Tourist Footfall From AP, TG To Thailand Set To Rise With Extended Free Visa Facility

Visakhapatnam: Tourist footfall from India to Thailand, the Land of Smiles known for its stunning golden beaches and beautiful islands is set to gain momentum with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) issuing an order to indefinitely extend free visa on arrival to Indians.

The free visa regime was scheduled to end on November 11 this year. Fear of paying Thai Baht 2,000 with an additional amount of THB200 for fast-track issuance on arrival in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Krabi and other popular destinations for budget tourists, had slowed down the arrival of tourists from the sub-continent. Now any Indian tourist can apply for a visa without any hassle for 60 days with a provision to extend it further for another 30 days. One THB is equivalent to Rs 2.51.

Various segments of tourists from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana opt for Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as a getaway rendezvous due to easy reach and affordable cost involved in it. Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam have direct flight connectivity to Thailand. There are also offers connecting through Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Mumbai. To avail the best offers available in various routes with less layover time, the travel operators facilitate various routes to ferry the passengers in groups.

Thailand has around 1,000 islands and a 2400-km long coastline. The country has several places for leisure tourists, ecotourism, shopping, vibrant nightlife and entertainment infrastructure. Recently the government has also permitted the opening of casinos.

Thailand gets the third largest number of tourists from India. Following the pandemic, when Thailand received a big blow to tourism, a major contributor to its GDP, the government introduced the visa free policy for India and other friendly countries. The policy was introduced on November 10, 2023 and later extended it from May 11 to November 11, 2024. Thailand is estimated to have received 2.78 per cent of its GDP from the tourism industry in 2022. The data available for 2023 showed that income from tourism has increased substantially post-pandemic. The country expects THB 3 trillion from domestic and foreign tourists by the year-end .It aims to attract 40 million foreign tourists this year, to reach the pre-pandemic level. In the first quarter of 2024, Thailand received 9.4 million international tourists generating THB 454.6 billion.

Andhra Pradesh Tourism Forum (APTF) president K. Vijay Mohan, after holding talks with Tourism Authority of Thailand in Bangkok on ways and means to promote tourism among India and Thailand, told Bizz Buzz on Tuesday that the Thai tourism industry is very keen on strengthening its ties with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Hesaid efforts are on to promote a Buddhist circuit and connect various shakti peethas in Andhra Pradesh to attract more tourists from Thailand and other South East Asia countries and Japan to this part of the country.

On an average, 1200 passengers travel a month by direct flight from Visakhapatnam and 15,000 from Hyderabad and travel operators feel there is big scope to increase it further by taking up various tourist-friendly measures to improve the ecosystem. Vijay Mohan said "we have seen a huge drop in bookings as people were under the impression that they would have to pay visa fee from November 10. Extension of free on arrival visa for Indians will definitely increase the business two-folds.

Lot of bookings have gone on hold especially of the MICE market as they were waiting to see the impact of the costing as it would have increased the costing by Rs 5,300 per person in fact Indians are the highest travellers to Thailand Now as China market has completely shown down to Thailand."

VTZ Travel Link owner P Srinivas Kumar said there is huge potential for international tourism from Visakhapatnam and the authorities should introduce convenient slots for foreign flights. He also wanted steps to improve tourist amenities in North Andhra to improve occupancy of foreign tourists from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Presently, Visakhapatnam International Airport has direct flights to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.