RP, Thailand to push single visa for ASEAN tourism
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:11:00 05/23/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- To boost tourism in the region, the Philippines and Thailand have agreed to urge the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to adopt a single visa policy for tourists traveling within the 10-nation bloc.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said this was one of the understandings firmed up at the Thursday meeting between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and visiting Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.
Samak, said Ermita, " was very upbeat about tourism. He said that maybe we can agree among ASEAN countries, starting with the Philippine-Thailand agreement, [to do away with the] necessity of having a visa for tourists coming in and out of Thailand and vice versa.”
The Office of the Press Secretary, in a statement, also said Arroyo hoped, during the meeting, that the two countries could work together with Thailand assumes chairmanship of the regional bloc in July “to have a common visa for all the ten countries so that countries who visit Thailand can also visit one or the other of these countries in ASEAN.”
This was also one of the measures tourism ministers were looking at during the last ASEAN summit as part of efforts to promote the region as a single destination.
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