BANGKOK, THAILAND – Tourism Minister Surasak Phanjaroenworakul announced plans to sharply tighten visa rules by cutting visa-free stays for tourists from 60 to 30 days.
Parliament: Minister announces shift in visa policy
The new minister for Tourism and Sport, Surasak Phanjaroenworakul, presented the planned changes on Friday during a parliamentary session in Bangkok. The announcement came during a debate on government policy in the House of Representatives, as the cabinet outlined its main guidelines.
He said the move was part of a broader change in tourism strategy, with Thailand aiming for “value over volume” rather than maximizing arrivals at any cost. The revised rules were framed as a response to abuses of the existing visa regime.
60-day rule to be scrapped: visa-free stays cut to 30 days
According to the minister, the government intended to abolish the 60-day visa-free entry for tourists from 93 countries. Instead, the permitted stay would be reduced to 30 days.
The change was based on an assessment by the Visa Policy Committee that examined actual travel behavior. Officials concluded that the current 60-day period far exceeded what most visitors used.
Data shows most visitors stay only briefly
Surasak said the average length of stay was nine days, well below the existing 60-day rule. He highlighted that this pattern did not justify such a long blanket allowance.
Particularly striking, according to the minister, was that 89% of tourists stayed only one to three days in the kingdom. The highest measured average stay in any group reached 21 days but still fell short of the current limit.
Government seeks clearer line between tourism and long-term stay
The minister warned that some foreigners were remaining in the country beyond a normal tourist scope and in some cases were conducting business while holding tourist status.
“The line between tourism and residence is becoming blurred, and there are cases where foreigners displace work opportunities for Thais,”
said Surasak Phanjaroenworakul, tourism and sports minister.
He stressed that longer stays should still be possible through appropriate visa categories rather than repeated short-term entries. The revised policy was intended to ensure that people who effectively lived or worked in Thailand did not do so under tourist exemptions.
Security concerns: visa abuse and rising crime
Surasak also pointed to increasing criminal activities linked to the exploitation of flexible visa rules. He said security agencies believed that criminal groups were relocating operations to Thailand after crackdowns in neighboring Myanmar and Cambodia.
According to these assessments, such groups made frequent border crossings to exploit loopholes in the system. This pattern raised concerns that the visa regime was being used to shield organized crime.
Illegal border crossings: land routes under scrutiny
In addition to formal entries, some networks were reported to be bypassing official immigration channels altogether. They allegedly entered the country over land without passport checks.
Key routes were identified via Malaysia and Laos, with similar patterns observed along the border with Cambodia. The visa reform was therefore seen as part of a broader security response to these developments.
Tourism weakens: arrivals fall at start of 2026
The planned tightening came during a period of declining visitor numbers. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), a total of 9.31 million tourists arrived between January and March 2026.
Compared with the same period in 2025, when 9.55 million visitors were recorded, this represented a drop of 2.51%. The decline was attributed in part to global cost pressures and geopolitical uncertainty.
TAT backs ‘value over volume’ and new fees
The TAT lowered its forecast for 2026 and now expected 30 to 34 million visitors, an 18% reduction from earlier projections. The agency supported a shift away from pure arrival targets towards higher revenue per guest from 2026 onward.
Minister Surasak endorsed this strategic change, linking it to plans for higher airport fees, an arrival tax and mandatory travel insurance. These measures were presented as tools to raise quality and security in Thailand’s tourism sector.