In early 2024, China and Thailand signed a mutual visa exemption agreement (effective from March 1). Previously, the Thai government temporarily applied a visa exemption policy for Chinese citizens from September 25, 2023, thereby significantly boosting the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand.
The Thai government has said it is well prepared to welcome Chinese tourists, with measures to ensure both safety and experience for Chinese tourists, as well as tourists from other countries. In a recent interview, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin hailed the visa exemption agreement as a boost to local tourism in Thailand, pledging to do more to make Chinese tourists “feel at home.”
During the recent Lunar New Year holiday, many Chinese tourists visited Thailand, such as Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Phuket, Samui... More than 1.1 million Chinese tourists traveled to Thailand out of a total of 6 million international visitors to the country (as of February 25), bringing China back to the No. 1 position in terms of international visitors to Thailand after several years of "falling in rank" due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Thai tourism industry believes that the number of Chinese tourists will continue to increase as the visa exemption policy is maintained and the number of flights from China to Thailand increases. This will benefit many businesses and individuals doing tourism business in Thailand.
"The visa exemption will facilitate more Chinese tourists to come to our country. Their arrival will boost my juice sales, as they will tour around Ayutthaya to enjoy the ancient culture here," said a juice seller in Thailand.
A taxi driver in Thailand said: "I like Chinese tourists. They are friendly to taxi drivers and Thai people. I can also pick up more passengers. Traveling in China has become more convenient now. I definitely want to visit China if I have the chance."
The Thai prime minister said the government is working to promote tourism in many other localities to the Chinese market, in addition to familiar destinations: “Chiang Mai is obviously very famous for tourism, culture. Phuket is a world-class destination with sunshine, sea, cuisine, great hotels. Of course everyone knows about Bangkok. But there are many other provinces in Thailand, some of which are not even known to Chinese tourists. Why should they know about these places? Because there is culture, fashion, cuisine, sports, there is local culture. We want to spread prosperity to many provinces in Thailand.”
VOV.VN - With the goal of welcoming 35 million international visitors by 2024, two giant markets in Asia, China and India, will play a leading role in Thailand's tourism industry.
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