Thailand Woos Middle Eastern Health Tourists

Thailand will offer 90-day visas on arrival to citizens of six Middle Eastern countries for private health treatment in a bid to boost its status as a medical tourism hub, officials said Tuesday.

The visas will be available to nationals of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates provided they can show proof of their medical appointment in Thailand.

"Thailand wants to be Asia's medical hub and in the past the length of stay was inconveniently short so the government decided to extend it to not more than 90 days" from 30 days currently, a government spokeswoman told reporters.