Bangkok: Airport Immigration Bureau sets up a lane for Chinese students to take advantage of school break, hoping to boost Thai tourism. From the trend of tourism entrepreneurs in Thailand or domestic tours calling for stimulation of tourism by Chinese people in Thailand, the proportion of Chinese tourists has decreased by almost 50% of 2019 before Covid, which is one factor affecting the Thai economy.
According to Thai News Agency, Pol. Maj. Gen. Chengron Rimphidi, Commander of Immigration Bureau Division 2, revealed that Pol. Lt. Gen. Phanumas Boonnalak, Commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, and Pol. Maj. Gen. Thanit Thaiwacharamas, Deputy Commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, have expressed their concerns and have an idea for the Immigration Bureau at the airport, which is the country’s frontier, to organize activities to support tourism in Thailand for Chinese people.
It was found that this period is the start of the school break season in China, from July to September. Chinese people see this as an opportunity to take their children on trips during the school opening period, because during normal school opening periods, Chinese people do not like their children to take time off from school to travel, whether traveling within China or abroad, because in China there is high competition in education, so they use the school break to take their children on trips seriously.
Pol. Lt. Col. Cherngron added that he had just traveled to a meeting with the Deputy Director-General of the Consular Affairs Department of the People’s Republic of China and received information that even though Chinese people are more interested in traveling in China because economic income has decreased after COVID, Thailand is still the number one country after Macau and Hong Kong that Chinese tourists will bring their children to travel, especially prominent tourist attractions, which cannot be visited in popular tourist cities in China in various provinces, especially seaside tourist attractions in Phuket and Pattaya. He also received confirmation that the Chinese government has no policy to prevent Chinese people from traveling abroad in any way.
For Thailand, Pol. Lt. Col. Chengron revealed that currently, Chinese people make up the largest proportion of people traveling to Thailand, accounting for 10% of all foreigners.
Therefore, Immigration Bureau 2, as the country’s front gate, took this opportunity to carry out the activity “??????” shu ji yº ku i tº j¬ng” (Chu Jia Yu Kuai Channel) “Happy Chinese Summer Channel” by providing a special channel for Chinese students who travel with their families to have their passports checked upon arrival in the country at the immigration checkpoints of Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket and Chiang Mai airports.
By setting up signboards to indicate the entrance points and arranging for immigration officers to separate groups of students’ families to enter the designated channels, this will reduce the burden of waiting, especially during peak flight times, when it normally takes no more than 40 minutes to go from the immigration hall to the inspection counter. By reducing the waiting time to no more than 15 minutes, it is expected that it will be able to handle the inspection of no less than 5,000 students, parents, and families per day, out of the average of 20,000 Chinese people who fly into Thailand per day.
However, for young children under 12 years old and their guardians, including the elderly and disabled, pregnant women of all nationalities, the airport immigration has arranged a priority channel to help reduce waiting time in the normal hall, said Pol. Lt. Col. Chengron.