PHUKET: The number of Immigration officers at Phuket International Airport will jump from 212 to 350 at the end of the year in response to requests to improve service.
A meeting between Chinese airline representatives, tour operators and airport officials heard today that Thailand's Government had responded to complaints.
''We will also have an extra 24 people on standby around the clock to deal with peaks,'' said the Deputy Superintendent of Immigration at the airport, Colonel Rapeepaat Utsaha.
Between 5000-6000 Chinese tourists were passing through Phuket's airport each day but delays were exacerbated by the inability of many to interpret forms that are mostly in the English and Thai languages.
''Why can't the Tourism Authority of Thailand or even the airlines provide staff or volunteers to help the form-filling?'' Colonel Rapeepat asked.
He said package tourists usually had guides to help them - it was the independent travelling backpackers who usually encountered problems.
Airlines were now operating direct to Phuket from more than 20 Chinese cities and English was not commonly spoken in most of those cities.
A spokesperson from China Eastern suggested that airlines should consider handing out the forms before aircraft landed and screening a video explaing how to properly fill out the forms.
A meeting between Chinese airline representatives, tour operators and airport officials heard today that Thailand's Government had responded to complaints.
''We will also have an extra 24 people on standby around the clock to deal with peaks,'' said the Deputy Superintendent of Immigration at the airport, Colonel Rapeepaat Utsaha.
Between 5000-6000 Chinese tourists were passing through Phuket's airport each day but delays were exacerbated by the inability of many to interpret forms that are mostly in the English and Thai languages.
''Why can't the Tourism Authority of Thailand or even the airlines provide staff or volunteers to help the form-filling?'' Colonel Rapeepat asked.
He said package tourists usually had guides to help them - it was the independent travelling backpackers who usually encountered problems.
Airlines were now operating direct to Phuket from more than 20 Chinese cities and English was not commonly spoken in most of those cities.
A spokesperson from China Eastern suggested that airlines should consider handing out the forms before aircraft landed and screening a video explaing how to properly fill out the forms.
Airlines are required to carry and hand out immigration forms for the country of their destination and any stopover nations they may have en route.
Furthermore a lot of countries print their immigration forms in many different languages.
Perhaps it's time the Thai Immigration Bureau adopts a more customer-friendly approach and starts printing out immigration forms in Chinese and Russian as a response to the 2 largest groups of tourists.
Posted by ThaiMike on October 29, 2013 22:01