The Aussies Are Coming

For Phuket hotel sales and marketing teams, the go-to-market has been Russia during the height of the winter snowbird season.

With March fast approaching and Thailand’s approval of a revised Test & Go program from the beginning of February, hoteliers are looking at the vast void of the second quarter of the year.

Certainly, domestic travelers are the easiest target, but there simply isn’t enough to go around. Add onto that the serious voucher overkill in Thai retail malls, let’s just say that strategy is seeing diminishing returns as time goes on.

In the latest news, international airlift is set to rise to the resort island of Phuket with the resumption of  Jetstar flights from Sydney and Melbourne. The former will see three weekly flights and two from the latter.

There is little doubt that Australia is now an attractive target for inbound tourists. Meanwhile, back of the Test & Go program, key initiatives to watch are VTL’s from Singapore and potentially Malaysia.  And lastly, as China looks to be riding the bench for most, if not all of 2022, India is a much-needed travel partner for Thailand.