Jonathan Hedin Bangkok
November 7, 2023
Image captionThe highlight of 76 Garage, a restaurant popular with Chinese tourists, is the pool photo shoot with a male staff member
For Chinese tourists visiting Bangkok, 76 Garage, an open-air restaurant on the northern outskirts of the Thai capital, has long been near the top of the list of places to visit.
And they don’t go there for the food, they go there for the waiter.
There is a pool in the middle of the restaurant. The highlight of the night was when the waiters, all young men, stripped down to their pants and stepped into the pool, offering to carry customers for photos and tips.
There was a time when 76 Garage was so popular that you had to book a month in advance to get a table. Half the tables are empty these days.
Thailand’s lauded tourism industry is losing its biggest customer, the Chinese.
When China finally lifted its zero-corona restrictions in January and allowed its citizens to travel abroad, Thailand had high hopes. The company had hoped for a surge in business that would help the tourism industry regain much of the ground it lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
The government had predicted that up to 5 million Chinese tourists would arrive by the end of the year, less than half of the roughly 11 million Chinese tourists in 2019. However, this is a significant improvement compared to last year, when there were only 270,000 people.
That rosy scenario turned out to be too optimistic. In his first nine months of 2023, she had less than 2.5 million visitors.
Image source, BBC/Jonathan Head
image captionEmpty tables at a Bangkok restaurant popular with Chinese tourists
“The Ministry of Tourism has said that the number of tourists will recover quickly after the pandemic,” said Anucha Liangruan Leongkit, a Chinese-speaking tour guide who has worked at Bangkok’s Grand Palace for 42 years.
“But they’re dreaming. I’m a guide, so I should know. If it was normal like it used to be, it would be crowded, right? Look now. There’s a lot of people here. Do you? No.
Thailand’s new government had hoped the announcement of a five-month visa exemption would bring in more tourists. But the Oct. 3 shooting at Bangkok’s most famous shopping mall, in which a Chinese mother of two was killed, raised the image problem facing Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. It made it even worse.
Many Chinese now consider them unsafe.
Image source, BBC/Lulu Luo
image captionAnucha Liangruan Leongkit says the number of Chinese tourists has not returned to what it used to be.
In August, a new movie called No More Bets became a huge hit in China, making tens of millions of dollars within days of its release. The film depicts how a Chinese model and computer programmer are lured with promises of high-paying jobs to a fraud center in an unnamed Southeast Asian country, where they are forced to work in slave-like conditions. Ta.
No More Bets is an alarming story over the past few years where thousands of people, many of them Chinese, are trapped in such fraud centers along Thailand’s lawless borders with Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. I took advantage of the news that should have been reported. Horrifying reports of torture and ill-treatment by fugitives have also appeared on Chinese social media.
Abby, a Chinese student living in Thailand, likes to vlog to her social media followers about places like 76 Garage, and how the comments below her TikTok feed have changed Thailand’s popular image. I am observing.
“Comments on my feed used to be very positive,” she says. “There were a lot of people who saw my video and said they really wanted to come to Thailand.”
But now, she says, people are worried that shirtless waiters at the pool are a ploy to get unsuspecting customers to give up their kidneys. Are you the one sending people from Thailand to Myanmar? ”
In the past, Chinese tourists had a bad reputation in Thailand. They often traveled in large noisy groups and were considered rude and pushy. There have been complaints about so-called “zero-dollar tourism” (provided in all-inclusive packages where most of the revenue goes to operators within China) and public debate about the risks of relying too much on Chinese nationals.
With many people now avoiding travel due to safety concerns, Thailand’s tourism industry is focusing on other markets such as Russia and India.
But a country as dependent on tourism as Thailand cannot afford to ignore the world’s largest market. In fact, Chinese tourists are among the biggest spenders in Thailand, spending an average of $180 (£148) a day.
Image source, BBC/Lulu Luo
image captionThailand’s royal palace was once crowded with Chinese tourists, tour guide says
“In fact, travelers from China to Thailand are currently at the higher end of the market,” Thilawan Techaubor said. His family runs a large chain of luxury hotels and serviced apartments as part of the Kasemkizi Group.
“We find that they are more open to different experiences and spend more on good food and activities. Our resort, Cape, on a private island with 24 villas,・We have Chinese customers like Fern who buy entire islands for just 1 yen – for birthdays, weddings, or just marriage proposals.
She said Thai tourists were starting to see a different kind of clientele than the rowdy, bargain-seeking Chinese crowds portrayed in the myth.
At the entrance to a newly built 55-story apartment complex in central Bangkok, Chinese real estate agent Owen waits for two new clients, Lincoln and Won-sung, who had flown in from Shanghai the previous evening to visit the city for the first time. I am. Thailand.
As a gay couple, they want to experience Thailand’s dizzying variety of LGBTQ+ entertainment. But they have a more serious purpose. They want to raise a family, but in China that is much more difficult for gay couples and are looking for potential housing.
Mr Owen says Thailand is the first choice destination for Chinese LGBTQ+ travelers, and people looking to settle here now make up two-thirds of his customers.
“We saw a lot of gays, lesbians and transgender people here as well,” Lincoln said. “Yes, I think this country is very open, very free. When we arrived here, we felt liberated in a way.”
Image source, BBC/Jonathan Head
image captionMr Lincoln and Mr Wongson say Bangkok offers a lifestyle they can’t yet imagine in China
“I think the most important thing is the atmosphere here,” Wonson added.
“We are free because we know that living in China is difficult, facing social pressures from family and traditional culture. We can live a life that not only meets our own needs, but also tells our children that we are just normal here, just like everyone else.”
Gary Bowerman, whose company CheckinAsia tracks travel trends in the region, said these travelers will continue to make up a larger proportion of Chinese travelers.
“Being stuck in a very safe country for three years during a pandemic probably has changed people’s perceptions of safety and security. So when rumors of fraud and kidnappings spread, it affects people’s perceptions. “We will give,” he added. “But one thing about young travelers from China is that they are ready to experiment.”
Thailand’s biggest attraction, he says, is “the element of adventure and the manageable danger, so to speak.”
