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despite efforts to convince Chinese tourists traveling to Thailand for the Lunar New Year, they are concerned about being kidnapped by criminals to work in terrible scams.
Nearly 7 million people traveled to Thailand in 2024, making nearly 7 million of those who were Chinese next year.
However, at a peak time, high-profile abductions on the Thai-Myanmar borders have caused a shiver through the business, with reportedly 10, 000 trips canceled during the Lunar New Year holidays.
Thai aerospace executives claim that despite higher general traveller numbers, they anticipate immigrants from China over the Jan 24 to Feb 2 time to be lower than in 2024.
Even those who braved the journey are uncomfortable.
” I didn’t dare to tell my family, so I came here secretly”, Gao, a 29-year-old visitor from Hainan province who gave just one title, told AFP at Wat Pho, the Thai city’s Temple of the Reclining Buddha.
After the rescue of Chinese artist Wang Xing from a cyber-fraud center in Myanmar earlier this month, doubts were heightened.
Wang claimed that he was lured to Thailand with the promise of an exam before being taken away and smuggled across the frontier.
Tourists are afraid of the fact that robberies appear to be carried out by Taiwanese listeners.
” When we are here, we try not to speak too much to people who speak Taiwanese”, Hu Yangfan, a 25-year-old visitor from Zhejiang in eastern China told AFP near the Grand Palace, one of Bangkok’s most famous landmarks.