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Thailand added to Irish Visa Waiver Programme
The Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter, TD,
recently announced that, from Monday, 18 November, citizens of Thailand are now
able to avail of the Irish Short-stay Visa Waiver Programme.
Based on current experience with other visa waiver countries in Asia, this is
likely to prove a significant boost to efforts to attract more visitors to
Ireland from Thailand.
The Minister has signed the necessary legislation to add Thailand to the list of
seventeen countries currently covered by the Programme. The Minister launched
the Short-stay Visa Waiver Programme, the first programme of its kind in the
history of the State, on 1 July 2011. This allows visitors or businesspeople
from seventeen countries who have lawfully entered the UK, including Northern
Ireland, on a valid UK visa, to travel on to Ireland without the requirement to
obtain an Irish visa. CSO figures that there was a 38% increase in the number of
visitors from the countries involved in 2012 compared to 2010, the last full
year before the introduction of the programme.
The Minister said that the programme was an “unqualified success” and that the
CSO figures demonstrated a real positive impact of the government’s initiative.
“Tourists have started to come back again to Ireland in increasing numbers and
the introduction of the visa waiver programme as an aid to this resurgence in
the market has been described as a step change. I am delighted to add the
growing tourism and business market of Thailand to the list of countries covered
by the programme,” he added.
The Minister pointed out that well over 500,000 Thais visited Europe in 2012
with about 140,000 going to the UK, but less than 6,000 coming to Ireland. “This
shows the potential of this move.” the Minister said. The waiver opens up visa
free travel to Ireland via the UK for this large pool of visitors. As a side
trip they may now travel on here for up to 90 days without an Irish visa and
without the necessity to complete any further paperwork. In addition to the
paperwork involved, Thai nationals would also have had to pay the cost of a
visit visa, i.e. €60 per adult and child. Like all other nationals of countries
in the Irish visa waiver programme, they will no longer bear these costs.
He also pointed out that officials of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration
Service of his Department continue to work with their UK counterparts on
developing reciprocal visa arrangements for the Common Travel Area for
introduction in the middle of next year. “The eventual plan is to have a system
whereby only one visa is required to travel to and around the Common Travel
Area,” explained the Minister. “In the meantime, the Irish Visa Waiver Programme
continues to bring significant benefits to the economy.”
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