Thai Prime Minister goes to airport to welcome Chinese visitors under visa exemption

According to the Bangkok Post , dancers in traditional costumes and puppeteers also performed to the excitement of the first tourists to Thailand under a program to attract international visitors that was quickly implemented soon after Prime Minister Srettha took office.

At the country's largest airport, in Samut Prakan province just outside Bangkok, the prime minister said the visa-free program had increased tour bookings tenfold and could increase further.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin arrives at the airport to welcome Chinese tourists today

Mr. Srettha walks with passengers on Thai Air Asia X flight XJ761 from Shanghai. The flight brought 341 tourists from China, the first group of tourists under the visa waiver program.

The visa-free tourism stimulus will continue for five months, until February 29. "The number of tour bookings has increased many times... We must encourage Chinese tourists to come to Thailand and visit not only major cities such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket but also secondary cities, so that they stay longer in Thailand and spend more," the prime minister said.

At Suvarnabhumi Airport, Mr. Srettha said he witnessed a quick immigration and baggage claim process, which was a good sign for stimulating tourism, a sector the government hopes will become an important driver of the national economy .

The government also held events on Monday to welcome visitors from China and Kazakhstan at Don Mueang, Chiang Mai and Phuket airports.

Between January 1 and September 17, Thailand welcomed about 19 million tourists, 2.34 million of whom were from China, Thailand’s second-largest tourism market after Malaysia. That’s about 37% of the number of visitors in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, officials said.

Also during this period, there were 109,865 visitors from Kazakhstan, compared to 56,529 in 2019.

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool said the country expects to welcome 2.88 million tourists from China under the five-month visa waiver program, which will generate tourism-related revenue of 140.31 billion baht, or 62% of pre-Covid-19 tourism revenue in the same period in 2019.

TAT expects about 150,000 visitors from Kazakhstan this year and 129,485 visitors during the five-month visa waiver program, up about 50 percent from the number of visitors from Kazakhstan during the same period last year. This is expected to generate 7.93 billion baht in tourism-related national revenue, Ms. Thapanee said.

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