Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Public Well being Minister Anutin Charnvirakul warmly welcomed the Chinese language vacationers, and introduced beautiful small presents to them. (Photograph/Courtesy of Xiamen Airways)
A complete of 269 Chinese language passengers, travelling on a Xiamen Airways flight, landed in Thailand on Monday, marking the primary group of Chinese language vacationers arriving within the Southeast Asian nation after the adjustment of China’s coverage shift on COVID-19 shift.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Public Well being Minister Anutin Charnvirakul warmly welcomed the Chinese language vacationers on the airport, and introduced beautiful small presents to them.
The minister stated that any new COVID-related measures adopted in Thailand is not going to discriminate towards vacationers from any nation, together with China.
As China continues to optimize and alter its anti-epidemic insurance policies and reopened its borders from Sunday, it’s poised to rebuild confidence within the financial restoration in the entire Asia-Pacific area, particularly the Southeast Asian international locations wherein tourism trade is a pillar sector.
Many Asian international locations have expressed their eagerness to welcome the return of Chinese language vacationers, a serious supply of their worldwide tourism revenues.
Flight bookings from Chinese language mainland to Southeast Asian international locations have elevated, following China’s virus coverage adjustment .
Xiamen Airways’ worldwide, intercontinental and regional round-trip flight pre-sales have elevated considerably, in response to a information launch Xiamen Airways despatched to the World Occasions on Monday.
Earlier than the Spring Competition, the pre-sale passenger load of Xiamen Airways’ China-Thailand flights was nearing 90 p.c, and flights on some particular dates had been already bought out prematurely.
The airline stated it’s going to additional resume and improve the variety of worldwide, intercontinental and regional flights with a view to meet the outbound demand.
Thailand is a well-liked vacationer vacation spot for Chinese language sightseers. The return of Chinese language vacationers will definitely assist bolster its tourism trade and associated companies reminiscent of lodging, transportation, meals and drinks.
Huang Bin, a China knowledgeable with the Thai suppose tank Kasikorn Analysis Middle, informed the World Occasions on Monday that, because of the agenda for China to completely open its tour journey companies, the middle expects 1 million Chinese language passengers to the nation this yr, which is a pointy rise from solely 260,000 arrivals seen in 2022.
The reopening of China will probably assist uplift Thailand’s 2023 GDP by 0.6 share factors, Huang stated, noting that tourism as a pillar trade for Thailand contributes to about 10 p.c of its GDP.
The Thai authorities expects about 300,000 Chinese language vacationers to go to Thailand within the first three months of this yr. It has additionally set a goal of roughly 5 million Chinese language vacationer arrivals in 2023, equal to 45 p.c of the arrivals seen in 2019.
