The Thai authorities said on Friday that the list of countries exempt from a visa to travel to the Asian country will be expanded from 57 to 93 from next Monday.

In this case, new additions such as Mexico, Colombia and Uruguay, among others, will be included.

On its Facebook page, the Thai Ministry of the Interior pointed out that on July 15 the new list of countries will enter into force that will also extend the allowed stay to a total of 60 days, a measure that seeks to encourage tourism that is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023).

Countries such as Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru did not need a visa before the new measure, while the expansion will benefit more Latin American countries such as Panama, Guatemala, Cuba and Ecuador.

In the last year, Thailand has reached visa-free agreements or extension of residence permits with countries such as China, India and Russia in an attempt to revive tourism, which represented between 12 and 20% of its gross domestic product before the pandemic.

In 2023, about 28 million foreign tourists visited Thailand, mainly from Malaysia (4.6 million), China (3.5 million), South Korea (1.66 million), India (1.62 million) and Russia (1.4 million), according to official data.

For this year, the Ministry of Tourism foresees a more robust recovery of the sector with the arrival of about 35 million international tourists.

In 2019, before the pandemic, Thailand touched 40 million tourists, of which Chinese travelers accounted for more than 27% of the total with more than 11 million visitors to the Asian giant.