Agreement between nations for a shared visa zone for the Southeast Asia, similar to Europe’s Schengen visa regime, has gathered momentum after Vietnam and Thailand agreed recently to pilot the initiative.
The proposed 'Six Countries, One Destination' visa would allow tourists to travel freely between Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Officials meeting at the ASEAN summit in Laos last month said a visa facilitating seamless travel across six neighbouring countries would drive regional tourism.
Thailand has gone even further by suggesting the move could lead to visa-free travel between the six ASEAN countries and the Schengen region.
The border-free Schengen Area guarantees free movement to more than 425 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists.
The 29 Schengen countries are Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Additionally, several non-EU countries like Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein are integral members despite their non-EU status.
Currently, visa policies differ markedly between ASEAN countries, ranging from Singapore’s visa-free policy for 162 jurisdictions to Vietnam’s visa exemption for 25 countries.
Cao Tri Dũng, chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, said that while the proposed visa policy would expand the tourism market for ASEAN, it would also intensify competition between countries, and those with less attractive destinations would lose out.