Thailand has recorded an increase in Russian visitors, with monthly arrivals doubling in November and up nearly seven times in September.
Reuters reports that in November, Thailand welcomed 1.7 million visitors, four times as many as the entire previous year, when the pandemic disrupted international flights and foreign arrivals. A considerable amount of this figure was Russian travelers who have always sought out the warmer climate of Thailand in the winter.
Thailand canceled the requirement of vaccination certificates and negative Covid-19 test results for unvaccinated passengers in September to boost its tourism numbers and attract travelers during peak season.
With 1.48 million visitors in 2019, Russian tourists made up the seventh-largest segment of the tourism market. However, on a monthly basis in November 2022, Russia outpaced European or American tourists and ranked third highest, after tourists from Malaysia and India.
The November count is about 60% of the total Russian tourists who visited Thailand in the same month in 2019.
Laos and Russia have also started operating direct flights in October from Vladivostok to Vientiane to boost the tourism sectors between the two countries.
