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Thailand has sought to assure Chinese travellers that it is safe to visit. Photo: Xinhua

Thailand is safe for Chinese travellers, embassy says amid online trafficking claims

  • Embassy offers assurance to ‘clarify misconceptions’ about the country being a travel risk
  • Comments follow Chinese vlogger’s warning about the sudden popularity online of videos of restaurants with attractive male waiters.
Thailand has sought to reassure Chinese travellers that the country is a safe holiday destination following widely circulated claims online about the risk of human trafficking.

“Thailand attaches great importance to the quality of Chinese tourists’ travels, their safety and good impression of Thailand,” the Thai embassy in Beijing said on Thursday, adding that relevant departments would “take corresponding measures to fully maintain and guarantee the safety of tourists”.

“The [embassy] fully understands tourists’ concerns about safety. Thailand has always been popular with tourists from all over the world.

“Since [China] has allowed Chinese tourists to travel abroad, Thailand has made comprehensive preparations to welcome [them] and has added many communication channels for [them], providing convenience and security to tourists to obtain information and report emergencies to the tourism police.”

The embassy said it wanted to “clarify misconceptions about content and comments” about Thailand being unsafe for tourists but did not say what had prompted the statement.

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However, the comments came after a 34-minute vlog posted on Bilibili, the Chinese equivalent of YouTube, warned about videos showing Bangkok restaurants featuring attractive male waiters.

The videos have surged in popularity on social media and the poster of the vlog, “Heart Doctor Lin Lin”, suggested traffickers could be using the videos to manipulate the algorithm to lure more Chinese tourists to the country, putting the travellers at risk.

The vlogger said the restaurants were common in Thailand and there was nothing new about them.

The videos were aimed at women, making them particularly vulnerable, but there was also content targeted at men, the vlogger said, urging travellers to be cautious.

The vlog has since been taken down and Heart Doctor Lin Lin’s account closed, but not before the content was widely shared and stirred debate online. A repost of the vlog post on Weibo also remains accessible and has attracted more than 33,000 likes.

Some accused the vlogger of fearmongering and making false claims while others argued that the warning was justified and the account helped to “expose the dark side of society”.

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Chinese tourists return in droves to Bali, Thai beaches for first time in 3 years

Chinese tourists return in droves to Bali, Thai beaches for first time in 3 years

According to the Global Slavery Index, Thailand is home to about 610,000 human trafficking victims.

Trafficking is an issue more broadly in Southeast Asia.

On Thursday, Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai and Myanmar’s deputy prime minister, Soe Win, discussed ways to combat illegal cross-border criminal activities, such as internet fraud and gambling.

And Hong Kong authorities said in August last year, that it had received more than 40 requests for help in connection with human trafficking scams in the region since January.
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