BANGKOK, June 3. /TASS/. Russia has dropped out of the top three countries in terms of tourist flows to Thailand, ceding its place to India, according to the Thai ministry of tourism and sport.

The leader is China, with nearly two million tourists visiting Thailand since the beginning of the year. It is followed by Malaysia (1.9 million) and India (985,000). Next are Russia (964,000) and South Korea (677,000).

Tourist flows from Russia decreased nearly four-fold in May compared to the high recorded during the peak season from November to late April. Thus, only 17,000 Russians visited Thailand from May 19-25 whereas weekly numbers from December to March stood at from 55,000 to 66,000 visits.

According to Andrey Snetkov, top executive of Tez Tour, a Russian travel operator in Southeast Asia, Russians living in the European part of the country have been opting for Turkey since early May. "Apart from that, we now offer such new vacationing destinations as Vietnam, China, and Indonesia, in particular Bali. Russia’s flagship air carrier, Aeroflot, has more than halved its flights to Thailand since mid-May," he told TASS.

Nevertheless, Russia is the largest European tourist market for Thailand, which hopes to receive a record-breaking 1.9 million tourists from Russia in 2025.