Business owners in Phuket and those who know the tourism industry well, will all inform you that Russian holidaymakers have been short ground over the past year or two, which has had a dramatic impact on the tourism industry. Well, good news has just come in from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), who project that the Russian market will rebound in 2016.
The economic recession in Russia has been the main cause of the lack of Russians holidaying in Thailand in recent times, but all that is set to change. Russian tourist arrivals to Thailand hit rock bottom last March, down 59% in a single year.
TAT has surmised that the Russian economy is about to bounce back by the middle of next year and is expected to recover very shortly, which will have a positive knock-on effect to the Thailand tourism sector.
Let’s hope the projections are true, because holiday destinations such as Phuket, Pattaya and Koh Samui have struggled with the short fall over the past 12-months.
