“We are looking to extend their stay. This will help boost tourist spending, revive the economy and reduce the impact from the pandemic (sic),” Taweesilp was quoted as saying.
According to sources, foreign tourists from 18 territories (including countries like India, China and Saudi Arabia ) coming to the country will be allowed a stay of up to 30 days from their current allowed stay of 15 days. Tourists from more than 50 regions who are currently allowed a 30-day stay in the country can now visit Thailand for 45 days.
Reports state that starting from September this year, Thailand will downgrade Covid-19 from a ‘dangerous’ communicable disease to one that ‘needs monitoring’, a month earlier than initially planned.
Media sources added that Thailand is looking to revive its economy with increased tourist arrivals. After the peak periods of the pandemic, the country had a low economic recovery rate, the lowest in all of the Southeast Asia region. Sources said that the country earned nearly 176.3 billion bhat ( $4.9 billion) from tourist arrival this year (3.78 million tourist arrivals), from January 1 to August 17. The amount is nearly 3214 percent more than the revenue generated from tourism during the same period in 2021, according to reports.
In 2021, the tourist arrival in the country went down to 4, 28,000 from the 40 million tourist arrivals in 2019. Sources added that Thailand which is Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy plans on receiving 8 to 10 million tourists this year, up from the 7 million according to a forecast done earlier.