VOA to stimulate Thai tourism

BANGKOK, February 18 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, has extended granting the Visa on Arrival (VOA) to foreign tourists from 20 countries and an economic zone until April 30, 2019, aimed to further stimulate the domestic tourism. While speaking to journalists of the update, Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said it is expected that the VOA extension should boost the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Thailand to over 41 million this year. Weerasak revealed that his ministry and other relevant parties are jointly working out measures to cater for the rising number of foreign tourist arrivals in the Thai Kingdom, covering those on the prevention and the mitigation of incidents, as well as casualties and damages for both short terms and long terms. The minister announced that the integrated measures will particularly provide protection and mitigation, if any, to foreign tourists visiting Thailand as group tours via charter flights. The minister cited official statistics as an example that up to about 970,000 foreign tourists visited Thailand during the Chinese New Year Festival 2019 alone early this month, a 2.3 per cent increase from last year's Lunar New Year Festival. The minister acknowledged that the development of Thailand's new tourism management master plan, under which the advanced digital technology will be applied to the newly-introduced electronic VOA (E-VOA) and electronic Visa (E-Visa) granting processes, is expected to be launched in mid-2019. The minister noted that the development of a new comprehensive database system of international tourists visiting Thai tourist destinations nationwide will also be included in the new integrated measures, which will pave the way for the government's promulgation of a new bill on national tourism in the foreseeable future. (TNA)