BANGKOK, February 10. /TASS/. More than 340,000 Russians visited Thailand since the start of this year and took the third position in the rating after tourists from China and Malaysia, according to data of the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports seen by TASS.

The tourist traffic from Russia to Thailand remains stable and is slightly above the record figure of the last year, despite the overall decline of the tourist flow to the kingdom by almost 11%. About 60,000 Russians continue coming to Thailand every week.

"The stability of the Russian tourist market for Thailand is conditioned in particular by the growing demand of tourists with the midsize budget. After the end of the pandemic, hotels with three or four starts started capturing the increasingly greater market share. The tourist flow remains at the high level exactly on account of the midlevel price segment. We see now higher interest in Thailand and the stable flow of bookings right until the end of March," General Representative of Russian tour operator Tez Tour in Southeast Asia Andrey Snetkov told TASS.

The tour operator forecasts the Russian tourist flow volume will remain at the last-year level, when record high 1.9 mln tourists visited the country. "Countries competing for Russian tourists during the winter period, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and China'’ Hainan, offered the broad variety for the rest. Vietnam particularly stands out, with large-scale flight programs from many Russian cities organized for it. Nevertheless, the serious refocusing of Russians to other destinations did not occur. Thailand remains the leader," he added.