Visa-free visits for tourists from India and Taiwan from November 10

[snoop1130]

 

The Cabinet agreed on Tuesday to exempt tourists from India and Taiwan from requiring an entry visa to say in Thailand for up to 30 days, effective from November 10 until May 10.

 

Currently, arrivals from 59 countries can enter Thailand without an entry visa. Recently, the cabinet agreed to grant visa exemptions for tourists from China and Kazakhstan, for a temporary period, to boost tourism during the final quarter of the year, after Chinese arrivals dropped below target, mostly due to concerns for safety, fanned by Chinese social media, and an economic slowdown in China.

 

About 25% of India’s 1.4 billion population are considered middle class. About 1.26 million Indians visited Thailand during the first nine months of this year and the numbers are expected to climb to about 1.55 million by the end of the year. Indian tourists spend an average of 41,000 baht per head during their 7-8 days in Thailand.

 

Caption: Photo: unsplash.com

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-10-31

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

[BMW Overlander]

Great. For citizens of other countries who don't enjoy this privilege, all you have to do is to assault Thai Police and Immigration officers, and voila, enjoy visa free visits in the future. Love this country.

[RichardColeman]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Indian tourists spend an average of 41,000 baht per head during their 7-8 days in Thailand.

I find that very hard to believe

[jacko45k]

This will not end well.... if there is a group of 'tourists' that will overstay and vanish into the country, I suspect Indians......they get about more than the Irish. 

[VBF]

Reading the linked article, it says:

"The Cabinet agreed on Tuesday to exempt tourists from India and Taiwan from requiring an entry visa to say in Thailand for up to 30 days, effective from November 10 until May 10."

So it'll just put them on a par with visitors from UK, US, Europe - 30 days visa free, and (presumably) TVs or extensions for thjose wishing to stay longer.

Hardly a major innovation!

[kinyara]

Not quite as bad as the Chinese shortfall but Indian numbers year to date September are still 23% lower than in 2019. Guess they've got to try something to get their numbers up, remains to be seen like the Chinese whether a simple visa concession will have much of an impact especially given the short length of the average visit.

[Karma80]

It says a lot about your immigration policies when you lurch from one "buy one get one" offer per nationality to the next. Buy now! Limited time!

[Caldera]

20 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

About 25% of India’s 1.4 billion population are considered middle class.

 

Seriously? I'd love to know what that translates to, in an actual USD amount. 

[Dogmatix]

4 hours ago, Caldera said:

 

Seriously? I'd love to know what that translates to, in an actual USD amount. 

Good point. Only 4% of Thailand's population pays income tax which starts at 25k per month after basic deductions. So Thailand has only a tiny middle class of probably around 1 or 2%.  You can't really be classified as middle class if you are too poor to pay income tax. Most of the population are poor and deeply indebted with household debt over 90% of GDP.  Then there is 1-2% who get by more or less OK. then there are about a million who well off and a fraction of those are mega wealthy.  I can't imagine that India has a better distribution of income.  So I would go for about 1-2% of them being middle class maybe earning US$5,000 a year plus.

[El Matador]

A bit surprised that Taiwan wasn't already on the list. They have a pretty good purchasing power.

 

41,000 baht per head in a week for Indian tourists seem exagerated. I got the feeling they were the biggest bargainers of all tourists although a few of them have good money.

Still waiting to have the same consideration as Russian tourists in Thailand. 

Just did my visa extension in Philippines. Best service I've ever had in an immigration office. I spent only 15 minutes with just my passport and a paper and even received smiles. I was shocked as I got used to spend an awful day at the immigration office in Bangkok to get an extra 30 days.

[observer90210]

21 minutes ago, El Matador said:

A bit surprised that Taiwan wasn't already on the list. They have a pretty good purchasing power.

 

41,000 baht per head in a week for Indian tourists seem exagerated. I got the feeling they were the biggest bargainers of all tourists although a few of them have good money.

Still waiting to have the same consideration as Russian tourists in Thailand. 

Just did my visa extension in Philippines. Best service I've ever had in an immigration office. I spent only 15 minutes with just my passport and a paper and even received smiles. I was shocked as I got used to spend an awful day at the immigration office in Bangkok to get an extra 30 days.

I have often seen in life,  the richer people are, the more they usually bargain and do not pay up blindly. Same for looks an appearance. The super top rich are usually discreet, dressed sometimes as paupers and do not exhibit the apparel of the yuppie upstart types, living mostly on debt and flaunting possessions in public or social media.

 

India has many very wealthy people who love to come to Thailand. All depends in which circles one evolves. Obviously if one goes to the lower budget and standing venues around Nana or Walking St - Beach Road in Pattaya,  one would mainly bump into the specific patrons within that social range and from any country.

 

if one moves in higher social circles, one obviously bumps into people in that social level from all nataions. Simple.

[Stargeezr]

I just paid 65 Canadian dollars for my 60 day Thai tourist visa.

I guess Canada is not on Thailands list for anything new.

Oh well at least I am lucky enough to be able to escape a bit of the Canadian Winter.

[Captain Monday]

15 hours ago, El Matador said:

A bit surprised that Taiwan wasn't already on the list. They have a pretty good purchasing power.

 

41,000 baht per head in a week for Indian tourists seem exagerated. I got the feeling they were the biggest bargainers of all tourists although a few of them have good money.

Still waiting to have the same consideration as Russian tourists in Thailand. 

Just did my visa extension in Philippines. Best service I've ever had in an immigration office. I spent only 15 minutes with just my passport and a paper and even received smiles. I was shocked as I got used to spend an awful day at the immigration office in Bangkok to get an extra 30 days.

 

Uncle Xi should not be happy about visa free ROC entries

 

In the coming days this decision may revert to a ”misunderstanding”

[realfunster]

16 hours ago, El Matador said:

A bit surprised that Taiwan wasn't already on the list. They have a pretty good purchasing power.

 

On all normal criteria, you are correct.

I'm guessing they are aware of certain sensitivity around the Republic of China and didn't want to upset someone by offering the Taiwanese preferential visas....

[realfunster]

18 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

Good point. Only 4% of Thailand's population pays income tax which starts at 25k per month after basic deductions. So Thailand has only a tiny middle class of probably around 1 or 2%.  You can't really be classified as middle class if you are too poor to pay income tax. Most of the population are poor and deeply indebted with household debt over 90% of GDP.  Then there is 1-2% who get by more or less OK. then there are about a million who well off and a fraction of those are mega wealthy.  I can't imagine that India has a better distribution of income.  So I would go for about 1-2% of them being middle class maybe earning US$5,000 a year plus.

 

Data on average earnings is always bit patchy but I found a source that indicated top 10% in India would be starting at THB 10k+ per month.

As is the way, I am sure there will be an exponential increase in wealth as you move up through this top 10 %.

 

India is a very low GDP per capita country, being around USD 2.5k, compared to Thailand/China USD 7-8k, Malaysia USD 13k, Vietnam USD 4k etc.

[DonniePeverley]

On 10/31/2023 at 11:46 PM, jacko45k said:

This will not end well.... if there is a group of 'tourists' that will overstay and vanish into the country, I suspect Indians......they get about more than the Irish. 

 

They would have done that anyways. They can get a visa on arrival. 

 

Compared to many other nationalities i am noticing how horny these Indian guys are - it is next level. I predict Pattaya will become a very big Indian town, catering majorly to them. 

 

You already see now on Walking Street the number of Indian clubs. 

[DonniePeverley]

On 11/1/2023 at 1:25 AM, kinyara said:

Not quite as bad as the Chinese shortfall but Indian numbers year to date September are still 23% lower than in 2019. Guess they've got to try something to get their numbers up, remains to be seen like the Chinese whether a simple visa concession will have much of an impact especially given the short length of the average visit.

 

 

By removing the visa fee, you really are losing a big chunk of income. It's a big investment, especially for Chinese. Imagine 20 million tourists now not paying a fee to enter. 

[kinyara]

1 hour ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

By removing the visa fee, you really are losing a big chunk of income. It's a big investment, especially for Chinese. Imagine 20 million tourists now not paying a fee to enter. 

 

Agreed, in this new government's desperation to be able to point to increased tourist numbers they've now sacrificed visa income from 3 of their 5 biggest markets, China, India and Russia, for potentially the busiest time of the year running from Oct/Nov through to Apr/May. So they at least need to attract a certain level of increased arrivals just to recoup that lost revenue. In a report in The Nation today they quoted the Chinese figure to October 29th, the first month of free visa, and it is almost exactly the same as the previous low figure in September, so zero initial impact. 

 

Questionable roll of the dice, time will tell over the next 6 months.

[DonniePeverley]

38 minutes ago, kinyara said:

 

Agreed, in this new government's desperation to be able to point to increased tourist numbers they've now sacrificed visa income from 3 of their 5 biggest markets, China, India and Russia, for potentially the busiest time of the year running from Oct/Nov through to Apr/May. So they at least need to attract a certain level of increased arrivals just to recoup that lost revenue. In a report in The Nation today they quoted the Chinese figure to October 29th, the first month of free visa, and it is almost exactly the same as the previous low figure in September, so zero initial impact. 

 

Questionable roll of the dice, time will tell over the next 6 months.

 

 

QUANITY OF TOURISTS over QUALITY OF TOURISTS 

 

I thought after the pandemic they wanted quality high spending tourists?

 

There is simply no way they will be able to start to charge Chinese tourists again, it simply won't be able to happen if you know how the politics work. They are going to want to see tourists number smash the horrific numbers pre pandemic and just inflict more misery on the local population (who don't benefit from tourists). 

[kinyara]

2 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

QUANITY OF TOURISTS over QUALITY OF TOURISTS 

 

I thought after the pandemic they wanted quality high spending tourists?

 

There is simply no way they will be able to start to charge Chinese tourists again, it simply won't be able to happen if you know how the politics work. They are going to want to see tourists number smash the horrific numbers pre pandemic and just inflict more misery on the local population (who don't benefit from tourists). 

 

They want everything of course before and after the pandemic, as many to come and spend as much as possible. I think they have developed a tourist industry more dependent on volume, which on the one hand serves the need to absorb a massive low skilled/low educated labour force, but on the other brings all the negative infrastructure/environmental impacts. 

[Lorry]

On 11/1/2023 at 5:35 PM, Dogmatix said:

Good point. Only 4% of Thailand's population pays income tax which starts at 25k per month after basic deductions. So Thailand has only a tiny middle class of probably around 1 or 2%.  You can't really be classified as middle class if you are too poor to pay income tax. Most of the population are poor and deeply indebted with household debt over 90% of GDP.  Then there is 1-2% who get by more or less OK. then there are about a million who well off and a fraction of those are mega wealthy.  I can't imagine that India has a better distribution of income.  So I would go for about 1-2% of them being middle class maybe earning US$5,000 a year plus.

"Air travel remains out of the financial reach of most Indians. An estimated 3 percent of the country’s population flies on a regular basis. But in a nation of 1.4 billion people, that percentage represents 42 million — executives, students and engineers who yearn to get quickly from here to there inside India’s borders, and to gain easier access to destinations beyond, for both business and vacation."

 

from todays NYT

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/business/india-aviation.html

 

[Gknrd]

They need to get the 90 day tourist visas for the West going before it is too late..

[DonniePeverley]

22 minutes ago, Lorry said:

"Air travel remains out of the financial reach of most Indians. An estimated 3 percent of the country’s population flies on a regular basis. But in a nation of 1.4 billion people, that percentage represents 42 million — executives, students and engineers who yearn to get quickly from here to there inside India’s borders, and to gain easier access to destinations beyond, for both business and vacation."

 

from todays NYT

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/business/india-aviation.html

 

 

Nonsense AND misses the point.

 

The pace of change of India is astonishing. Unlike China, the class divide is not as massive in India. They have a huge middle class, and a sector that is on the verge of middle class. 

 

Once that 100/200 million reach middle class, they like the rest of us will take vacations. 

 

However, and a problem for Thailand - Indians don't want to go to Thailand. They (like the Chinese) actually want to vacation in 'the west' - particularly Europe. It's only the increasingly difficult visa situation to get to Europe, and Thailand basically has always had an easy go approach to Indian tourism that means Thailand is sometimes the only choice. 

 

 

 

 

[Captain Monday]

7 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

By removing the visa fee, you really are losing a big chunk of income. It's a big investment, especially for Chinese. Imagine 20 million tourists now not paying a fee to enter. 

 

Visa fees are realized as “income” by who?

[sammieuk1]

Thailand recognizes Taiwan old Pooh bear will be miffed you will be lucky to end up with a rowing boat not a frigate 🤔 

[DonniePeverley]

6 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

 

Visa fees are realized as “income” by who?

 

How much were Chinese paying for Visas before ? Times it by 20 million. 

 

It's a massive investment. 

[Captain Monday]

7 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

How much were Chinese paying for Visas before ? Times it by 20 million. 

 

It's a massive investment. 

Do the proceeds of this ”investment” make it to the general fund of Government or are moneys simply moved around by  IO’s  minus the percentage of the take kicked up the pyramid?

[jacko45k]

21 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

How much were Chinese paying for Visas before ? Times it by 20 million. 

 

It's a massive investment. 

Wasn't it 2000 baht for their VOA?

[DonniePeverley]

On 11/4/2023 at 12:58 AM, jacko45k said:

Wasn't it 2000 baht for their VOA?

 

2000 x 10 million (or even 20 million) visitors is certainly a big investment. 

 

Now dropping the fee for the Indians too.