Zhongxin Jingwei, March 24 (Ma Jing) Before the Qingming holiday has arrived, many people planning to travel abroad have already set their sights on the longer May Day holiday. Data from OTA platforms such as Mafengwo and Ctrip show that Thailand is currently the number one destination in popularity.
However, Thailand, which was originally a popular tourist destination, has recently encountered negative reviews of "unsafe" and "unaffordable". Some netizens are worried that traveling to Thailand will risk being "cut kidneys", and personal safety is not guaranteed; Some netizens said that prices in Thailand have skyrocketed, and they are already too expensive to go. Related topics also continue to be hotly debated on social platforms.
What exactly happened? We chatted with an international travel agency who has been specializing in Thailand for many years.
"We were under indiscriminate attack"
Since China resumed outbound group travel related business on a pilot basis in 20 overseas destination countries on February 6 this year, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries have immediately become the most popular outbound travel destinations. Mafengwo big data shows that the popularity of "May Day outbound travel" in Mafengwo Station has increased by more than 110% in the past week. As of March 23, Thailand was the overseas destination with the highest number of orders for the May Day holiday, with a 150% increase in tourism popularity in the past week. Ctrip's data also shows that Thailand and Bangkok are still the top 1 destinations in the most searched outbound countries and cities on Ctrip's platform in the past 7 days.
Tourism scenery in Thailand, source: photo provided by interviewee
Lin Lin (pseudonym) is a partner of an international travel agency in China, who has been engaged in outbound travel and other businesses since 2017, mainly engaged in Thai routes. Currently, she operates two travel agencies, one for China and one for Thailand. Since the opening of the outbound tour, Lin Lin has led the group to Thailand three times, and will start the fourth trip to Thailand in two days.
Her travel agency was supposed to see a gradual recovery this spring, but she has been troubled lately by talk that "Thailand is not safe to travel." Lin Lin mentioned that travel agencies have issued their first Thai tour group since February 6, and originally planned to gradually resume the rhythm of one group or two groups, but now many travelers who originally planned to depart in April are in a wait-and-see attitude and may postpone their trips.
"Although no one has left the group at present, bringing economic losses, there have been many 'black fans' in the live broadcast room recently, and my heart is very tired." Linlin's customers mainly come through the Douyin live broadcast room, and she is both the head of the business and the anchor. Lin Lin usually promotes tourism products and broadcasts Thailand travel in the live broadcast room, and currently has more than 10,000 fans, and the total sales of the live broadcast room have exceeded 10 million yuan.
Lin Lin said that recently, thousands of netizens will leave comments such as "no conscience" every time the broadcast starts. At the same time, words such as "waist", "don't go" and "whitewash" continued to brush the screen in the live broadcast room, and she had to set more than 20 blocking words. At first, in the face of these remarks, Lin Lin would be afraid to go back, but later she turned on the live broadcast, quietly read the comments, did not say a word, "felt very powerless."
"Things are not what netizens say, but we have all encountered this kind of indiscriminate attack." Lin Lin believes that there is no official verification of the security incidents mentioned on the Internet for those "Kawaizi", "We have never led the group to have this kind of thing, even during the previous peak period, it was 10,000 people going out a day, and 10,000 people came back intact." ”
Lin Lin told Zhongxin Jingwei that before the epidemic, she mainly cooperated with a large local tourism group in Thailand to do MICE tourism (that is, business meetings and incentive travel), generally the size of the group was hundreds of thousands of people, or even tens of thousands, and also did some group tour products, etc., in 2019, their reception volume was about 460,000 person-times. In the past, the number of tourists in several groups added up to at least one or two thousand, but now it has always been a group of more than 20 people.
"The male model restaurant is more entertaining, and you can take pictures for 20 yuan"
Lin Lin said that in terms of his own travel in Thailand and travel agency group leads, there will indeed be some tourists who go out alone at night and like to rent local three-wheeled motorcycles, which may have minor safety problems, such as different steering wheel positions, falls, etc., but dangerous cases such as "Kawaizi" mentioned on the Internet have never been encountered.
"Of course, we also advise travelers not to go out in the middle of the night or after 9 or 10 pm, but this does not mean that there will be danger, but do not gamble with your own safety, whether domestic or foreign, the risk factor of single travel will be higher." Lin Lin said.
Tourism scenery in Thailand, source: photo provided by interviewee
In Linlin's view, tourism is a pillar industry in Thailand, and most of the employees provide good services. As far as the latest experience of going to Thailand is concerned, the makeup artist accidentally left two makeup boxes at the hotel, and the hotel sent the makeup boxes to the airport for free within two hours after learning the situation, "It was just an ordinary hotel in the local area, and the accommodation cost was equivalent to about 200-300 yuan." ”
Regarding the Thai male model restaurants in the Internet public opinion, Lin Lin introduced that these are actually ordinary restaurants. "You can order Thai food and soft drinks, and the cost is relatively affordable, a fruit plate is about 50-60 yuan, and a cocktail is 30-40 yuan." The difference compared to other restaurants is that "this male model restaurant is more entertaining, and you can take photos with male models with eight-pack abs for about 20 yuan, similar to many male travelers who would like to interact with Thai shemales in the past." ”
Lin Lin mentioned that in March, most of the more than 30 tourists who led a group to Thailand were women, all went to the male model restaurant, and everyone was more interested in this experience. The companions divided into 3 groups to order food, which was also broadcast live, and no one was harassed or anyone came to pick up the conversation.
Speaking of prices, Lin Lin said that before the epidemic, most people could spend 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan to enjoy charter wine tours in Thailand, and now the price has indeed increased, "but not as exaggerated as it is said on the Internet." "The price of independent travel will be expensive, which is related to the spending power of guests, but the price of group tours is now almost the same as three years ago, and the only significant increase is air tickets.
In Linlin's view, flying to Thailand is no longer as cheap as before, mainly related to the fact that flight capacity has not fully recovered, which used to be about 1,000 yuan round trip to Thailand, but now it is basically more than 3,000 yuan.
According to Ctrip's data, the price of outbound travel has actually been gradually decreasing since the "Category B and B tube". Taking air tickets as an example, the average one-way price of outbound air tickets on Ctrip's platform in March was 2,124 yuan, down 51.5% from the same period last year, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, was selected as the most affordable destination among the popular overseas booking destinations, and ranked among the top 1 most affordable destinations in Thailand, with an average one-way air ticket price of 1,632 yuan.
The relevant person in charge of Ctrip's air ticket said that the ticket is expected to be further reduced after the flight season changes. However, the overall price decline rate is difficult to say optimistic, which is related to the difficulty of increasing the number of flights in the short term, and the current outbound flight has recovered to about 20% of the pre-epidemic level.
For catering consumption, Lin Lin said that overall, the price increase of clearly marked goods is not particularly large, such as a bowl of seafood noodles is fifteen or six yuan, and then buy some raw pickled seafood, the final cost of three people is 890 yuan. But she also admits that many scenic spots do have "slaughter" type small traders. When they see tourists coming over, they will deliberately raise prices, "Tourists who don't understand may be slaughtered, but people like us who understand the situation will generally bargain." For example, for a coconut ice cream, the vendor will ask for 150 baht (about 30 yuan), and we will cut it to the pre-pandemic price, about 50 baht. ”
On March 23, the Thai Embassy in China issued a statement saying that Thailand attaches great importance to the quality and safety of Chinese tourists. The statement pointed out that Thailand is fully prepared to receive Chinese tourists and has added many communication channels for Chinese tourists to facilitate and ensure that tourists can obtain information and inform the tourism police of emergencies.
The Thai Embassy in Beijing also said it understood tourists' concerns about safety. Thailand has long been popular with tourists from all over the world, with many cities being shortlisted for the organization's list of liveable and safe cities. Therefore, please rest assured that the relevant Thai institutions attach great importance to this issue, and will also take corresponding measures to fully maintain and protect the safety of tourists.
Lin Lin is very happy about this, she said that she is waiting for public opinion to slowly dissipate, and is also waiting for more and more tourists to speak out after traveling to Thailand to clarify the facts, "What we can do is to do what we should do, make the service better, and let everyone know that traveling is not a dangerous thing." ”
(At the request of the interviewee, it is not convenient to disclose his name)
(For more reporting clues, please contact Ma Jing, the author of this article, email: [email protected]) (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
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Responsible editor: Li Zhongyuan