Thailand is leading the initiative for a joint visa program between six Southeast Asian countries. Prime Minister Sretta Taweesin is discussing with her colleagues the creation of a local equivalent of Schengen.
Join
According to Bloomberg, Thailand’s partners could include Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. Six countries received around 70 million tourists last year alone.
More than half of this figure came from Thailand and Malaysia: in 2023, both countries’ tourism revenues amounted to about $48 billion. Sretta’s government has set a goal of attracting 80 million tourists by 2027.
Although the “South Asia Schengen” initiative, Bloomberg highlights, has been discussed since the early 2000s, now the countries are really close to reaching an agreement. The States thus intend to protect their economies from “slow exports and weak global demand.”
In conversation with the agency, a representative of the consulting firm C9 Hotelworks noted that “if everything is done correctly,” a visa-free regime between countries will affect the development not only of tourism, but also of business and commercial travel.
Former president of the Thai Hotel Association, Marisa Sukosol, added that such a visa could motivate tourists who are hesitant to travel long distances. For this, the visa period must be extended to 90 days from the normal period of 30 days.
Citizens of the Russian Federation can stay in Thailand without a visa for 90 days. On November 1, 2023, the decree that extends the visa-free regime for Russians from 30 days came into force.
Author:
Akhmed Sadulayev
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
