Excitement for beach businesses as Thailand braces for Chinese deluge

PHUKET, Thailand, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Entrepreneurs on Thailand’s holiday island of Phuket are bracing enthusiastically for the long-awaited return of Chinese tourists, hoping China’s reopening and dismantling of its strict COVID-19 curbs can boost their flagging businesses.

In the year before the pandemic, nearly a third of Thailand’s visitors were Chinese tourists, who once accounted for annual global spending of quarter of a trillion dollars on their travels.

“I’m so ready to welcome Chinese tourists. I’m so ready because with them here it’s good money,” said speedboat driver Wittaya Yooyen, 56, who operates at Patong beach, the island’s biggest draw.

“It’s good that the Chinese are coming, and I’m not worried about COVID-19.”

His watersports business, which offers paragliding, water skiing and other activities, suffered heavy losses during the pandemic, when Thailand’s strict entry…