What: Thailand has launched THIM, a government app for foreign visitors that brings immigration procedures and retail and travel privileges from partners including The Mall Group onto a single platform, recording more than 600,000 downloads since 1 August.

Why it is important: A state-run entry platform is becoming a retail channel, giving launch partners such as The Mall Group access to foreign visitors before they reach a store.

Thailand's Immigration Bureau, which operates under the Royal Thai Police, has launched THIM as a single digital gateway for foreign nationals, covering pre-arrival preparation, entry procedures, stays in the country, tourism information and visitor privileges. The bureau cites mounting pressure on airport and border checkpoint capacity, aiming to speed up procedures without compromising national security.

The app hosts the Thailand Digital Arrival Card and an Explore Thailand section. Queue booking, certificates of stay, visa extensions, 90-day reporting and visa on arrival are planned. Available since 1 August 2026, THIM has recorded more than 600,000 downloads and over 580,000 users.

Identity verification relies on NFC reading of passport chips, liveness detection and facial comparison. Biometric data is kept separate from other personal data, data is encrypted in transit and storage, and personal information falls under Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act. The app is hosted on the AWS Asia Pacific (Bangkok) Region.

Explore Thailand gives visitors coupons and privileges redeemable by QR or promotion code. Launch partners include The Mall Group, GrabTaxi, Wipay, True Corporation, The Minor Food Group, Minor International and Bangkok Dusit Medical Services. The bureau plans to add information on attractions, accommodation and activities.

IADS Notes: The Mall Group's presence among THIM's launch partners follows its payment partnership with UnionPay International, which combined acceptance for Chinese tourists with a year-long programme of discounts and cash coupons (The Nation, November 2025). The group has since built a loyalty base of more than seven million members, co-branded payment cards and multilingual AI shopping assistants (Retail News Asia, May 2026). The competition for inbound spending is intense: Thailand captured a large share of the Chinese tourists who turned away from Japan over Lunar New Year, while Japanese duty-free and luxury retailers absorbed the loss (South China Morning Post, February 2026). China's visa-free scheme, under which 77.7% of foreign arrivals entered the country in the first half of 2026, shows how entry policy has itself become a lever for inbound demand (The Diplomat, August 2026), although higher arrivals do not automatically translate into retail sales, a gap that privileges distributed at the point of entry are designed to address.

Thailand launches THIM as digital gateway for foreign visitors