Russians Goes For Number 1 & Expected To Stay In Phuket

Russian visitors were the number one foreign tourists in Phuket over the Christmas holiday, and with increasing entry restrictions to Thailand except for the Phuket Sandbox, that trend is anticipated to continue over the New Year holiday.  Before the pandemic, Russian tourists were one of Phuket’s major tourism target markets. Now that Russians have been permitted to enter Thailand, their numbers have progressively climbed to become the top nationality for tourist arrivals since the end of November.

Today’s temperature in Moscow is -9 degrees.

For many years, Russians spending their winter months on Phuket was a cornerstone of Phuket tourism. The trend continued to grow until the COVID-19 pandemic suspended international travel. Now, Russia has reclaimed the top spot in terms of tourist arrivals.

According to Phuket Immigration, 17,513 Russians have visited the island since the beginning of December, followed by German visitors 11,960 and British visitors 9,476.

One aspect that will keep Russia’s dominance in terms of tourism arrivals is the suspension of the popular Test & Go entry program, a program that allows overseas arrivals for just a few hours of quarantine while waiting for COVID-19 test results. While returning to quarantined entry could discourage tourists from 63 Test & Go approved countries from visiting Thailand, countries such as Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan were never added to the approved list. Thus the Phuket Sandbox was and continues to be the primary point of entry for the citizens of these countries.

The airline schedule into Phuket continues to expand with direct flights from key cities in Russian-speaking nations. Sunday Airlines resumed flights from Almaty, Kazakhstan, to Phuket, Thailand on Sunday, bringing 240 travelers with them. Ural Airlines operates flights from Irkutsk. In Russia’s far east, flights resumed on Christmas with 90 passengers on their debut excursion.

Source: Phuket News

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