The tourists disembarked Flight AI 378 at the international passenger terminal area at 7:10am.
Joining the governor in welcoming the tourists and crew were Patasi Permwongseni, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Asean Regional Director for South Asia and the South Pacific, along with Monchai Tanode, General Manager of Phuket Airport.
The welcoming committee gifted the 128 passengers with souvenirs and gift bags.
Air India will now operate 4 direct flights between Phuket and New Delhi each week, said an official report issued by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
According to the latest statistics publicly posted by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, from Jan 1 - Oct 31 this year Thailand welcomed 1,304,129 visitors from India, compared with 683,177 in total throughout all of last year.
In a separate report issued on Dec 4, according to preliminary figures Phuket welcomed 9,114,071 visitors in total from Jan-Oct this year, up 123.03% on last year’s total.
Of the total visitors to Phuket up to end end of October, 6,688,882 (+187.09%) were foreigners, while the remaining 2,425,189 (+38.06%) were Thais.
With occupancy during the period recorded at 76.6% (+45.1%), total revenue from visitors to Phuket during the period totalled B293.829 billion.
Of that amount, revenue from foreign visitors totalled B277.367bn (+116.82%).