Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Tourist Visas or sometimes, there's sometimes a conflation with Visa Exemptions, Tourist Visas as we will get into in the article I am going to quote here. Sometimes these two things are conflated but long story short, I look at this as Visa Exemption status being changed. So let's get into the article. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Thai PBS World, that is thaipbsworld.com, the article is titled: PM to look into extending Tourist Visas to 90 days. Quoting directly: "The new Government will consider extending Tourist Visa validities from 30 days to 90 days and the easing of Immigration procedures, to make them more convenient for foreign tourists, said Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, responding to call from tourism business operators for the Government to boost the tourism industry."

So again you have got to understand there is a difference. A Tourist Visa is a Visa which is issued abroad that provides tourism status. A standard Thai Tourist Visa has 60 days validity with the option to extend by 30 more days. Thai Visa Exemption status is the type of status a person with certain passports get exemption status when entering the Kingdom. So for example, if an American passport holder or a British passport holder for example comes into Thailand they are granted 30 days upon arrival in exemption status; they don't have a Visa per se, but they are exempted from needing a Visa and they are granted 30 days of lawful status. So I think what the article was talking about was taking that exemption status and extending it from 30 days to 90 days. This would not surprise me, especially in light of the fact that during the Emergency Decree emanating from COVID, we actually saw under the Emergency Decree that they extended it from 30 to 45 days for a period of time so it wouldn't surprise me that there has been some review of policies regarding exemption status and a decision was made to go ahead, well perhaps not a decision but there is serious consideration of extending exemption status which in my mind would probably be a pretty good thing all things considered because it would increase not only demand in terms of Tourism, tourists coming to Thailand because they know they can stay longer, and it would also likely result in those same tourists spending more money here because they can stay here longer. 

So again it remains to be seen whether or not this will actually be implemented but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.