Chinese travelers are going back, but not to Thailand

 Chinese travelers are going back, but not to Thailand

76 Garage is an outdoor restaurant located on the northern outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand. It has long been a favored choice for Chinese visitors visiting the Thai capital.

And people go there to see the servers rather than the meal.

The restaurant has a swimming pool in the center of it. The highlight of the evening is when the group of young, athletic waiters volunteer to take the guests into the pool for a picture op and a gratuity. They strip down to their shorts.

Once upon a time, reservations for tables at 76 Garage had to be made one month in advance due to its immense popularity. Currently, half of the tables are vacant.

The Chinese are Thailand's most important tourism market, yet they are absent.

Thailand had great expectations when China finally removed zero-Covid restrictions in January, enabling its residents to travel abroad. It anticipated a spike in business that would aid in the tourism sector's recovery of a large portion of the territory it had lost during the Covid epidemic.

By year's end, the authorities expected up to five million Chinese visitors, which is still less than half of the approximately 11 million who arrived in 2019. However, this year's total is a significant improvement from previous year's 270,000.

That hopeful picture has proven to be far too idealistic. Less than 2.5 million arrived in 2023's first nine months.

After the epidemic, our tourism ministry predicted that tourist numbers would rise swiftly," Anucha Liangruangreongkit, a 42-year Grand Palace Bangkok tour guide fluent in Chinese, said.

However, they are dreaming. I should know; I am a guide. It would be crowded if things were normal, as they were in the past, right? Check it out now. Is this place packed with people? No.

A portion of the issue stems from China's faltering economy and the lack of low-cost airlines after COVID-19.

With the announcement of a five-month visa waiver, the newly elected Thai government sought to attract more travelers. However, a shooting incident on October 3rd at Bangkok's most well-known mall, which claimed the life of a Chinese woman of two children, exacerbated Thailand's and other South East Asian nations' image issues.

Many Chinese people now see them as hazardous.

A new movie titled No More Bets made tens of millions of dollars in its first few days at the Chinese box office in August, when it became an enormous blockbuster. It showed a computer programmer and a Chinese model being tricked into a fraud center in an unidentified South East Asian nation with the promise of high-paying employment, where they were made to labor like slaves.

Alarming reports over the previous two to three years of thousands of people—many of them Chinese—being caught in these scam centers in Cambodia and along Thailand's unregulated borders with Myanmar and Laos provided the impetus for No More Bets. Those who have fled have also shared horrible stories of abuse and torture on Chinese social media.

Chinese student Abby lives in Thailand and enjoys vlogging to her social media followers about sites like 76 Garage. She has seen changes in the common perception of Thailand via comments left under her TikTok channel.

"The comments on my feed seemed to be very positive,"she recalls. "Many people said after watching my videos that they've really wanted to come to Thailand."

However, she claims that now days, many are even concerned that the waiters without shirts in the pool may be a ploy to trick unwary guests into donating their kidneys: People used to ask me whether I was involved in a "kidney harvesting" hoax. Are you the one relocating individuals to Myanmar from Thailand?"

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In the past, Chinese travelers visiting Thailand had a rather negative reputation. They were seen as obnoxious and demanding and often traveled in big, boisterous groups. The term "zero dollar tourism" was used to describe the concerns made about tourists traveling on all-inclusive packages when the majority of the money went to operators in China. Additionally, the hazards of relying too much on Chinese tourists were discussed in public.

These days, a lot of them are staying away due to safety worries, thus the Thai tourism sector has been concentrating its efforts on other areas like Russia and India.

However, a nation as dependent on tourism as Thailand cannot afford to overlook the biggest market in the world. Chinese tourists spend an average of $180 (£148) a day in Thailand, making them some of the most extravagant travelers.

In actuality, travelers from China visiting Thailand at the moment are at the upper end of the market "Tirawan Taechaubol, whose family operates the Kasemkij Group, a large network of exclusive hotels and serviced apartments, stated.

We have seen that they spend a lot of money on enjoyable activities and food, and that they are more receptive to new experiences. For example, at Cape Fahn, our resort on a private island including 24 villas, we have Chinese clients who reserve the whole island for special occasions like birthdays or marriage proposals."

According to her, there is a shift in the kind of tourists visiting Thailand from the stereotype of boisterous, haggle-seeking Chinese throng.

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Owen, a Chinese real estate agent, is waiting to greet Lincoln and Wonson, two new customers who arrived in Bangkok the previous evening from Shanghai on their first-ever trip to Thailand, at the entrance of a recently constructed, 55-story apartment building in the heart of the city.

They claim that, as a homosexual couple, they want to take advantage of Thailand's bewildering array of LGBTQ+ entertainment options. However, their goal is more important. They are searching for a possible house because they want to have a family, which is much more difficult for homosexual couples to accomplish in China.

According to Owen, two-thirds of his customers are now Chinese LGBTQ+ individuals who are looking to reside in Thailand as their first destination of choice.

"We saw a lot of gays, lesbians, and some transgender people here," Lincoln said. "Well, I believe that this is a really free and open nation. We felt somewhat freed when we arrived."

"I think the most the most significant thing is the atmosphere here," Wonson said.

"The freedom, as you are aware of how difficult it is for us to live in China due to familial and traditional cultural pressure. Perhaps this place allows us to live the kind of life we've always dreamed of, one that meets our needs and those of our kids as well. Here, we can demonstrate to our kids that we are just like everyone else in the world."

According to Gary Bowerman, whose business Check-in Asia studies travel patterns in the area, such tourists will comprise an increasing percentage of Chinese travelers.

"Three years stuck in an extremely safe nation during the pandemic may have impacted their perceptions of security and protection, so that when you've got these whispers of scams and kidnappings, it will have an impact on people's perceptions," he said. "But one thing I would say about the younger passengers from China is that they are ready for experiment."

Furthermore, he claims that "that element of adventure and, let's say, manageable danger" is what draws most people to Thailand.