Thailand is taking steps to boost its tourism industry by shortening the visa approval period for Chinese tourists, Thailand’s largest source market which took 20% of total international visitors in 2019. The Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) has urged the Department of Consular Affairs to reduce the visa approval period from up to 15 working days to less than seven days. This move is expected to facilitate tour groups from China that wish to visit Thailand.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, it took only 3-5 working days to approve Chinese tourists’ visas. However, the current approval period is considered too long and has been a hindrance to the growth of the tourism industry. In response, Thai authorities have announced that they will shorten the entry visa approval period for Chinese tourists.

The Consular Department of Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work together with the country’s embassy and consulates in China to optimize entry visa approval procedures. The goal is to ensure that Chinese tourists can get an entry visa within a week.

Thailand has issued a series of policies to facilitate visa approval. For instance, one-stop visa services have been introduced for teams planning to film in the country. The country also plans to improve its electronic visa system by providing multi-language services and data sharing among its different departments. This will ensure safe and fast entry visa approval.

Currently, the electronic visa system can handle five million applications each year. However, starting from 2024, it will be able to handle 15 million applications. This move is expected to boost the number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand.

Thailand aims to meet the goal set by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) of welcoming 5 million Chinese tourists by the end of this year. A short visa application period would also help last-minute tour buyers make a decision to visit Thailand.

The ATTA believes that an overhaul in the visa application period will help boost the number of Chinese tourists in the second half of the year. The association estimates that an average of 600,000 Chinese tourists will visit Thailand per month from June onward. This translates to 3.6 million people for the remainder of the year, enabling Thailand to get closer to its 5-million target.

During the initial quarter of 2023, international tourism in Southeast Asia experienced a relatively subdued growth rate. Nevertheless, despite the advent of April marking the onset of the low travel season, tourism activities within the region persist in exhibiting encouraging indications.

Increase in total number of international visitors

The total number of international arrivals to five Southeast Asian countries (including Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines) increased by 3.67% over the previous month, from 5,420,067 arrivals to 5,618,733 arrivals.

Although there was a slight decrease in the number of inbound visitors to Thailand, it still maintained its position as the number one destination with 2,182,100 arrivals. The number of international visitors to the Philippines also decreased by 3.7% compared to March. The remaining three countries all achieved significant increases. In particular, Singapore showed the highest growth rate of international visitors in April, reaching 10.65%, from 1,020,000 to 1,128,594 arrivals. Vietnam was not far behind with an increase of 9.91%, followed by Indonesia (about 6.9%).

Recovery and tourism target rate

In terms of recovery, Singapore topped the index in April with a rate of 70.54%, followed closely by the Philippines at 69.09%. The other three destinations had similar recovery indicators.

Vietnam maintained its performance in achieving its 2023 target, with the highest completion rate of 46.05% as of April, far ahead of other destinations such as Thailand or Singapore (over 28%).

Source: Statistics from National Tourism Departments

Highlights

Top 3 South East Asian destinations with largest numbers of international arrivals in April 2023:

1. Thailand: 2,182,100. Although this number decreased by 1.66% compared to the previous month, Thailand is leading the region as the most visited destination in Southeast Asia.
2. Singapore: 1,128,594. Of the five Southeast Asian destinations, the Lion City is the only one that has continuously recorded an increase in the number of international arrivals during the first four months of 2023. However, this is still not enough for Singapore to reach one-third of its 2023 target.
3. Vietnam: 984,146. This is the month that Vietnam has welcomed the most international tourists since the beginning of the year.

Top 3 South East Asian destinations with highest recovery rate in April 2023:

1. Singapore: 70.54%
2. Philippines: 69.09%
3. Indonesia: 67.95%

In the aviation sector in May, Indonesia still had the largest total seating capacity, accounting for 30% of the entire region with 10,847,492 seats. The rankings have changed compared to previous months. Specifically, Vietnam became the second country in terms of capacity with 6,242,626 seats, an average increase of 4% per day. This number accounted for 17% of regional capacity, pushing Thailand to third place with 5,998,922 seats, accounting for 16% of Southeast Asia’s capacity. Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore followed in terms of total aircraft seating capacity.

 Source: OAG, updated 5/30/2023

In May, the busiest domestic flight route in Southeast Asia remained Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City, boasting a total seating capacity of 908,298. The subsequent two domestic routes in the top three were both from Indonesia: Jakarta – Bali (722,924) and Jakarta – Sumatera Utara (541,580). Given a total seating capacity exceeding 10.8 million, it is unsurprising that half of the 10 busiest domestic routes in Southeast Asia are located in Indonesia.

With regard to international routes, Singapore persisted as the primary international air transport nexus of Southeast Asia. The top three international routes in May 2023 were Kuala Lumpur – Singapore (427,124 seats), Jakarta – Singapore (346,792 seats), and Bangkok – Singapore (275,748 seats). Furthermore, 7 out of the 10 largest international routes in the region originated from Singapore.

According to a recent report of Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), the country’s unemployment rate in the first quarter fell to the lowest level in three years thanks to the strong recovery of the tourism industry.

In Q1 2023, Thailand’s unemployment rate stood at 1.05%, lower than the level of 1.15% in the last three months of 2022. Specifically, out of 39.6 million people in the labor force, there are 420,000 unemployed people. This is the lowest level since the 1.03% recorded in the first quarter of 2020, before the country’s economy was deeply affected by the pandemic. In particular, in February alone, for the first time in four years, Thailand’s unemployment rate fell below 1%. In addition, employment increased to 2.4% year-on-year, from 1.5% three months earlier.

Experts said that Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter of 2023 thanks to the continued recovery of the tourism industry, a key industry that has created the major job market in Thailand, after being hit by the pandemic.

However, the definition of unemployment in Thailand is very narrow because it is only counted as unemployed when a person does not work a single hour in a week surveyed. As a result, analysts say the statistics are not keeping pace with Thailand’s significant unofficial economy. Unofficial workers have unstable jobs such as motorbike taxi drivers, street vendors, grocers, online sales, etc., and accounts for a large proportion in the country.

The Thai government is now aiming to boost employment and bring the job market back to pre-pandemic levels.

(Source: Reuters)

Data from National Tourism Departments in South East Asia in March 2023 showed better signals over the previous two months. In general, there was an increase in inbound tourists compared to January and February, except for a slight decrease in Vietnam (Cambodia hasn’t updated). The growth rate of international visitors of the whole region in March increased by nearly 5 times compared to February.

The growth rate of inbound tourists better improves

Considering over 5 countries including Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia, the total number of international arrivals in March reached 5,420,067, an increase of 247,745 arrivals (equivalent to about 4.79%) compared to February. Previously, the number of visitors to Southeast Asian countries in February increased by only 1% compared to January. This is a quite good signal for the region’s tourism industry.

Thailand maintained its leading position in the top most visited destination in SEA with 2,219,040 foreign visitors in March, double higher than Singapore in the second place (118%), and triple higher than the third rank – Vietnam (149%).

However, regarding the number of international arrivals in March 2023, Vietnam is the only destination in the region to see a drop in total international arrivals (895,425 arrivals), down 4% compared to February 2023. Indonesia led in growth between February and March with an increase of 15.39%, followed by Singapore and Thailand.

Recovery and tourism target rate

The “champion” in recovery rate in the previous months, Cambodia, has not yet updated the data for March. Therefore, the Philippines temporarily led South East Asia in terms of recovery rate over the same period in 2019 (66.59%), closely followed by Singapore (65.38%) and Thailand (63.79%). After the 32nd SEA Games event, the host nation Cambodia is expected to make a significant mark on the number of inbound visitors in the coming months.

The 2023 target rate in the region was ranging from 20% to less than 34%. Vietnam still achieved the highest rate as of March (33.74%). Singapore continued to be the country with the lowest target rate (20.78%).

Highlights

Top 3 South East Asian destinations with largest numbers of international arrivals in March 2023:

1. Thailand: 2,219,040. Following a slight decrease in February, the number of international arrivals to Thailand in March increased by nearly 5%.
2. Singapore: 1,020,000. The target rate of the country was still the lowest (20.78%).
3. Vietnam: 895,425. Despite having the highest target rate and among the top 3 Southeast Asian countries to receive the most inbound visitors in Q1, Vietnam was the only destination to record a decrease.

Top 3 South East Asian destinations with highest recovery rate in March 2023:

1. The Philippines: 66.59%
2. Singapore: 65.38%
3. Thailand: 63.79%

Regarding aviation, the order of destinations with the highest seat capacity on flights to and from the region has not changed throughout 4 months. According to OAG, in April, Indonesia kept the first rank with 10,148,070 seats, followed by Thailand (6,047,377 seats), Vietnam (5,792,606), Philippines (4,339,133), Malaysia (4,274,854), and Singapore (2,875,056).

Hanoi – HCMC continued to be the busiest Domestic flight route in April with 917,814 seats (decreased by -9.04% compared to the previous month). The second place was the Jakarta – Bali route again (639,101 seats, increased by 16.53%). The third place changed. It was the Jakarta – Sumatera Utara route (516,624 seats) to replace Jakarta – South Sulawesi.

In the top 10 busiest International routes, Singapore, the international air hub of Southeast Asia, appeared 7 times, while occupying the top 3. The Kuala Lumpur – Singapore route was the busiest route in April with 409,946 seats, followed by the Jakarta – Singapore and Bangkok – Singapore routes.

In conclusion, in March 2023, South East Asia’s tourism performance was brighter when the growth rate of international arrivals increased by nearly 5 times in February. Nevertheless, the target rate is generally not very high (between 20-34%). According to UNWTO, in Q1, despite good signs, the Asia-Pacific region is still the region with the slowest tourism recovery pace in the world (54% of 2019 levels). The growth of nations in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be better, especially with the return of China, the main source market of many countries. In addition, the peak season in the summer will also boost the region’s tourism recovery rate. However, as previously mentioned, expecting too much on a country or peak season without the right approach is not a good idea, especially in 2023, the final phase of recovery. Along with festivals and upcoming summer, April-May will see more divergence in tourism performance through growth rates and how each country reaches the target.

Chinese tourists account for the majority of the international tourism market in Asian countries. However, it was not until January 2023 that China opened up to tourism. One month later, it announced plans to open tours to just 20 countries.

As of March 15, China will resume pilot group tours to 40 other countries, including Vietnam. This is good news and also a big challenge to Vietnam tourism. Vietnam should learn from some neighboring nations which successfully reached the target of international tourists.

In 2022, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore were the top Southeast Asian destinations for international visitors. They welcomed a significant number of international tourists, which exceeded the set target thanks to remarkable changes.

Thailand

In 2022, Thailand planned to welcome 8 million international tourists, and the result reached 11.8 million. These tourists spent about 500 billion Baht (around 14.4 billion USD), an average of 50,000 Baht (equivalent to 1,442 USD) per person.

To attract international tourists, in September last year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) implemented a new visa policy. Specifically, citizens of countries and territories that are granted a 30-day visa exemption will automatically extend it to 45 days, from 15 days to 30 days. The policy is applied from October 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

In addition, Thailand also boosted short-haul flights and exploited neighboring markets. The short-haul market accounted for 67.6% of the total 11.8 million foreign arrivals in 2022, equivalent to 7.98 million, excluding Chinese tourists.

Indonesia

Indonesia welcomed nearly 5.5 million international tourists in 2022, an increase of 251.28% compared to 2021. It was much higher than the target number of 3.6 million.

The government of Indonesia relaxed visas and medical regulations to attract foreign tourists. Indonesia also decided to issue 5-year visas to foreign tourists staying here without paying taxes if they do not earn money within its territory.

The country also promoted international flight routes. Indonesia has successfully turned itself to one of the most attractive remote working destinations for employees of global companies.

In particular, the government also changed its strategy to sustainable tourism, transforming from 3S ‘Sun, Sea, Sand’ to ‘Serenity, Spirituality, Sustainability’.

Singapore

In 2022, the number of international visitors to Singapore reached 6.3 million. This number surpassed the government’s forecast of 4-6 million visitors.

Singapore achieved the set goal thanks to its strengths in MICE tourism, advanced technology, new experiences, architectural works, as well as welcoming up to 465 new hotels last year, etc.

Moreover, the country also hosted many big events and programs such as Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2022, Hell Museum at Haw Par Villa Cultural Park, Ice Cream Museum, “Avatar: The Experience” at Gardens by the Bay, Wellness Festival Singapore,… Singapore has also become the first Southeast Asian country to host the Tour de France Singapore Criterium sports event, attracting a large number of international visitors.

 

Thailand will officially apply tourist tax to international visitors from June 1 this year.

Specifically, visitors arriving by air will pay 300 Baht (about 9 USD), and this tax is included in the air ticket. Those who arrive by water transportation or land will pay 150 Baht (4 USD). In particular, the year-round tax is only applied to visitors staying overnight in Thailand, except for children under two years old or those with diplomatic passports or work permits.

The tourist tax was proposed by the National Tourism Policy Committee and considered before the pandemic’s outbreak.

According to Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, Minister of Tourism and Sports, the tax is allocated to cover the cost of insurance and medical care for international tourists. Besides, it also contributes to the development of the country’s tourism. As estimated, the tourist tax can bring more than 115 million USD to Thailand this year.

Tourism in Thailand has recorded many positive signs of recovery. Therefore, the government expects to welcome 25 million international tourists this year.

Thailand will join other famous tourist attractions implementing visitor entrance fees. Europe plans to launch the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) in November 2023. Non-EU visitors need to pay 7 Euros to enter the area. People under 18 and over 70 years old will not have to pay this fee. Venice postponed new tourist entrance fees but will restart this year. Bhutan reopened last year, and it currently requires a daily visa fee of 200 USD.

According to statistics, the United States and China have had the most number of visitors applying for Thailand’s 10-year visa since the program started on September 1. 

More than 1,600 people have registered for a new tourist visa, according to Narit Therdstreerakul, secretary general of Thailand’s Board of Investments (BOI). Up to now, the majority of applications have come from the US, China, the United Kingdom and Germany, respectively.

Thailand’s new long-term resident visa program will last for ten years. This is regarded as an outstanding effort by the country to attract international tourists and investors in order to boost the economy following the Covid-19 pandemic.

International visitors must have at least $1 million in assets, a minimum annual personal income of $80,000 for the previous two years, and invest at least $500,000 in Thai government bonds, foreign direct investment, or Thai assets to be eligible for the 10-year visa program.

Furthermore, this visa program is eligible to retirees who are 50 years old or older and have a consistent income of at least $80,000 per year at the time of application.

Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, and Malaysia are currently attracting international tourists by offering golden visas with stay periods of up to 20 years.

Vietnam has stopped multiple-entry visas for three months or more after reopening on March 15, and currently only provides 30-day, single entry visas.

Thanks to magnificent natural beauty, pleasant people, and numerous tourism activities, many international travelers see Vietnam as an ideal retirement destination. However, severe visa restrictions currently make it difficult for Vietnam to attract them.