Foreign tourists will now be able to extend their stays as COVID eases

As per the latest development, Thailand will now start permitting an extended length of stay for foreign tourists between October and March. This move comes in the wake of supporting its economic recovery as pressures from Covid-19 ease.

As per the latest news reports, foreigners from 18 territories visiting Thailand under the category of visa-on-arrival (VOA) will now be allowed to double their length of stay for up to 30 days. This was informed by Taweesilp Visanuyothin, a spokesman from Thailand’s main COVID task force. Also, those from 50 places that are allowed to stay currently for 30 days, will now be able to stay for up to 45 days.

Between January 1 and August 17, reports suggest that the nation earned 176.3 billion baht ($4.9 billion) in revenue from 3.78 million foreign arrivals, which jumped 3,214% from the same period last year.
Thailand is hopeful that a rise in tourist arrivals will further help boost its economic growth this year although the pace will likely be the lowest in the Southeast Asia region.

Referring to this, Taweesilp stated that they are looking for ways to boost tourist spending, and thereby revive the economy and help reduce the impact from pandemic. Earlier this month, a government spokesman elaborated that the nation expects to attract 10 million international tourists this year, as compared to the 6.1 million forecast in April. And if everything goes well, the number of visitors is expected to rise to 30 million people next year, which will still be slightly less than those who travelled to the country in the year before COVID spread.

Reports state that Thailand will further downgrade COVID-19 from a ‘dangerous’ communicable disease to one that ‘needs monitoring’ from September, which will be a month earlier than scheduled.