First LOT Polish Airlines flight arrives in Phuket
Phuket International airport welcomed its first LOT Polish Airlines flight yesterday. The flight carried 252 passengers from Warsaw to Phuket.
Officials and staff greeted the passengers and handed them HKT We Care souvenirs upon arrival, The Phuket Express reported.
This news comes after an inaugural flight from Uzbekistan arrived in Phuket on Sharq Airlines just last week. The flight carried 238 passengers.
As of October 26, the kingdom witnessed 7,349,843 international tourists arriving, surpassing the 7 million mark. It’s put the country within its goal range set by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) of 7 to 10 million visitors for 2022. Phuket International Airport was reported to be the second busiest port of entry, after Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
In September, the TAT said that Malaysians made up Thailand’s biggest tourist group this year. The next three countries with the most tourists were India, Laos, and Cambodia.
Thai tourism officials announced last month that they were seeking more tourists from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said that Kazakh and Uzbek tourists started to show interest after Thailand extended its Visa on Arrival from 15 to 30 days on October 1. Thailand saw 2,496 arrivals from Uzbekistan in the first eight months of this year. The Tourism Ministry expects 8,500 this year.
TAT’s goal is to draw 10 million foreign tourists to the “Land of Smiles” by the end of this year. We’ll soon see if this goal is achieved.
