Thailand Politician Viral Video: Prapaporn’s husband, who was suspicious of her relationship with their adopted son, devised a plan to catch them red-handed. Ti reportedly drove for five hours and caught his wife and their adopted son, Phra Maha, in bed.
Tag: Thailand
-
Breaking Barriers: Thailand’s Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage
It will solidify Thailand’s status as a comparatively safe place for LGBTQ+ couples in an area where acceptance of such relationships is uncommon.
-
Blockbuster movie scares Chinese tourists away from Thailand
By AFP
BANGKOK: For millions of Chinese tourists, Thailand used to be a happy land of water fights, lantern festivals and delicious food.
But thanks to social media rumours and a blockbuster movie, the kingdom’s image among many Chinese people is now one of dangerous illegality and seedy scam border compounds — leaving visitor numbers plummeting.
Thailand is hugely reliant on tourism, particularly from China. The country welcomed more than 10 million Chinese visitors each year before the Covid-19 pandemic — numbers Bangkok is desperate to see return.
But its struggling holiday industry has been hit by viral social media rumours claiming that tourists might be kidnapped and sent across the border to work in brutal scamming compounds in Myanmar or Cambodia.
Chinese tourist Jia Xueqiong spent a week in Thailand with her husband and daughter, despite her parents’ disapproval.
“They felt it was not safe here, and tried to persuade us not to come,” the 44-year-old nurse told AFP outside Bangkok’s unusually quiet Grand Palace.
“All my friends said ‘You go first to explore, if it’s ok we will follow’,” she said.
Her family and friends’ concerns were stoked by “No More Bets”, a high-octane thriller claiming to be based on “real events”, about a computer programmer who ends up in a violent scamming compound in Southeast Asia after being trafficked through an unnamed country remarkably similar to Thailand.
The movie has some basis in reality.
Extensive reporting by AFP and other media has documented thousands of Chinese people lured to centres in Southeast Asia, mainly in Myanmar and Cambodia, to operate online scams fleecing victims for large sums.
But most of those involved are tricked into it with fake offers of lucrative work — not dragged off the streets while on holiday — and so far, no such scam compounds have been found in Thailand.
ALSO READ | Can China’s push to replace dollar with yuan as world’s reserve currency succeed?
Despite only being released in August, “No More Bets” has become the third-most-popular film in China this year, raking in 3.8 billion yuan ($521 million) and super-charging online discussion about the dangers of visiting Thailand.
Beijing student Leanna Qian, 22, told AFP that while she knew some of the stories were “exaggerated”, she was still concerned about travelling to the kingdom.
“I’m worried that we’ll be taken to other places, such as Cambodia or Myanmar,” she said.
Action call
Thailand welcomed a record-breaking 11 million Chinese tourists in 2019 — a quarter of all visitors that year, according to official data.
But since the start of 2023, only 2.3 million Chinese tourists have come, and last week the Thai government announced temporary visa-free travel for Chinese travellers in a bid to restart the flow.
Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, told AFP that negative online chatter had played a role in the drop.
“Things don’t happen in Thailand but Thailand is targeted,” he said.
Rumours began in March online and spread rapidly, with posts shared and viewed millions of times. Topics about whether travel in Southeast Asia was safe trended on Weibo.
The rumours grew so persistent that earlier this year, the Thai embassy in Beijing released a statement reassuring visitors that officials would “take measures to secure tourists’ safety”.
And across the border, the president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, Chhay Sivlin, told AFP that the situation was worse.
Chhay Sivlin said her company has received no Chinese tour groups so far this year, and feedback highlighted many tourists’ worries about safety.
“If the Chinese government helps, we will receive tourists soon because Chinese people listen to their government,” she said.
‘Never return’
Back in China, travel agents are switching their focus from foreign trips — which accounted for more than 40 percent of their tourism revenue pre-pandemic — to pushing domestic tours.
Business is also suffering the after-effects of Beijing’s draconian Covid control measures, which saw around 1.2 billion people unable to leave China after its borders were shut in 2020.
Gary Bowerman, director of travel and tourism consulting firm Check-in Asia, said it took time for people to get used to travelling abroad again.
“Going out of the country again, you start hearing about these scams… It does have an impact on people’s psychological willingness to travel,” he told AFP.
Meanwhile, domestic travel is booming — especially for younger people, who view it as an on-trend alternative to flying abroad, Bowerman explained.
In the office of a Beijing-based travel agency, which declined to be identified, staff were busy pushing domestic holiday promotions.
The agency formerly employed more than 200 people but downscaled to only a few dozen as a result of the worsening global economy, visa difficulties, and a slow aviation industry recovery.
“There’s not much willingness to go abroad,” employee Guo, who asked to be referred to by only one name, told AFP.
And, she added, for Southeast Asia “there’s also the fear that they could go but never return.”
Outside Bangkok’s Grand Palace with her family, tourist Jia dismissed the fears of many inside China.
“It isn’t like what’s said on the internet, being scammed or other things,” she said.
“There is nothing like that at all.”
BANGKOK: For millions of Chinese tourists, Thailand used to be a happy land of water fights, lantern festivals and delicious food.
But thanks to social media rumours and a blockbuster movie, the kingdom’s image among many Chinese people is now one of dangerous illegality and seedy scam border compounds — leaving visitor numbers plummeting.
Thailand is hugely reliant on tourism, particularly from China. The country welcomed more than 10 million Chinese visitors each year before the Covid-19 pandemic — numbers Bangkok is desperate to see return.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); });
But its struggling holiday industry has been hit by viral social media rumours claiming that tourists might be kidnapped and sent across the border to work in brutal scamming compounds in Myanmar or Cambodia.
Chinese tourist Jia Xueqiong spent a week in Thailand with her husband and daughter, despite her parents’ disapproval.
“They felt it was not safe here, and tried to persuade us not to come,” the 44-year-old nurse told AFP outside Bangkok’s unusually quiet Grand Palace.
“All my friends said ‘You go first to explore, if it’s ok we will follow’,” she said.
Her family and friends’ concerns were stoked by “No More Bets”, a high-octane thriller claiming to be based on “real events”, about a computer programmer who ends up in a violent scamming compound in Southeast Asia after being trafficked through an unnamed country remarkably similar to Thailand.
The movie has some basis in reality.
Extensive reporting by AFP and other media has documented thousands of Chinese people lured to centres in Southeast Asia, mainly in Myanmar and Cambodia, to operate online scams fleecing victims for large sums.
But most of those involved are tricked into it with fake offers of lucrative work — not dragged off the streets while on holiday — and so far, no such scam compounds have been found in Thailand.
ALSO READ | Can China’s push to replace dollar with yuan as world’s reserve currency succeed?
Despite only being released in August, “No More Bets” has become the third-most-popular film in China this year, raking in 3.8 billion yuan ($521 million) and super-charging online discussion about the dangers of visiting Thailand.
Beijing student Leanna Qian, 22, told AFP that while she knew some of the stories were “exaggerated”, she was still concerned about travelling to the kingdom.
“I’m worried that we’ll be taken to other places, such as Cambodia or Myanmar,” she said.
Action call
Thailand welcomed a record-breaking 11 million Chinese tourists in 2019 — a quarter of all visitors that year, according to official data.
But since the start of 2023, only 2.3 million Chinese tourists have come, and last week the Thai government announced temporary visa-free travel for Chinese travellers in a bid to restart the flow.
Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, told AFP that negative online chatter had played a role in the drop.
“Things don’t happen in Thailand but Thailand is targeted,” he said.
Rumours began in March online and spread rapidly, with posts shared and viewed millions of times. Topics about whether travel in Southeast Asia was safe trended on Weibo.
The rumours grew so persistent that earlier this year, the Thai embassy in Beijing released a statement reassuring visitors that officials would “take measures to secure tourists’ safety”.
And across the border, the president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, Chhay Sivlin, told AFP that the situation was worse.
Chhay Sivlin said her company has received no Chinese tour groups so far this year, and feedback highlighted many tourists’ worries about safety.
“If the Chinese government helps, we will receive tourists soon because Chinese people listen to their government,” she said.
‘Never return’
Back in China, travel agents are switching their focus from foreign trips — which accounted for more than 40 percent of their tourism revenue pre-pandemic — to pushing domestic tours.
Business is also suffering the after-effects of Beijing’s draconian Covid control measures, which saw around 1.2 billion people unable to leave China after its borders were shut in 2020.
Gary Bowerman, director of travel and tourism consulting firm Check-in Asia, said it took time for people to get used to travelling abroad again.
“Going out of the country again, you start hearing about these scams… It does have an impact on people’s psychological willingness to travel,” he told AFP.
Meanwhile, domestic travel is booming — especially for younger people, who view it as an on-trend alternative to flying abroad, Bowerman explained.
In the office of a Beijing-based travel agency, which declined to be identified, staff were busy pushing domestic holiday promotions.
The agency formerly employed more than 200 people but downscaled to only a few dozen as a result of the worsening global economy, visa difficulties, and a slow aviation industry recovery.
“There’s not much willingness to go abroad,” employee Guo, who asked to be referred to by only one name, told AFP.
And, she added, for Southeast Asia “there’s also the fear that they could go but never return.”
Outside Bangkok’s Grand Palace with her family, tourist Jia dismissed the fears of many inside China.
“It isn’t like what’s said on the internet, being scammed or other things,” she said.
“There is nothing like that at all.”
-
Indian tourism may ‘entice’ foreigners Thai way
Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Taking note of thriving tourism in geographically smaller Thailand, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture has suggested to the Tourism Ministry to study promotion strategy of the Southeast Asian country which known for its tropical beaches, opulent royal palaces and Buddhist temples and execute them to attract international visitors.
The parliamentary panel also opined that the ministry should adopt a proactive policy to promote tourist places in India which are at par with those abroad. “The committee recommends that the promotional tactics of Thailand to utilise diplomacy and tourism promotion to attract foreign tourists despite its small population and geographical area as compared to India may be assessed. Their tactics may be applied in the Indian tourism sector, if found beneficial for the growth of Inbound Tourism in India,” reads the 326th report of the committee headed by BJP MP T G Venkatesh.
The panel further suggested to the Ministry of Civil Aviation exploring possibility of direct flights to Southeast Asian, Eastern European and South American countries, which have huge potential for increasing foreign tourist arrivals to India.
The panel is also of the opinion films featuring Indian locales noticeably facilitating tourism promotion hence it recommends lucrative incentives and sops to attract international filmmakers.
“The incentives offered by the Indian government appear to be meager compared to the international norms and the considerable payoffs. The Committee recommends that the Ministry of Tourism may review the incentives provided to foreign film producers as per internationally competitive rates,” says the report, which was submitted last month.
-
MakeMyTrip partners with IndiGo to launch charter flights to Thailand’s Phuket
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Travel company MakeMyTrip has partnered with IndiGo airline to launch exclusive charter flights between Mumbai and Phuket in Thailand, according to a statement on Wednesday.
“As the pandemic eases and countries begin welcoming back Indian travellers, MakeMyTrip together with IndiGo, is making travelling to the island easy while Phuket continues to remain closed for direct flyers from India,” the statement mentioned.
As part of the package, MakeMyTrip will offer end-to-end travel services, including airport transfers, certificate of entry (CoE) assistance, early check-in and check-out at one of the premium properties, travel insurance, and return RT-PCR test assistance, it noted.
“With packages starting at only Rs 39,999, travellers will be able to make a booking at a special price of Rs 1,000 only,” it said.
Detailed city tour, visit to Coral and Racha Islands by speedboat and day trip to Dolphins Bay will be included in the package, it mentioned.
-
President Ram Nath Kovind accepts credentials from envoys of Thailand, Romania, Kazakhstan, Turkey
By PTI
NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday accepted credentials from the envoys of Thailand, Romania, Kazakhstan and Turkey in a virtual ceremony, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement.Those who presented their credentials were Pattarat Hongtong, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand, Daniela Mariana Sezonov Tane, Ambassador of Romania, Nurlan Zhalgasbayev, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Firat Sunel, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey, it said.
The president conveyed his good wishes to the envoys on their appointment. He said that India enjoyed warm and friendly relations with their countries and that the ties were deeply rooted in a common vision of peace and prosperity.
The president added that India has been at the forefront of global efforts to forge a decisive and coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure our collective health and economic well-being. “As the ‘Pharmacy of the World’, India has assisted several countries with supply of essential medicines and equipment in the global fight against COVID-19,” Kovind said.
The envoys conveyed good wishes on behalf of their leaderships and reiterated their commitment to continue working to strengthen their ties with India, the statement said.