Bangkok “tuk tuk” taxi driver Samran Thammasa, 39, had never heard of K-pop star Jessica Jung before the coronavirus pandemic, but now the singer’s Thai fans are helping him survive the loss of tourist customers.
His bright green three-wheeled motorcycle rickshaw has been mostly vacant for more than a year. In the past few months, though, he’s earned about 600 baht ($19) a month to feature K-pop ads on his vehicle. “The extra income may not be a lot for most people but it is for us,” he said, glancing at a shimmering vinyl banner of Jung.
Drivers of Bangkok’s distinctive tuk tuks have been among the hardest-hit by the pandemic’s devastation of Thailand’s all-important tourism industry, left haunting corners of empty city streets complaining of mounting debt. Samran used to earn around 1,500 baht ($47) a day ferrying foreign tourists around Bangkok. Nearly all of that disappeared as…
