An unexpected surge in visitors from the Russian market during the cool season has tourism operators scrambling to cope after supply ground to a halt for several years during the pandemic, says the Association of Thai Travel Agents (Atta).
Despite the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian tourism market has returned much quicker than expected, said Atta president Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn.
Operators of tourism-related businesses that interact with the Russian market, including hotels, attractions, restaurants, and providers of tour guides and tour buses, need to prepare rapidly, while the authorities should help generate useful marketing information to assess the actual level of tourist demand, he said.
As of Nov 24, Russia ranked 13th in terms of Thailand's source markets with 227,430 arrivals.
According to the Tourism and Sports Ministry, Thailand has recorded increased arrivals from the Russian market this month via Aeroflot flights from Novosibirsk and chartered flights.
Mr Sisdivachr said Pattaya and Phuket are the main destinations for chartered flights from Russia.
Adith Chairattananon, honorary secretary-general of Atta, said there are increasing inquiries from Russian agents when it comes to tour packages to Thailand, which prompted tour operators to restart their services earlier.
"There are very few Thai operators who specialise in the Russian market -- most of the players are native Russians," he said.
"As these local specialists in the Russian market have yet to resume operations, Thai operators that are not fluent in this market are likely to face a few hiccups after being closed for a long time as they try to restart their business."
Mr Adith said it would take until the beginning of next year for the market to adjust to the influx of Russians.
Other markets have started to return during the fourth quarter and are forecast to have moderate arrival numbers, said Mr Sisdivachr.
He said India, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore have already fully returned despite limited flight capacity.
Meanwhile, some markets in northern Asia such as Taiwan and Japan, which used to be strong before the pandemic, remain flat, said Mr Sisdivachr.
With no signs of China reopening during President Xi Jinping's recent attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Mr Sisdivachr said tourism will be unable to fully recover and it will take a while before its performance improves.