Thailand is drastically cutting the length of visa-free stays for tourists from more than 90 countries in an effort to curb crime involving foreign nationals, officials said.<\/p>\n
Tourism is vital to the Southeast Asian nation’s economy, but foreign arrivals are yet to return to their pre-Covid highs.<\/p>\n
A recent series of high-profile arrests of foreigners has included cases linked to drug offences, sex trafficking and foreigners operating businesses such as hotels and schools without proper permits.<\/p>\n
Under Thailand’s current tourism scheme, travellers from more than 90 countries, including Ireland, are eligible to visit for up to 60 days without a visa.<\/p>\n
Thailand’s cabinet approved reducing visa-free stays for travellers from those countries, Tourism Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul told reporters in Bangkok.<\/p>\n
The new visa-free duration would be decided on a country-by-country basis, with most foreign nationals granted stays of up to 30 days, while some could receive only 15 days, Mr Surasak said.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said last week that the plan to reduce visa-free stays was part of a crackdown on transnational crime.<\/p>\n
Thailand was not targeting any specific country, he said, but rather individuals abusing the visa system by committing crimes in the country.<\/p>\n
Tourists provided “benefits, such as boosting the economy, but the current scheme has allowed some people to exploit it”, government spokesperson Rachada Dhanadirek told reporters.<\/p>\n
The visa-free period was previously capped at 30 days but was extended to 60 days in July 2024 as part of government efforts to boost tourism and the economy.<\/p>\n
Tourism accounts for more than 10% of Thailand’s GDP, although visitor numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
Foreign arrivals dropped by about 3.4% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2025, with visitors from the Middle East down by nearly a third, according to tourism ministry data.<\/p>\n
Thailand expects about 33.5 million foreign tourists this year, up from nearly 33 million visitors last year, the government has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thailand is drastically cutting the length of visa-free stays for tourists from more than 90 countries in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-456565","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\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}