Cabinet approves long-stay tourist visas

BANGKOK –  Thailand’s Cabinet on Tuesday agreed to allow in foreign tourist who agree to a 14-day quarantine and will be staying in the country for atleast 90 days to help support the tourism sector badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government will allow visas up to 270 days for long-stay tourists and they will be able to extend a 90-day visa that costs 2,000 baht.

Governor of the official Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Mr Yuthasak Supasorn said that the goal of the government is to allow foreign guest from countries will low risk infection to visit Thailand starting next month.

The proposed new policy will start with provinces that has an alternative state quarantine. Thailand was able to contain the virus successfully by kepping the infected case to just 3,480 with 58 deaths.

Thailand has previously shelved proposals to allow foreign tourist due to the concern of new Covid-19 spike. The region initially proposes an East Asia travel bubble that will help the economy against his health crisis.

In April, The country has record no foreign tourist when the government imposed the travel. The government are expecting only 6.7 million foreign tourists this year compared to the last’years revenue 39.8 million visitors composing of 11.4% of GDP.

Related Article: https://www.theasianaffairs.com/thailand/2020/09/16/cabinet-accepts-long-distance-visas-for-visitors-approved-by-pm-prayut-chan-o-cha/