{"id":451507,"date":"2026-05-20T17:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/451507\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:09:10","slug":"thailand-tightens-visa-rules-for-tourists-citing-crime-by-foreigners-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/451507\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand tightens visa rules for tourists, citing crime by foreigners | Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thailand is drastically cutting the length of visa-free stays for tourists from more than 90 countries in an effort to curb crime<\/a> involving foreign nationals, officials said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tourism is a crucial source of jobs in Thailand<\/a>, and the country has struggled to return to the number of foreign arrivals recorded before the Covid pandemic. However, concerns over visitors breaking the law have led to calls for tougher immigration rules<\/p>\n

Tourists provided \u201cbenefits, such as boosting the economy, but the current scheme has allowed some people to exploit it\u201d, government spokesperson Rachada Dhanadirek told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Frequent incidents involving tourists committing crimes ranging from shoplifting to indecent exposure have drawn public attention online, while there is also particular concern about foreigners overstaying and illegally operating businesses in tourism hotspots, without the proper permits.<\/p>\n

Thai authorities have also cited concerns over transnational criminal groups abusing immigration laws.<\/p>\n

The foreign minister, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, said last week Thailand was not targeting any specific country, but rather individuals abusing the visa system by committing crimes in the country.<\/p>\n

Under the changes, a 60-day visa exemption that was in place for 93 countries \u2013 including the US, UK, Europe\u2019s 29-nation Schengen area and Australia \u2013 has been scrapped.<\/p>\n

Visitors will instead be granted a 30-day visa exemption, but the number of countries or territories eligible for this will be reduced from 57 to 54, according to Mungkorn Pratoomkaew, director-general of the foreign ministry\u2019s consular affairs department. The list of eligible countries has not yet been specified.<\/p>\n

Officials say the new rules will also be simplified to avoid confusion among tourists.<\/p>\n

Tourists will be able to renew visas once by visiting an immigration office, a government spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 60 days was automatic but the renewal will be decided by the officer and tourists will have to explain why they are staying longer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Thailand relaxed its visa rules in 2024, expanding the number of countries that qualified for visa-exemption, and extending the maximum length of stay to 60 in an effort to boost the tourism sector\u2019s recovery following the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n

Tourism is a crucial industry, accounting for between 10 and 20% of Thailand\u2019s GDP. However, visitor numbers, which have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, are suffering from the impact of the US-Israel war on Iran, which has driven up the cost of jet fuel and air fares.<\/p>\n

Foreign arrivals to Thailand fell 3.45% year-on-year in the first four months of 2026, the Bangkok Post reported this month<\/a>, with arrivals from the UK falling 22.8% to 85,059 tourists. Arrivals from the Middle East have also dropped sharply.<\/p>\n

Targets for tourist arrivals this year has been revised down, from a February forecast of 35 million to 32 million, according to the National Economic \u200band Social Development Council.<\/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":451508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-451507","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\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}