Proposed unified Southeast Asia visa nearing full approval

A few years ago, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations planned to adopt a single visa system to enable non-ASEAN citizens to visit any of the group’s 10 member states (Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar) on a single visa. The accord is yet to gather full support from all involved countries since the proposal was floated in 2011, but it seems implementation is nearing.

Image source: traveldailynews.asia

Patterned after Europe’s Schengen single visa system, the ASEAN single visitor visa policy aims to enhance and advance the tourism sector in the region, boosting arrivals to member states. To date, only diplomatic missions are given access to the country without the stringent process that a regular visitor usually goes through.

The ambitious plan takes into account global realities and is designed to improve hospitality-related metrics in the ASEAN region. While it has fallen short of fulfilling the Tourism Strategic Plan 2011/2015 (which aims to promote the region as a single tourist destination) within the targeted timeframe, it is still slated to improve the region’s tourism standards and enable tourism employees to work in any ASEAN country.

Image source: phoenix-acumen.com

The strategy also gained strong support from the so-called ‘Plus 3’ countries, which are comprised of Asian countries China, Japan, and South Korea. In addition, ASEAN is moving toward the implementation of an open skies aviation policy, which is scheduled to come into effect within the coming years.

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