More Russians are reportedly interested in venturing down to Thailand! After Russia announced earlier this week it would lift Covid-19 restrictions on flights to 52 countries, starting April 9, some Russian tourism staff claim there was a massive increase in Thailand search inquiries by Russians.
Searches for tickets to Thailand reportedly went up by 20%, according to one popular vacation planning service in Russia called OneTwoTrip. OneTwoTrip reported that Russians’ interest in all countries grew between 5-350%. Elena Shelehova, head of OneTwoTrip, told Russian state news about the jump in travel interest ever since the Russian government announced on April 4 that it would lift restrictions.
“…growth in interest is witnessed for basically all the destinations- from 5% to 350% compared to average daily numbers for the week from March 29 to April 3”.
At the same time, flights are still on hold. Russian airlines are under heavy pressure from Western sanctions. Due to rerouting and oil prices, there are limited connecting flights conducted by foreign operators.
Last month, Russians who had already traveled to Thailand were stranded there. There were over 7,000 Russian and Ukrainian tourists across Thailand, with about about 3,000 Russians alone stranded in Phuket. Following the move by Mastercard and Visa to cut off services to cards issued in Russia, many Russians couldn’t access their financial funds to pay for flights.
Russians made of the biggest group of tourists in Phuket in December, and over 17,000 of them arrived on the Island that month. They were also a major part of tourism since pre-Covid days.
SOURCE: The Phuket News
