Reportage

Thailand: Chinese tourists again welcomed with open arms

Audio 01:10

Chinese tourists at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand, January 9, 2023. AP - Sakchai Lalit

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Thailand, as the Chinese New Year weekend opens, Chinese tourists are once again being welcomed into the country with open arms.

No quarantine, no tests for them, they are treated like everyone else.

And for Thai traders, this is good news.

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With our special correspondent in Chiang Mai,

Near the bus station, Lek, a tuk-tuk driver, an open three-wheeled vehicle typical of Thailand, offers tours of the many temples to visit in Chiang Mai, the major tourist city in the north of the country.

Lek accepts everyone in his tuk-tuk, but he has a favorite target clientele: Chinese tourists, who have only just been accepted back into the country without quarantine.

And to better attract them, he broadcasts on the speakers of his vehicle mandopop hits popular with Chinese customers.

Let them come, the Chinese tourists, we are waiting for them.

It will help our economy.

There aren't many of them yet, they're just starting to come back.

I hope there will be more and more.

No need to be afraid of them.

Anyway, I have my amulet that protects me.

Chinese tourists made up more than 60% of the 40 million annual tourists to Thailand before the pandemic.

They were also, individually, on average, the biggest spenders.

Their presence in major Thai cities is a

for a return to normal for the tourism sector.

►Read also: The concern of political exiles after the reopening of the bridge between Thailand and Burma

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• Thailand

• Tourism

• China

• Coronavirus