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The Russian assault surprises Thailand’s tourism forces

With 230,000 joyful tourists besieging beaches, temples, and the ever-popular red-light districts around the country, Russia ranks just 13th this year in terms of Thailand’s source markets. Thailand is a popular tourist destination. On the other hand, this month has seen a considerable rise in arrivals thanks to Aeroflot aircraft departing from Novosibirsk as well as chartered flights. The majority of chartered flights from Russia travel to Pattaya and Phuket as their final destinations. ATTA’s Adith Chairattananon reported that there has been an increase in the number of queries from Russian travel agents regarding vacation packages to Thailand. This has jolted cash-strapped tour operators back into action sooner than was originally anticipated. “There are relatively few Thai operators that specialize in the Russian sector — most of the players are native Russians,” Adith added, bemoaning the independent thinking of Russian visitors who were arriving in Thailand. Mainly due to the fact that those local professionals in the Russian market have not yet started operating again. After being closed for an extended period of time, it is likely that Thai operators who are not familiar with this industry would experience a few difficulties when they attempt to resume their enterprises. Adith predicted that it would take his members until the beginning of the following year to become accustomed to the new Russian flavor of guests. Despite the fact that there is limited flying capacity and there is evident proof to the contrary on the beaches and islands, Sisdivachr claimed that all of the tourists who came from India, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore have already returned home. According to Sisdivachr, traditionally significant markets in northern Asia like Taiwan and Japan have remained stagnant. Sisdivachr said that it would be some time before there is an improvement in overall performance because there were no indicators of China reopening during President Xi Jinping’s recent presence at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok. The recent invasion of Thailand by a large number of Russians caught the country’s tourist authorities by total and utter surprise.

Tourism operators are scrambling to cope with an army of independent travelers who are more than capable of looking after themselves. This has left commentators scrambling to occupy the moral high ground. Unexpected numbers of tourists coming from the war-torn county have left tourism operators scrambling to cope. Despite months or even years of doing very little, tourism businesses and providers of guides and buses are astonishingly unprepared for the inflow. This includes enterprises that cater to tourists. ATTA is preoccupied with the spread of marketing material to a group of people who each have their own notions about what they want to get out of their time spent in the kingdom. This is because ATTA is more concerned with supporting tour operators than actual tourists. According to Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, the president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), the Russian tourism sector has returned much more quickly than was anticipated, despite the fact that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is still ongoing.

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