The Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA) is confident that Taiwan will become a new popular tourist destination if the country approves a visa exemption for Thai citizens.
The TTAA believes a visa waiver would significantly boost the number of Thai tourists visiting Taiwan, the same way the number of Thai tourists visiting Japan surged after the Japanese government offered a visa fee exemption for Thais a few years ago.
Taiwan has relaxed its visa rule for a certain period and already waived the visa fee for Thai tourists using the services of 24 Thai tour companies qualified by the Taiwanese government.
"I am confident that if the Taiwanese government offers a visa exemption to Thai travellers, the number of Thais going to Taiwan will surpass South Korea," said TTAA president Suparerk Soonrangura.
He said the visa-exemption policy is an effective strategy for many countries wishing to boost their tourism industry.
If the Taiwanese government thinks that tourism is important to its economy, this will happen very soon.
The island is becoming one of the most popular outbound destinations because it takes only three hours to fly from Thailand to Taiwan compared with five hours to South Korea. Besides, package tour prices to Taiwan start from only 10,000 baht and its currency is stable.
"Trips to Taiwan are as safe as those to Japan and South Korea. Besides, Taiwan is interesting for activities like cycling and has affordable products for shopping enthusiasts," Mr Suparerk said.
Taiwan is becoming more popular because three low-cost airlines have launched services in the past few years. Tourist arrivals from Thailand grew 18.7% to 124,409 and the figure is expected to surge 36% to 170,000 visitors this year, according to the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan.
In the first five months of this year, arrivals from Thailand grew by 40% to 70,145 visitors.
Mr Suparerk said Taiwan is likely to further relax its visa rule and will probably waive visa fees for Thai citizens travelling to the country in the near future.
The success of Japan is proof that the visa exemption policy is a key strategy to drive the tourism industry.
Japan has waived visa fees for Thai visitors since July 1, 2013. Consequently, the number of Thai visitors rose from 453,000 in 2013 to 796,000 last year.
The number reached 438,000 in the first five months of this year, showing a 15.2% increase year-on-year.
Currently, the visa fee to Taiwan is 1,700 baht for a single-entry trip and 3,400 baht for multiple entries.