More than 450,000 travellers will going through the turnstiles at Bangkok’s primary airport Suvarnabhumi between January 26 and February 7, together with the annual Chinese New Year celebrations. But they’re not all from abroad, indeed the majority, some 349,000 travellers, are domestic.
The airport’s GM reports that one hundred fifteen,931 worldwide travellers might be travelling through BKK during the 14 day period. That’s a 37% jump in flights when compared to the same time last yr. Whilst the uptick of travellers is a welcome shot within the arm for Thailand’s vacationer industry, pre-Covid the numbers of worldwide travellers would have averaged 1,523,000 arrivals over any 2 week period in 2019.
Out of the 10 airways applying for extra touchdown spots over this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations interval, the highest three are Bangkok Airways with 14 extra flights, Myanmar Airways with 8 and T’Way Airlines another 8. TWay Airline is the third largest South Korean low-cost provider.
The one market lacking in this year’s Chinese New Year arrivals is the Chinese. With current return quarantine requirements in China of between 21 and 58 days, very few Chinese are travelling presently, though there shall be loads of Chinese home journey over the Chinese New Year holiday.
And even the noisy Yowarat Road CNY festivities have again been muted this year with ceremonies, gatherings and festivals cancelled in Bangkok’s Chinatown (but you can bet there’ll nonetheless be a couple of dragons and fireworks joining in to welcome the Year of the Tiger).
Right in Cheap of the annual Chinese New Year journey surge will be the reintroduction of the Test & Go re-entry journey program. With the most recent model, being launched on February 1, travellers will be required to take 2 checks, 1 on the primary day and then another on Day 5. The newest Test & Go also requires the pre-pre-payment of a Day 1 and Day 5 SHA+ hotel reserving.
The challenge for Thailand’s tourism companies will be to maintain the flow of international tourists arriving past the Chinese New Year rush, as the 12 months moves into the quieter tourist months.
Without the robust Chinese vacationer numbers, and delicate international travel sentiment, worldwide arrivals in Thailand are expected to remain similarly quiet for the rest of 2022. But, with native south east Asian tourism opponents beginning to reopen, with fewer restrictions, native tourism operators are hoping the CCSA will shortly chill out restrictions and quarantine necessities in Thailand over the next few months to remain competitive.
Chinese New Year is on February 1 this year. Happy Year of the Tiger!g