Thailand Proposes Unified Visa for Six Southeast Asian Countries

Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has proposed the introduction of a unified tourist visa similar to the Schengen visa for five other Southeast Asian countries. This information was reported by Bloomberg.

The unified visa is expected to be valid in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Thavisin has discussed the idea with his counterparts from these five countries in recent months, according to Bloomberg.

The initiative aims to increase tourist inflow to these nations as well as boost revenue per tourist. Last year, these six countries welcomed nearly 70 million tourists, with more than half arriving from Thailand and Malaysia. These two countries alone brought in $48 billion from tourism in 2023.

Last year, Thailand canceled visa agreements with China and temporarily suspended visas with several other countries, including Kazakhstan and India. In 2023, the highest number of tourists arrived in Thailand from Malaysia, totaling 4.6 million, followed by 3.5 million from China, along with approximately 1.5 million from Russia.

Meanwhile, many experts believe that the initiative for a unified visa is unlikely to succeed, considering the previous attempts at such cooperation among these countries. According to Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks consultancy, a more realistic option could be signing bilateral agreements among the countries.