Thai tourists turn against South Korea

Screening tightened to stem illegal work

The top trending hashtag of “ban Korea travel” on the X platform had more than a million posts over the past weekend and should not be ignored by tourism organisations as both tourists and tour operators have incurred losses during the past couple of years.

As of September, the number of Thais visiting South Korea tallied 269,347, following Japanese, Chinese, Americans, Taiwanese and Vietnamese in the top five.

The Thai outbound market peaked in 2019 with 571,610 visitors, according to the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).

Charoen Wangananont, president of the Thai Travel Agents Association, said even though the KTO would like to increase the Thai market this year to the 2019 level, it could prove difficult because of growing concerns among Thai travellers.

On X,…