Thailand waives visa fee, tourism names rejoice
Yesterday the junta/government decided to waive visa fee’s for 3 months as part of an attempt to revive tourism. What has happened since, every hotel stock (centel, mint, erw) performed well, most airline names (aav, thai, nok) have performed ok too.
Now this isn’t the first time that Thailand has done something to boost tourism, in recent history we have the following examples
- 1Q09 – The Thai government agreed to exempt visa fees for tourist applications from March ’09 to June ’09
- 1Q10 – The Thai government offers insurance coverage worth USD 10,000 to anyone harmed in riots and demonstrations as well as the waiver on all visa fees to discounts on airline landing fees, there was also a USD 100 promise if tourists faced travel delays because of riots or demonstrations
A rebound in tourism isn’t a surprise if you’ve been following Thailand for the past decade, this country has seen every animal flu possible (ok only birds and pigs), a tsunami, 2 coups, multi-coloured street riots, a mall being burnt down and yet after each incident tourism recovers well.
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