Indians can visit Thailand without a visa from November 10 to May 10, 2024, according to Thai Tourism, and stay there for up to 30 days. The country has now waived visa requirement for citizens of India and Taiwan in a bid to get more tourists. This September it had done so for Chinese nationals.
For Indian globetrotters, this is the second such announcement within a week.Sri Lanka recently announced visa-free entry for visitors from seven countries, including India, China and Russia, as part of a pilot project up to March 31, 2024.
After Covid, Indian travellers are being wooed aggressively by the tourism boards of several countries. India has been Thailand’s fourth-largest source market for tourism so far this year with about 12 lakh arrivals, after Malaysia, China and South Korea.
Indian government data shows the number of Indians travelling abroad constantly rose from 1.4 crore in 2011 to reach a peak of 2.7 crore in 2019. Then, after two pandemic years of travel restrictions and closed orders, it again rebounded to 2.1 crore in 2022.Last year, the Union tourism ministry data shows the top 10 destination countries for Indians were the UAE (almost 59 lakh, or 28%), Saudi Arabia (24 lakh, or 11.5%), US (17 lakh/8%), Singapore (9.9 lakh/4.7%), Thailand (9.3 lakh/4.4%), UK (9.2 lakh/4.3%), Qatar (8.7 lakh/4.1%), Kuwait (8.3 lakh/3.9%), Canada (7.7 lakh/3.6%), and Oman (7.2 lakh/3.4%).
For Indian globetrotters, this is the second such announcement within a week.Sri Lanka recently announced visa-free entry for visitors from seven countries, including India, China and Russia, as part of a pilot project up to March 31, 2024.
After Covid, Indian travellers are being wooed aggressively by the tourism boards of several countries. India has been Thailand’s fourth-largest source market for tourism so far this year with about 12 lakh arrivals, after Malaysia, China and South Korea.
Indian government data shows the number of Indians travelling abroad constantly rose from 1.4 crore in 2011 to reach a peak of 2.7 crore in 2019. Then, after two pandemic years of travel restrictions and closed orders, it again rebounded to 2.1 crore in 2022.Last year, the Union tourism ministry data shows the top 10 destination countries for Indians were the UAE (almost 59 lakh, or 28%), Saudi Arabia (24 lakh, or 11.5%), US (17 lakh/8%), Singapore (9.9 lakh/4.7%), Thailand (9.3 lakh/4.4%), UK (9.2 lakh/4.3%), Qatar (8.7 lakh/4.1%), Kuwait (8.3 lakh/3.9%), Canada (7.7 lakh/3.6%), and Oman (7.2 lakh/3.4%).
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