KOTA BARU: Malaysians travelling to Thailand by car or motorcycle will soon no longer need to fill the arrival and departure cards or T.M.6 form.
A Thai spokesman said the matter was among the topics discussed betweenThai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Melbourne, Australia recently.
The spokesman said before this, Malaysian drivers needed to fill the T.M.6 form or locally known as Tor Mor 6 every time they enter Thailand.
"All vehicles entering Thailand via its land borders must fill in T.M.6 and keep it with them until exiting, with those who lose the card face a hefty fine by Thai Immigration when exiting the country.
"As filling up the T.M.6 takes time and could cause inconvenience for travellers from Malaysia, Thailand last year exempted the need for filling the form for six months until Apr 30 for Malaysians crossing the border through the Sadao checkpoint in Songkhla.
"The initiative of exempting the T.M 6 requirement at the Sadao checkpoint has been successful as the number of Malaysians visiting the country via the checkpoint has tripled from 10,000 to 30,000 on weekends.
"Seeing this, the Thai government is planning to exempt the T.M. 6 requirement at all land borders with Malaysia," said the spokesman.
Srettha in a Facebook post as reported in an online portal stated that the two prime ministers discussed various topics which include tourism-related matters such as Thailand's "6 Countries, 1 Destination" proposal, the rising cost of airfares and flight schedules, as well as working together to ensure seamless travel between Malaysia and Thailand via all borders.
He also discussed with Anwar on Thailand's plans to abolish the requirement for travellers driving from Malaysia to fill out arrival and departure cards at all land borders between the two countries.
Srettha said last year, Malaysian tourists were the highest number of foreign travellers who visited Thailand and hoped that by abolishing the requirement for arrival and departure cards, more tourists from Malaysia would visit the country this year.
It is learnt that Thailand recorded the highest number of international tourists in Southeast Asia last year with 28.09 million visitors.
A breakdown of the country's 2023 tourism statistics revealed that over 4.6 million of those tourists were Malaysians.