Nothing ruins the giddy anticipation for a holiday like landing in your destination and realizing that you’ve still got to go through a lengthy immigration process (and correctly identify your nondescript suitcase at baggage claim).
Luckily for those of us who are fond of the Land of Smiles (and really, who’s not?), the Thai immigration chief has announced that tourists from Hong Kong and Singapore will soon be allowed to use automated passport scanner gates at Bangkok airports.
According to the Straits Times, the 52 scanners at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang international airports are reserved for Thai nationals only, but a portion could be allocated to Hong Kong and Singaporean visitors as soon as this month. While the actual immigration process takes only about a minute for us right now, non-Thai people currently spend roughly 30 minutes just queuing to be processed.
Immigration chief Lieutenant-General Nathathorn Prousoontorn told the Nation, “We plan to introduce this new system […] this month or next month. Cooperation with Singapore on the matter is nearly 100 per cent complete, but for Hong Kong we need more discussions.”
Those wishing to use the automated machines need to register with the Thai immigration office before their visit, after which tedious queues spent hastily scribbling in landing cards will be a distant memory.
Prousoontorn noted that while a whopping nine million Chinese tourists visit Thailand per year, those people tend not to return. In comparison, roughly one million holidaymakers from Hong Kong and Singapore travel to Thailand annually, but they often do so even more frequently than that, making several trips in a year.
The bureau will reportedly extend the automated gate privileges to other countries without visa requirements, like Australia and some European countries.
Text by Coconuts Hong Kong
