Thailand’s Digital Arrival Card to be Mandatory for Foreign Tourists from May 1

From Might 1, all international guests to Thailand should full a digital arrival card earlier than entry. The “Thailand Digital Arrival Card” (TDAC) is a digital platform to streamline entry procedures within the nation.

Whereas the positioning to use for the digital card is already stay, Thailand might be making it obligatory from Might 1. Vacationers, no matter their mode of entry by air, land, or sea, would wish to pre-register on-line as much as three days earlier than arrival, offering private and journey particulars comparable to passport data and lodging addresses.

The cardboard, replaces the standard paper-based TM6 arrival type. It goals to expedite immigration processing and enhance information assortment. The TM6 immigration kinds have been suspended on April 15 final yr.

The initiative is a part of Thailand’s broader ambition to determine itself as a “Good Tourism Vacation spot,” and supply a extra environment friendly expertise for worldwide guests.

To drive adoption, the Immigration Bureau has launched multilingual promotional supplies, together with educational movies and brochures in English, Chinese language, Korean, Russian, and Japanese.

The rollout of the digital card would additionally delay Thailand’s plans to implement the long-debated 300-baht ($9) tourism charge, as reported by native media.

Thailand has additionally delayed the launch of the Digital Journey Authorization (ETA) system to pre-screen visa-free vacationers, which was initially deliberate for December 1, 2024.

Overseas Arrivals Go Down

Thailand’s tourism sector has been going through important challenges.

Based on a report launched by the Financial institution of Thailand on Monday, financial exercise in February noticed a downturn, significantly in tourism-related companies.

Overseas vacationer arrivals and income declined notably, with February experiencing a close to 14% month-on-month drop in customer numbers and a 9% decline in whole vacationer receipts.

The downturn was most evident amongst Chinese language and Malaysian vacationers, which had beforehand surged throughout the Chinese language New Yr interval however have since dwindled as a consequence of security issues and financial components.

Nevertheless, arrivals from Japan, India, and Russia confirmed modest development, suggesting shifting dynamics in Thailand’s customer demographics.

In response to those challenges, the tourism ministry in Thailand has mentioned it’s revising its tourism technique for the latter half of 2025, significantly in gentle of issues from Chinese language vacationers and weak confidence following the current earthquake, in line with a Bangkok Put up report.

Tourism and Sports activities Minister Sorawong Thienthong emphasised the necessity to restore confidence amongst Chinese language guests.

The ministry plans to have interaction with the Chinese language ambassador and invite outstanding Chinese language media influencers to showcase Thailand’s security measures and reassure potential vacationers.

The Myanmar Earthquake

The March 28 earthquake has additional impacted regional journey sentiment. Studies in Chinese language media point out that journey platforms at the moment are providing cancellation and refund choices for lodge bookings and airline tickets for vacationers to Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. 

In response to a question from Skift, Journey.com mentioned that it has introduced help measures for affected vacationers, providing free cancellation for lodge bookings made earlier than March 28 in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Ruili Metropolis, Yunnan, China for check-in dates between March 28 and April 4, 2025.

Moreover, airline refunds or rebooking choices might be accessible based mostly on particular person airline insurance policies.

“Clients who meet the airline’s refund coverage can course of a full refund or free rebooking on our web site or app,” Journey.com mentioned. “We urge travellers who’re travelling to, or are at the moment in, the affected areas to train warning and monitor improvement by means of native media and authorities.”