PHUKET: Most Russian tourists seem to be coping with being stranded in Phuket by flight cancellations resulting from the Russian war on Ukraine, according to the local tourism office.
Nanthasiri Ronasiri, director of the tourism authority’s Phuket office, said on Monday that about 15 tourists had called the help centre since it opened last Wednesday.
"They sought information about airlines, credit cards and visas, and most of them had no problems,” Ms Nanthasiri said.
The office opened a call centre with phone numbers 093 937 2086 and 094 819 1124 to help Russian and Ukrainian tourists in Phuket last Wednesday. It has Russian speakers and is open from 8.30am to 7pm.
Some tourists had already contacted the Russian embassy and were waiting for it to arrange flights back to Russia, and they had no payment problems because they had adequate funds, she said.
She did not give any information about Ukrainian tourists.
Tourism operators at local beaches said Russian and Ukrainian visitors had earlier made up 70-80% of tourists on beaches. With the start of the Russian invasion their numbers had dropped to about 5%, and now there was not a single person from either country.
Only German, Italian, Danish and Swedish tourists remained, they said.
