3 ministers welcome first Chinese group of tourists at Suvarnabhumi

Xiamen Airlines flight MF833 brought the first group of 269 Chinese tourists to Bangkok after Beijing lifted quarantine measure for arrivals on Sunday.

Greeting the group at the arrivals hall were Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob and Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn.

Meanwhile, officials were also at hand distributing orchid garlands, souvenirs and Chinese-language leaflets on tourism information. They also held up a banner with a slogan in Chinese reading: “Chinese-Thais come from the same family. Amazing Thailand will always warmly welcome Chinese people.”

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) had said earlier that independent travellers from China will start returning to Thailand later this month during the long Chinese New Year holidays.

Chinese travellers were the biggest group of foreign tourists in Thailand before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in 2020. In 2019, Thailand welcomed 39.9 million foreign tourists, of whom 11 million were Chinese.

TAT expects some 300,000 Chinese visitors in the first quarter of this year – 60,000 in January, 90,000 in February and 150,000 in March. TAT expects some 5 million Chinese tourists this year.