By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng
BANGKOK – Thailand’s visa waiver programme for Chinese nationals has come under scrutiny after the high-profile alleged kidnapping of a Chinese actor and similar crimes stoked worries over tourism and security.
The incident involving actor Wang Xing was widely shared on Chinese social media earlier this month, prompting Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to reassure Chinese tourists of their safety ahead of the Lunar New Year.
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Tourism is a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which saw a record of 39.9 million visitors in 2019 before the pandemic hammered the sector.
In 2023, the government dropped visa requirements for Chinese arrivals, its largest source market, in a bid to boost the industry. Since then, foreign tourist arrivals have jumped by 26% annually to 35.5 million, of which some 6.73 million travelled from China, up 91%.
The surge in arrivals from China may have led to more illicit activity, especially along towns bordering Laos and Myanmar where criminal enterprises run scam centres and online gambling operations, said Senator Wanchai Ekpornpichit.
“The visa-free policy has increased transnational crime, partly from Chinese criminals who use Thailand as a base,” Wanchai said in parliament on Monday.
“We are becoming a hub for criminal activity … and it is impacting national security and tourism.”
Tourism Minister Sorawong Thienthong told reporters on Tuesday that there were currently no plans to review the visa waiver programmes.
Some Thai tourism industry groups have proposed cutting the visa-free stay for Chinese tourists from 60 days to 15 days.
“Chinese tourists spend about 7-8 days so it will not affect tourism,” said Adith Chairattananon, secretary-general of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, told Reuters.
Adith said he had discussed the proposal, which could help cut down criminal activity, with the head of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the country’s main tourism body.
Overseas fraud syndicates have duped Chinese citizens with promises of high-paying jobs and other inducements to trap them in telecom fraud dens in towns such as Myawaddy, on Myanmar’s border with Thailand, according to Chinese state media.
Thailand last year helped facilitate the transfer of some 900 Chinese nationals who had been trapped in scam centres in Myawaddy back to their country.
(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Sharon Singleton)
