High increase of Russian tourists expected in Thailand

Image thanks to
family Seckel

According to Maurice de Rooij, general manager of Coral Beach Rotana Resorts in Sharm El Sheikh, tourism in Egypt has dropped dramatically due to unrest in the country. Last february Egypte received 221,000 tourists instead of 1,100,000 last year, (a decrease of 80%). In the same month hotels had an occupancy of about 10%.
In a rescue attempt some 5 star all inclusive hotels dumped their prices to $20 (฿600) per night. Things are slowly recovering but the summer season is lost. This year Egypt tourist authorities expect a decline of 25% in the industry, but this is a cautious estimate, de Rooij mentions and expects recovery after the September elections.
Many Egypt goers now opt for safer alternatives like Turkey, Spain, Bulgaria and Thailand.
Especially Thailand will benefit from more Russian tourists, de Rooij says. Annually Egypt attracts about 2.8 million people from Russia alone.

According to the department of Tourism in 2010 Thailand welcomed 15,841,683 guests, whereby Russia ranked no. 11 (611,019 people), just below Germany and USA. So this year they are most likely to trade places. Possibly in 2011 Russians will outnumber the Australians and perhaps even the British. Be prepared for the borscht..

Sources: Thailandblog.nl, Misset Horeca (both in Dutch)