Thai tourists appear to be acting on the grassroots social media hashtag “Ban Korea,” with the boycott campaign appearing to have manifested a travel preference for Japan and China over South Korea.
From the Thai perspective, problems with South Korea’s strict immigration checks have festered since last year. After landing in the country, some Thais with electronic preapproval are being turned back by immigration agents, costing the would-be tourists hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
South Korea blames the trouble on illegal workers showing up from Thailand.
“I was rejected by the immigration and was sent back to Bangkok immediately last year,” said Eve Khokesuwan, a 42-year-old housekeeper from the northeastern town of Kalasin. As she could not speak fluent English, she had no choice but to obey the Korean authority.
“I don’t want to go to Korea anymore because it was the most stressful trip ever. I felt a very bad impression [of South Korea],” she said.
The Thai hashtag began spreading on X in the final quarter of last year. Then, in the first four months of this year the number of Thais visiting South Korea fell 21% from the year-earlier trimester, to 119,000, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.
In 2019, before COVID shut down global travel, 572,000 Thai tourists made it through South Korean immigration.
This is also very relevant:
The ability to be preapproved, however, encouraged some Thais to travel to South Korea, find jobs and stay longer than 90 days while earning three to four times the minimum daily wage back home.
South Korea says these illegal workers led to social problems and that they engaged in criminal activity, forcing immigration officials to put Thai travelers with K-ETA visas through secondary inspections.
According to South Korean government data, there were 157,000 Thai nationals residing illegally as of September 2023, triple the number recorded in 2015. The government said last year that since 2016, Thais have accounted for the largest portion of foreigners staying in the country illegally. When the Thai Ministry of Labor in 2023 opened a channel for Thais staying illegally in South Korea and wanting to return home, 2,601 Thais registered.
Helps put it into perspective.
Thats interesting news. I don’t think I would have heard of this through any establishment source. Thanks for posting it.
Np - I will try to shoot for more stuff like this down the road.