of tourists is largely due to a significant decline in tourist flows from China. The introduction of a visa-free regime between Thailand and China should help increase these figures.
