Although some of the businesses on the ground in Phuket might want to disagree, Thailand’s main 6 airport have reported growth in passenger traffic of 21.35% in 2015, totaling just under 110 million. This movement has shown an upturn in tourism to Thailand, which could be down to the weaker baht and the economy slowly coming back in Russia, alongside the large influx of Chinese tourists to Thailand.
The growth and momentum is expected to leak into 2016, although AOT, whom are the state operator for the 6 airports, have conservatively projected growth of 11% in 2016.
Even well-known hospitality experts such as Bill Barnett from C9Hotelworks, recently told The Phuket News that “The private sector is leading the way. People can talk about the push for ‘quality tourists’ over quantity, but the market will determine it. In short, with the baht down, there is value in the market and this year 32 million tourist arrivals are expected. ”
From Phuket’s side of things, the new Phuket international Airport expansion has come at the right time, almost doubling its capacity to handle 12.5 million passengers from the previous total of 6.5 million.
