Thailand Tourism needs longer visas and more flights

To facilitate increased tourism, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has set a few goals. They aim to help add flights into Thailand during the High Season and petition to continue longer visa-on-arrival periods to enable tourists to stay in the kingdom longer.

As international tourism to Thailand increases steadily, semantics has stymied faster growth. In China, for example, tour operators and travel companies haven’t been able to work out the logistics of bringing big groups after the sudden reopening of borders for outbound Chinese tourists.

But even more difficult is adding flights to routes and schedules to facilitate the desire of people to fly into Thailand. Take-off and landing time slots must be requested with and approved by aviation authorities. Chinese airlines have reached out to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand to boost the number of flights to pre-pandemic tourism levels.

Along with increasing flights, airlines must fill the seats of those aircraft. According to TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn, the flight load capacity must reach 90 % during the high season, which runs from November to March.

In addition to increasing the number of flights, the TAT also is steadfast in its attempts to attract high-spending tourists to Thailand. The target is to generate 2.38 trillion baht in tourism revenue from 25 million foreign travellers to Thailand.

One strategy for achieving this goal of increased spending per traveller is to let them stay longer. Yuthasak vowed to rally the government to continue an increase from 30 days to 45 days for visitors coming to Thailand on a visa on arrival or visa exemption.

“TAT will propose [an] extension of visa on arrival from the current 30 days to enable tourists to stay in Thailand until the end of this year.”

Furthermore, the TAT will continue the fifth phase of the “Rao Tiew Duay Kan” (We Travel Together) scheme, which is designed to stimulate domestic tourism within Thailand. They hope to boost domestic tourism revenue to 1 trillion baht once the Cabinet approves the scheme.

The TAT will also promote Thailand’s tourism under the policy “Visit Thailand Year 2023: Amazing New Chapters” which will use the country’s soft power to attract foreign tourists. The goal is to create a positive image of Thailand and highlight the unique experiences and culture that the country has to offer.