Bangkok Air have recently announced plans for 4 new weekly direct Koh Samui flights connecting with Chengdu on the Chinese mainland after receiving the go ahead from authorities in China. The new flights will bolster a future increase in Chinese tourism to Koh Samui in conjunction with Tibet Airlines recent announcement of 3 weekly services connecting Chengdu and Samui. This total of 7 recently announced direct Koh Samui flights will bring an additional 4,000 Chinese tourists to the island each month.
Bangkok Air have also announced plans for direct flights to Koh Samui from both Guanzhou and Chongqing starting towards the end of 2016. The plan is to offer 1 direct weekly flight from Guanzhou and 3 weekly services from Chongqing.
Khun Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, the President of Bangkok Air, also said in a recent interview with The Bangkok Post that a 1 billion Baht budget will be put in place for improvements to support the newly announced and newly planned flights that are set to increase Chinese tourism.
In 2015, there were almost 8 million visitors from mainland Chinese tourists who now make up the largest market share of Thailand’s tourism industry. The recent influx of tourists on Koh Samui from the Chinese mainland is evolving quickly with a continuing shift from tour groups in hotel accommodation to smaller groups and families booking private villa rentals and with Chinese visitors now investing heavily in real estate on the island.
