Looser Visa Rules for Indian Travelers Stoke a Tourism Boom

When Ojasvi Khurana was planning an impromptu three-week vacation in April, she had one overriding consideration: Which country would allow her in on short notice. The 24-year-old engineer from Bengaluru ended up solo-tripping across the lush highlands and white-sand beaches of Thailand, in large part because the government there last November lifted visa requirements for travelers from India and a handful of other countries. “I booked my tickets to Bangkok just a few days before leaving India, because there wasn’t any visa needed,” Khurana says. “I’m really glad that worked out.”

What worked out for Khurana has also worked out for Thailand. Bookings to the country this year are up 35%, Thailand’s tourism ministry reports, including a record number of Indians. “I wanted to skip crowded places,” Khurana says, but she kept running into her compatriots. “In Chiang Mai, I made a lot of Indian friends and went partying.”