Thailand launches Digital Arrival card for foreign visitors amid crackdown

By Thomas Kutty Abraham

  Thailand will require foreign visitors to fill up a pre-departure digital form from May 1, a move that will make it easy for authorities to track travelers amid a broadening crackdown against human trafficking into Southeast Asia’s illegal cybercrime centers. 

  Starting Monday, travelers can fill up the Thailand Digital Arrival Card for trips beginning Thursday. The online card replaces the previously used paper form, and is mandatory for all foreigners entering the country by air, land or sea routes, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The forms can be accessed on the Thai Immigration Bureau’s website.

 

The arrival cards will be synced with Thai immigration bureau’s biometric database, which will allow for screening of criminal backgrounds of visitors, Choengron Rimpadee, chief of the Immigration Division 2 at Suvarnabhumi Airport, told reporters last week. 

 

The introduction of mandatory pre-departure card comes in the wake of a multinational crackdown against criminal gangs operating cyber scam centers in border towns of Myanmar and Cambodia. The viral kidnapping of a Chinese actor earlier this year triggered the campaign as traffickings through Thailand have stoked security concerns among Chinese travelers, who were the largest group of tourists last year. 

Thailand is popular among tourists for its tropical climate, pristine beaches, a vibrant nightlife and Buddhist temples. The industry, which employs one in five of the country’s workforce and accounts for about 13% of gross domestic product, has welcomed about 12 million tourists since the start of the year, little changed from a year earlier. 

 

Travelers may submit the online forms up to three days before their scheduled arrival date and they can be submitted individually or as a group, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Required details include passport information, personal and travel details, accommodation in Thailand, and a basic health declaration. It’s modeled on the digital arrival card requirements in many other countries.

 

Still, the mandatory arrival cards are unlikely to affect tourism sentiment, according to Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.