Chinese tourists shun Thailand as crime film stokes kidnapping fears on social media

Their fears have been triggered by the Chinese blockbuster film ‘No More Bets’, about kidnap victims who run scams at a Southeast Asian location

Some Chinese nationals who plan to travel to Thailand say their families are concerned, while others say such worries are exaggerated

Reading Time:3 minutes

A Chinese tourist praying in front of Thai dancers at the popular Erawan Shrine in Bangkok on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:02pm, 22 Sep 2023Updated: 5:48pm, 22 Sep 2023

For millions of Chinese tourists, Thailand used to be a happy land of water fights, lantern festivals and delicious food.

But thanks to social media rumours and a blockbuster movie, the kingdom’s image among many Chinese people is now one of dangerous illegality and seedy scam border compounds – leaving visitor numbers plummeting.

Thailand is hugely reliant on tourism, particularly from China. The country welcomed more than 10 million Chinese visitors each year before the Covid-19 pandemic – numbers Bangkok is desperate to see return.

But its struggling holiday industry has been hit by viral social media rumours claiming that tourists might be kidnapped and sent across the border to work in brutal scamming compounds in Myanmar or Cambodia.

Chinese tourist Jia Xueqiong spent a week in Thailand with her husband and daughter, despite her parents’ disapproval.

“They felt it was not safe here, and tried to persuade us not to come,” the 44-year-old nurse said outside Bangkok’s unusually quiet Grand Palace. “All my friends said, ‘You go first to explore, if it’s OK we will follow’,” she said.

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