Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced on Tuesday the permanent removal of visa requirements between Thailand and China for their respective citizens. The visa-free policy will take effect in March.
Thailand initially waived visas for Chinese nationals starting last September as part of an effort to stimulate tourism. This initiative garnered a positive response, particularly during a period when Thailand was experiencing a decline in appeal among Chinese travelers.
Following Malaysians, the Chinese constitute the second-largest source market of foreign visitors to Thailand.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand projected in November that the total number of Chinese visitors for the entirety of 2023 could reach up to 3.5 million, falling slightly short of its 4 million target. Although this figure is less than half of the nearly 11 million Chinese tourists who visited in 2019, it represents a significant improvement from the mere 270,000 arrivals recorded in 2022.
The tourism authority has set a target of 8.2 million Chinese tourists for 2024.
Despite the Chinese outbound travel numbers being lower than expected, Thailand was the top destination for Chinese travelers in 2023, followed by Japan and South Korea, according to data from Chinese online travel giant Trip.com Group.
Trip.com also noted that with the opening of China’s borders, travel was greatly boosted by a wave of Chinese travelers with pent-up demand for overseas travel. Trip.com data unveiled a significant rise in outbound travel bookings, showcasing a six-fold increase compared to 2022.
‘This trend is especially prominent during holiday periods, such as the 8-day Golden Week in October which witnessed an eight-fold surge in outbound travel. This is a compelling prelude to a robust New Year Holiday season from 31 December 2023 to 3 January 2024, which recorded a 240 percent increase in bookings year-on-year from 2022.’
At the same time, Trip.com projects that the thriving interest in outbound travel is expected to persist in 2024.
