Thailand Visa Cut Sparks Tourism Debate

15 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

The real issue is the long term visas that are destroying the country.

This is a really stupid comment from someone who clearly isn't living in Thailand on a long-term visa. Long-term visa people, if you qualify, are an asset to Thailand as they bring in funds, tax, not being a Richard mostly, and general spending... which is what Thailand needs. A very tone-deaf comment from a poster that has enough posts to know better.

Wow. This was fast. The ink is barely dry on the change back to 30 days and already the groundwork is being laid for a flip flop back to 60 days.

14 hours ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

"The Indians are going to Vietnam in droves"

So this is good news.....??

Very bad news. I wanted to visit Dalat next year in March when the smoke comes.

17 hours ago, redwood1 said:

Thailand needs all the tourists they can get, the 60 days was helpful....It looks like Vietnam is becoming the new Thailand..The Indians are going to Vietnam in droves....

Indians need a visa for Vietnam though.

And there is massive indian fatigue amongst Vietnamese people that they are looking to make those entry requirements even tougher.

7 hours ago, baansgr said:

Who wants to walk around a town that stinks of weed with ganga cadets causing mayhem. Who wants to take the risk of some pothead on his 350cc space scooter crashing into them. Families have more or less stopped visiting Thailand for this one reason. It's really too late for Thailand unless they drop this lunacy of weed being decriminalized. Already 9 million tourists less than what it was before. It's staring them in the face what they need to do

It hasn't hurt Canadian tourism, nor Dutch tourism. Germany doesn't have the problems you describe. The problem is not the decriminalization, it is the person who is being allowed in and the failure to deal with the people consistently when they misbehave. If someone misbehaves in Singapore, there will be consequences. The police will not accept tea money. Even in Malaysia where there is police corruption, there is a consistent approach to nuisance visitors. Thailand's problems with tourists are in large part, its own doing.

On 5/30/2026 at 4:59 AM, hanbla said:

I don't understand why people complain about this 60 -> 30 days change. Sixty days was just a test and it has been in place for around 2 years. A test that didn't go well.

We are back to 30 days and tourists who want to stay longer can buy a tourist visa it gives them 60 days and can then be extended at Immigration for another 30 days.

True.I saw in the news that Thailand will be checking people with DTV and thai elite card visas because they think that criminals hiding with these visas.

18 hours ago, baansgr said:

Who wants to walk around a town that stinks of weed with ganga cadets causing mayhem. Who wants to take the risk of some pothead on his 350cc space scooter crashing into them. Families have more or less stopped visiting Thailand for this one reason. It's really too late for Thailand unless they drop this lunacy of weed being decriminalized. Already 9 million tourists less than what it was before. It's staring them in the face what they need to do

Agree.In Bangkok the smell of food in the streets is now smells weed everywhere and the foreign dopeheads walking around and think they came to heaven.

22 hours ago, wensiensheng said:

Wow. This was fast. The ink is barely dry on the change back to 30 days and already the groundwork is being laid for a flip flop back to 60 days.

Is it? Where is that information?

On 5/30/2026 at 7:27 AM, redwood1 said:

Thailand needs all the tourists they can get, the 60 days was helpful....It looks like Vietnam is becoming the new Thailand..The Indians are going to Vietnam in droves....

I am on my sixth 90 day visa for Vietnam, there is no limit how many you can have - just have to hop the border and come back, can do it same day (for a fee) or spend a few days in anther country looking around. My next trip to Cambodia, I'll rent a small apartment (dirt cheap) and get the one year multiple, then later a Residence Card, who knows, maybe a second passport later.

Peace

22 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

It hasn't hurt Canadian tourism, nor Dutch tourism. Germany doesn't have the problems you describe. The problem is not the decriminalization, it is the person who is being allowed in and the failure to deal with the people consistently when they misbehave. If someone misbehaves in Singapore, there will be consequences. The police will not accept tea money. Even in Malaysia where there is police corruption, there is a consistent approach to nuisance visitors. Thailand's problems with tourists are in large part, its own doing.

This was always going to be the issue Thailand had.

Fair play if you want to legalise it, but it has to be policed and controlled within the laws you have set. So you don't have (what we have now) by which you have trashy visitors just smoking it in public - this in turn does put of many families with children, and those who don't want to be around this. It does turn off tourists.

In California if you smoke it in public (the way you would see a council estate cheap trash visitor in Pattaya doing) you would have a very hard custodial sentance, criminal record and a fine - they don't mess around there.

On 5/30/2026 at 9:13 AM, Smokey and the Bandit said:

"The Indians are going to Vietnam in droves"

So this is good news.....??

Are you going back as well, wherever you come from?

On 5/30/2026 at 7:31 AM, Hummin said:

Good

What reasons do you have to claim Thailand need all the tourists they can get, and how can 60 days help?

Thailand needs factory workers, skilled factory workers and skilled craftsmen and women

Agree, as a country that relies on tourism too much, isn't good, as too many factors, world events, they have no control over. As shown the past decades, when tourist numbers plummeted, due to outside events, even internal issues.

Scamdemic, SARS, tsunami, floods, a few TH had no control over. The bad press of political protest / coups, Erawan bombing, and the false impression TH isn't safe for tourist. It still lingers, as folks are scared to go to some southern provinces.

Self included for a while, but finally got around to it. Lovely landscape and may pop down there again, next outing.

High tech & manufacturing is the way of the future, economic stability and work force growth.

High tourist numbers brings in some THB, while destroying the natural beauty of what many tourist come to see. Infrastructure simply can't handle the extra 35M people.

Can barely handle the 70M Thais.

13 hours ago, VBF said:

Is it? Where is that information?

This article talks of the negative impact on tourism of cutting visa free periods from 60 days to 30 days. So pretty much the whole article.

I used my own uncanny powers of deduction to conclude that proponents of 60 days visas haven’t gone away completely, they are lying low and gradually feeding articles to the press about the negative impact of cutting to 30 days.

Draw your own conclusions. That is mine.

I don't think reverting to 30 days is a big deal. But while the 'quality' of tourists to Thailand has always been 'mixed', it really does seem the scales have tilted toward the low end since the end of COVID-19. In fact, Thai business people saw the demographic change coming some years ago and, before anyone knew it, inexpensive 'hostels' were popping up all over Bangkok. Nothing wrong with backpackers or budget tourists, but the amount of money they spend isn't enough for the renaissance the tourism industry has been hoping for. Meanwhile, the daily publicity surrounding the disorderly, drunken, fighting, shoplifting and general mayhem by foreigners in Pattaya and Patong is a disincentive for the more upmarket tourists to go there. So that leaves Bangkok (2-3 days), and one of the other small beach resorts for a few more days or a week, then probably Viet Nam for a final week.

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

Agree, as a country that relies on tourism too much, isn't good, as too many factors, world events, they have no control over. As shown the past decades, when tourist numbers plummeted, due to outside events, even internal issues.

Scamdemic, SARS, tsunami, floods, a few TH had no control over. The bad press of political protest / coups, Erawan bombing, and the false impression TH isn't safe for tourist. It still lingers, as folks are scared to go to some southern provinces.

Self included for a while, but finally got around to it. Lovely landscape and may pop down there again, next outing.

High tech & manufacturing is the way of the future, economic stability and work force growth.

High tourist numbers brings in some THB, while destroying the natural beauty of what many tourist come to see. Infrastructure simply can't handle the extra 35M people.

Can barely handle the 70M Thais.

Thank you.

Travelling around Rayong and the neighbouring districts and provinces the last few years, and seeing the growing Chinese influence with factories, EV plants, batteries, auto parts, electronics, motorbikes and infrastructure, it becomes clear Thailand will need more skilled workers and engineers if they are not going to be overrun by foreign workers.

And this is, as you say, a much more reliable future than continuing the destructive tourism we have seen over the last decades.

It is not Laos or Cambodia yet, because Thailand has not sold itself out completely yet. That is why they should structure and build their own workforce. Thailand is still on another industrial level, but Chinese investment is becoming very visible, especially around the EEC.

You also have the Thai-Chinese high-speed railway, planned to connect Bangkok to Nong Khai and further through Laos toward China. Then there is the Land Bridge plan, not the old Kra Canal, but a planned port-road-rail link from the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea.

Thailand is clearly being positioned as a production and logistics hub. If that is the plan, they need skilled people, not only cheap labour.

On 5/30/2026 at 1:03 PM, VocalNeal said:

Most if not all diplomatic rules/policies are based on reciprocity. If one looks at the countries in the world that offer visa free entry to Thais the list is quite small. With most European, North and Central American and Australasian countries requiring Thais to have a visa. So it is not surprising that Thais have changed their policy.

Viewed from that reasonable perspective they certainly don't owe us a thing.