Airport officials yesterday (Oct 1) launched the Golden Week reception campaign in anticipation for an influx of Chinese tourists coming to island for leisure during the festive week.
The initial 160 Chinese passengers that arrived at the international terminal for the holiday from two separate flights-China Southern Airline flight CZ 649 from Kunming and China Southern Airline flight CZ 6093 from Shenzhen–were greeted with entertainment, live music and cultural performances.
Led by newly arrived Governor,Chamreon Tippayapongthada, the entourage of officials handed the tourists souvenirs including pearl earrings and bracelets.
Monrudee Gettuphan, Director of Phuket International Airport said “We organize the Golden Week every year from October 1-7 for our Chinese tourists to cerebrate the Chinese National Day (Oct 1),our staff and city officials will waited at the terminal to greet tourist as they arrived.
“We want to encourage Chinese and Taiwanese tourists to come to Thailand. This is another way to promote a good tourism image for our country and generate more income for Phuket.”
“We gave tourists pearl jewelry, a symbol of the island, and believe most Chinese are fond of the gem,” she said
Ms Monrudee said that officials are expecting thousands of more Chinese tourists to arrive in the coming week, with nine additional flights added to the usual schedule, by Hai Airlines and China Airlines the coming week.
Monrudee added that year-to-date, from January 1 to September 20, the overall number of tourists increased 11% year-on-year, and that the increase was mostly due to the influx of Chinese tourists.
Monrudee also took the opportunity to provide an update about the ongoing expansion and renovation of the airport.
“By February 14, next year the new Phuket Airport International Passenger Terminal building will be finished and we will have a soft opening that month but for the grand opening, which [we anticipate] will be sometime in May.
“We also plan to renovate the current Domestic Passengers Terminal in the future. Both passengers terminals will be connected with a bridge. Today the building receives about 11.3 million passengers [inbound and outbound combined].
“It is crowded and we apologize for inconveniences. Once the two buildings are connected we will have more room and will be able to accommodate 12.5 million passengers,” she concluded.
Related, see report about recent seminar in Phuket about Chinese tourism.