More Swiss, Russian and Baltic flights due
Written by changthai11 on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
New charters cheer up TAT
More Swiss, Russian and Baltic flights due
CHATRUDEE THEPARAT
Charter flights from Switzerland, Russia and Baltic countries to Thailand in the coming high season will help offset the slowdown in foreign visitors over the past two months, according to Phornsiri Manoharn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
She said that charter flights from many countries during high season were set to more than double from last year, with activity expected to remain high until May next year.
Bookings for charter flights from Switzerland to Phuket so far for 2008-09 total 62 with 18,000 seats, an increase from 24 flights with 7,000 seats in the same period a year earlier.
A total of 812 charter flights with 195,530 seats are scheduled to fly from Russia to Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi and Surat Thani, compared with 446 flights with 134,320 seats in the previous year.
Charters from Baltic countries are forecast to rise to 25 flights with 7,000 seats from 15 flights with 4,200 seats.
Mrs Phornsiri said the number of foreign tourists from the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was expected to increase by 30% this year to 20,000.
Mrs Phornsiri said charter flights from France, Germany and some other European markets were also expanding. However, charters from Scandinavia have decreased slightly to 640 flights with 195,000 seats compared with 652 flights with 198,000 seats in 2007.
The charter flights are expected to help the country recover from a decline in foreign arrivals in August and September, when political tensions escalated and some travellers became concerned about safety in Thailand.
Prior to August, the industry had been performing relatively well. In the first seven months of this year, foreign visitors to Thailand totalled 9.14 million, a rise of 12.65% from the same period last year.
European visitors totalled 2.49 million, up 8.9%, with East Asians up 15% to 485,738 and South Asian visitors totalling 499,988, up 11.5%.
US visitors totalled 580,629, up 10.2%, with a similar rise from other parts of the Americas.
A total of 14.46 million tourists visited Thailand last year.
Given the US financial crisis, Mrs Phornsiri said the impact on tour bookings for the high season was not as serious as some people had feared, as the industry had successfully shifted to quality and niche markets.
The targets of 4.06 million European visitors and 640,000 from the US were still achievable, she added.
