TRAVEL NEWS

Thailand is working with destination management companies (DMCs) to develop community-based tourism routes aimed at attracting more high-spending long-haul travelers, as the country seeks to shift its tourism strategy from visitor numbers to visitor value.

Vietnam Airlines has launched direct Ho Chi Minh City to Phuket flights, strengthening air connectivity between Vietnam and Thailand. Operating four times weekly, the new route is expected to boost regional tourism and make travel to Phuket more convenient for Vietnamese travelers.

Thailand is making it easier for foreign visitors to spend like locals. Through its Cross-Border QR Payment initiative, travelers can increasingly pay for everything from street food to shopping with a simple scan using familiar digital wallets and banking apps.

Thailand has launched a nationwide digital immigration platform that allows foreign visitors to complete arrival registration before landing, part of an effort to reduce waiting times at border checkpoints and modernise the country's immigration services.

Bangkok’s electric water taxi service along Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem is quietly reshaping how visitors move through the city. Linking a string of central piers, the six-seat boats offer a low-emission alternative to Bangkok’s congested roads, gliding almost silently between historic districts, markets and civic landmarks. More than a novelty, it functions as a practical canal-based transit route—revealing a slower, more intimate way to navigate the capital’s often fast-moving urban landscape.

Just a short drive from Chiang Mai, the road into Mae Rim begins to climb, slipping into cooler air and a greener, quieter landscape. Tucked into these forested foothills, the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden feels like a place designed for slow wandering—and between 1 June and 31 July 2026, it becomes especially worth the detour.

Thailand’s Cabinet has approved the cancellation of a 60-day visa exemption scheme for 93 countries, reversing a policy introduced two years ago to boost post-pandemic tourism, officials said Thursday.

Each May, the shoreline of Chaweng Beach shifts its rhythm. From 23 to 30 May 2026, Ko Samui hosts the Samui Regatta, drawing an international fleet to the Gulf of Thailand for a week of tightly contested yacht racing set against an unhurried island backdrop.

Thailand is preparing to scale back its widely applied 60-day visa-free entry scheme, as the government shifts its tourism strategy toward attracting higher-spending, long-stay visitors and tightening screening of arrivals.

Thailand is set to convene a focused gathering of global wellness players on 23 April, as the Tourism Authority of Thailand hosts the “Amazing Thailand Health & Wellness Trade Meet 2026” at Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok—bringing 74 international buyers together with 68 Thai operators in a bid to broker partnerships and expand the country’s reach in the high-value health travel market.

In the first three months of 2026, 9.31 million international visitors arrived in the country, a steady recovery that suggests the long shadow of the pandemic has largely lifted. Yet beneath the headline figures lies a more complicated reality: travellers are spending more cautiously, forcing a rethink of what success in tourism should look like.

Thailand is introducing a new safety and quality certification aimed at restoring traveller confidence and attracting more Chinese tourists, a key market for the...