Thailand’s Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, is pushing for a joint-visa program with five other neighboring countries. Among other things, this initiative aims to draw in more long-distance and big-spending travelers, as reported by the local media referring to Bloomberg.

In the past few months, Srettha has talked about a Schengen-style visa plan with leaders from Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, VisaGuide.World reports.

As further reported, most of the leaders have supported this idea. Hence, Thailand is aiming to generate more revenues from tourism, one of its main industries.

Official data shows that Thailand along with the above mentioned countries welcomed nearly 70 million visitors in 2023. Meanwhile, Thailand and Malaysia together made up over half of the total, bringing in around US$48 billion in tourism earnings.