Thailand encourages tourism by having a 30 day visa on arrival. What that means is you arrive at the airport , show your passport, get a piece of paper stapled inside it that states you must leave by this date. In 2016 a total of 32,588,303 tourists arrived during the year, which showed an increase of 2,665,118 tourists (8.91%) when compared with the previous year.
In contrast Canada: (https://www.biv.com/article/2017/2/canadian-tourism-arrivals-hit-14-year-high/)
'Canada welcomed its second-highest number of visitors in 2016 and its highest amount than any year since 2002, according to new data released by Destination Canada.
The 19,979,334 international visitors in 2016 were 10% more than in 2015 with increases across the board in Canada’s top tourism markets.
The number of overseas visitors increased 16% to 6,079,520 while the number of U.S. visitors increased by 10% to 13,899,814.
Outside of the U.S., the next largest source of visitors to Canada was the U.K., where 833,329 people came to Canada, or 17% more than in 2015.'
Most of Canada's tourism comes from the states where they simply drive across the border for the weekend or perhaps a week. Given the sorry state of the Canadian $ in relation to the US $ the increase should elicit a 'duh'. Almost all of the tourism comes from countries that don't require a visa.
The emerging markets in Asia and the S.E. Asia require visa and if you ever applied for a TRV or visitor's visa you would understand why it is such a turn off for anyone wanting to visit Canada.
IMHO, Canada is a much more beautiful and scenic country than Thailand. Seen one pristine beach or Buddhist temple, seen them all. Canadian airports suck compared to S.E. Asia with the exception of Vancouver airport which was upgraded for the winter Olympics.
The question that comes to mind is why does Canada throw road blocks (TRV's) to more tourism arrivals from the emerging markets? It appears to me, that the government bureaucrats are paranoid that the country will fill up with Asians who will over stay and claim refugee status. It begs the question why Thailand is not plagued by tourists overstaying their visa.
In actual fact Thailand does have a problem, but it pails in contrast to Canada's. Thailand is not a nanny state that provides free legal aid and welfare to people claiming refugee status. You are on your own, sink or swim. The people who overstay usually result to criminal activity to support themselves and they get rounded up and kicked out of the country or thrown in Thai jails which unlike Canadian prisons do not come equipped with color TVs, air conditioning, gyms, and free education.
A bigger problem Canada has is that they do not track when a visitor leaves, only when they enter, unlike most countries in the world. We don't even have a national ID card so it is hard to tell who belongs and who does not. If Canada had not wasted billions on the defunct long gun registry we could have implemented a better tracking system for visa arrivals.
Why do I care? I see the purchasing power of my Canadian $ tanking while traditional industries like the oil industry falter. The best natural resource we have is nature and it is always renewable with each passing season. Instead of tapping into the emerging tourism markets of Asia Canada brags about the increase from countries like the US and England. Perhaps the hidden rule is no brown or yellow tourists needed.
Where does Canada stand in the world with a 75 cent dollar? We are the tourism bargain of the western world, but at the same time we are held hostage inside Canada because of the 75 cent dollar makes it too expensive to visit abroad.
We should be proud to be the 'Giant Tiger' of the tourism world.
TTYL
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