Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports will propose, to the economic cabinet meeting on Friday, a waiver of visa fees for tourists from China and India, who plan to stay in Thailand for not more than 15 days. It is proposed the waiver would start on November 1^st and last for 12 months.

Tourism and Sports Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn said that the one-year visa fee exemption might help encourage more Chinese and Indian tourists to visit Thailand than the waiving of the 2,000 baht visa on arrival (VOA) fee, currently given to tourists from 19 countries, including China and India.

Tourist arrivals from China dropped 4.73% to 5.65 million during the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year, which is in contrast with arrivals from India, which registered 24% increase to 978,000 for the first six months of this year.