Although Taiwan ends free visas for Thais, there will not be any impact on Thai travelers because most of them go to Japan, according to the tourism sector.
According to Taiwan’s newly announced list of countries eligible for its free visas on Sept 5, Thailand is among many countries that lose their free Taiwanese visa privilege from Sept 12 onwards.
Lapana Sompradit, managing director of Grand Booking International Co which is a tour firm overseeing regional markets, said although Taiwan was the third most popular Asian destination of Thai travelers, it shared only 10% of outbound Thai tourists’ groups. The most popular destination in Asia is Japan which welcomes about 50% of Thai tourist groups, followed by South Korea (30%).
Therefore, the new measure from Taiwan had very few impacts on Thai travelers and Thai tour firms, he said.
Data from Thai tour companies show that Japan is the most popular destination of Thai travelers although Japan welcomes only visitors arriving with guides of tour firms and each traveler must pay 3,000 baht to apply for Japanese visas.
Thai travelers were willing to pay because they missed the atmosphere of Japan, yen was weak and Japanese cities were promoting their attractions before its full reopening late this year, Mr Lapana said. (TNA)
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