PHUKET: About half the tourists who visited the resort island of Phuket in the first half of the year were from India and the numbers are expected to rise even further when the holiday peak season starts.
However, despite tourism in the Thai southern island being driven by the Indian market, about half of all hotels on the island remain closed as they await the start of the peak season.
Suksit Suvunditkul, president of the southern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), said business in Phuket hotels have gradually picked up in the first half with an average occupancy rate of around 40 per cent in May.
He said it was mostly driven by travellers from India, Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom.
According to a Bangkok Post report, he said the Indian market saw a significant growth during this period with more than 52,000 tourists from May 1 to June 25, more than twice the number of Singaporeans, who were second with almost 20,000 travellers.
"The situation in Phuket has mostly returned to normal with tourists in some destinations, such as Patong, starting to take masks off after Thailand lifted the mandate last week. The spread of new sub variants doesn't impact sentiment at the moment," said Suksit.
Meanwhile, the Post report said that the outlook for the Indian market in July remains strong with direct flights from Thai Smile Airways, Go First Airlines and Indigo Airlines connecting Phuket with key cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai.
In July, Phuket will have 15 airlines flying 58 direct flights to the island, bringing tourists from India, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Qatar, Israel and the UK, with an average load factor of about 80 per cent.
However, since it is currently the low season for Thailand, around half of Phuket hotels remain temporarily closed but THA expects most hotels on the island to resume business with the start of high season in October.
This is when Europeans start travelling again, especially with chartered flights from Russia.
However, given that Phuket received three million Chinese tourists in 2019, or one-third of all its foreign visitors, it may be difficult to see a strong recovery for the hotels without this crucial market.
"Chinese travellers typically generated revenue in all types of hotels in all locations, ranging from three-star hotels to luxury resorts, which was different from European guests, who are the main market for beach resorts and luxury hotels. This means the hotel industry recovery will be uneven," said Suksit.
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Yuthasak Supasorn said Russian tour operators had told them that there was high demand in the eastern part of the country, especially by those from Novosibirsk and Vladivostok.
The Russian operators have said that at least 450,000 airline seats were ready to bring tourists to Thailand from October to December this year.
However, as scheduled flights are still largely frozen due to the Russia - Ukraine conflict, TAT has to work with airlines to help connect those cities to Thailand with chartered flights.