Thailand to waive off visa for India and Taiwan visitors

Thailand will waive visa for travelers from India and Taiwan for six months ahead of the year-end holiday period, the latest push by the Southeast Asian nation to boost tourist arrivals and prop up its sluggish economy.Tourists from India and Taiwan will be able to enter Thailand without a visa between Nov. 10 and May 10 this year, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The country had previously waived visa requirements for travelers from Kazakhstan for five months until Feb. 29.

This September, Thailand scrapped visa requirements for Chinese tourists, the country's top pre-pandemic tourism market with 11 million of the record 39 million arrivals in 2019.From January to October 29, there were 22 million visitors to Thailand, generating 927.5 billion baht ($25.67 billion), according to the latest government data.India has been Thailand's fourth largest source market for tourism so far this year with about 1.2 million arrivals after Malaysia, China and South Korea.