Skift Take
Southeast Asian countries have a grand vision for visa-free travel, massive infrastructure projects and more airline competition to grow route networks. However, too much bureaucracy and political unrest stand in the way for this to become a reality in the near-term.
Southeast Asia's tourism industry is looking to Europe's models of visa-free travel and Open Skies to boost their own travel and tourism prospects despite isolationist rhetoric and policies playing out elsewhere.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-member political and economic alliance for a population of 645.8 million people, which is larger than the European Union, wants a single visa policy for the region and improved Open Skies agreements with airlines.
A single visa for ASEAN countries is already in the works and could come as soon as later this year or 2018, said Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Thailand's Minister of Tourism and Sports "We plan to start this between Thailand and Cambodia," she said. "There have been some issues, not concerning security, but because we give free visas to some countries but [they don't reciprocate with Thailand]."
As millions of people across the region gain more disposable income for travel, tourism officials view overhauling visa requirements as an easier-to-solve problem than larger challenges such as tackling infrastructure investments in airports.
With 104 million international arrivals across the region in 2015 -- many of them from China -- ASEAN countries are increasingly focusing on marketing the region as one destination rather than 10 separate destinations, and that's a big reason they seek a common visa policy.
ASEAN tourism arrivals across the 10 countries, which include Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, will grow by an average of 6.5 percent per year during the next decade, said Wattanavrangkul as she at the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit in Bangkok on April 27.
The European Union's Schengen Area is the inspiration for ASEAN's ambition for a single, regional visa. Indonesia, for example, is the most populous ASEAN member state and already grants visa-free travel to 169 countries -- that makes Indonesia one of the world's most liberalized countries for visa policies.
Arief Yahya, Indonesia's minister of tourism, said in 2014 the country's visa-free policy only included 15 countries while Singapore allowed 155 nationalities
