{"id":682386,"date":"2026-05-20T06:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/682386\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T06:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:07:10","slug":"thailand-visa-changes-2026-aussies-set-to-be-impacted-as-travel-rules-for-tourists-tightened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/682386\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand visa changes 2026: Aussies set to be impacted as travel rules for tourists tightened"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/australia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Australia\">Australia<\/a> is one of nearly 100 countries set to be impacted by new visa rules when travelling to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/thailand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Thailand\">Thailand<\/a> after the Asian nation said it would remove a key visa exemption.Thailand&#8217;s government announced it would be removing a policy that allowed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/tourists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"tourists\">tourists<\/a> from 93 different countries to travel throughout Thailand for up to 60 days without needing to apply for a visa.<\/p>\n<p>The policy was first implemented in 2024, designed to help a recovery in the tourism industry after the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/67ee535a-921a-4fb9-b121-121c91bcb870.jpeg\"   alt=\"Things to do in Thailand - Bangkok, Wat Arun\"\/>Hundreds of thousands of Aussies travel to all parts of Thailand every year for tourism. (Getty Images\/iStockphoto)<\/p>\n<p>However, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said his cabinet had reviewed the rule and decided it was in the country&#8217;s interest to make a change.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Cabinet has decided to cancel the 60-day visa-free policy for over 90 countries, and is now awaiting the new policy criteria for each country,&#8221; he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The government recently found that the policy needs to be revised to be more suitable for the current situation, both in terms of the economy and national security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is understood that the visa-free period of travel for Australian tourists will now be reduced to 30 days, which is what it used to be before the 60-day exemption was introduced.<\/p>\n<p>The changes have not yet taken effect and the timeline of when they will be introduced is unclear.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>According to Australian government data, around 750-800,000 Aussies visit Thailand each year.<\/p>\n<p>It is one of the most popular tourist destinations with Aussies, with people flocking to cultural centres in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, or to beach resorts in Phuket.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has not updated its travel advice for Thailand yet.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia is one of nearly 100 countries set to be impacted by new visa rules when travelling to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-682386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}