Tourists feed elephants in a festival in Pattaya, Thailand. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand plans to offer more visa waivers for European tourists and hold cultural festivities to draw international visitors and increase theirspending.
Speaking at a recent interview, PromminLertsuridej, a top aide to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, said that the ThaiGovernment is discussing a plan to let tourists of some European nationalitiesstay as long as 90 days.
There will also be about 3,000 events likemusic concerts, marathons and other cultural festivities organised through nextyear to draw tourists, he said.
Since Srettha took office in August, he hasidentified tourism as a “quick win” to accelerate Thailand’s economic growth.His administration has temporarily waived visa requirements for travellers fromRussia, China, Kazakhstan, India and Taiwan, and ordered airlines to add moreroutes while streamlining airport operations to cut waiting time for visitors.
Thailand also plans to allow nightlifeentertainment venues in some areas of Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Chonburito operate until 4 am from next month.
According to the Thai tourism authority,although the country has rolled back most pandemic-era curbs on visitors, averagespending per traveller has lagged pre-COVID levels and missed officialestimates.
In 2019, the country saw nearly 40 millionforeign arrivals – a record number of visitors who generated 1.91 trillionbaht (about 53.7 billion USD) in revenue. In 2019, each tourist spent anaverage of 47,895 baht per trip which lasted nine days on average.
However, from the beginning of this year toNovember 12, Thailand welcomed 23.2 million foreign tourists and got a revenueof 981.7 billion baht, meaning that average spending pertrip now is about 12% below that of 2019.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has set agoal to raise foreign tourism revenue back to pre-COVID levels, targeting atleast 2 trillion baht (57 billion USD) in 2024./.
