Chiang Mai: Chinese tourists in Loy Krathong rebellion - claim "disgraceful" rip off by Thai company

[webfact]

Chiang Mai: Chinese tourists in Loy Krathong rebellion - claim "disgraceful" rip off by Thai company

 

Picture: Manager online

 

Chinese tourists have taken to their social media to say that a Thai company ripped them off to the tune of thousands of baht for a Loy Krathong/Yi Peng celebration that left them completely unimpressed. 

 

So bad was the rip off that Chinese tourists were seen in clips chanting their dissatisfaction before a crowd surged forward and one man stormed a stage where a cultural event was taking place. 

 

The angry crowd were furious they had been charged 6,000 baht for VIP tickets - and got virtually nothing. 

 

Picture: Manager online

 

Fancy advertisements were just a front for the rip-off, they said. 

 

Operators have said that the incident and bad publicity is another nail in the coffin for Chiang Mai tourism and they want action taken against the company responsible. There have even been suggestions that the company is linked to the Phoenix Boat disaster in Phuket last year. 

 

Customers who had been at the event in Saraphee district went on www.xiaohonshu.com to vent their anger at their experiences in Thailand. 

 

A great event was promised with fancy decorations, a slap up meal and all the culture they could handle. 

 

Picture: Manager online

 

But there weren't enough seats on the buses, the decorations were useless, there was just a small pond with no floating water for the Krathongs, those with VIP tickets mixed with those without and the lighting of a lantern was so disorganized that it caught fire. 

 

They had paid 3,000 baht for ordinary tickets and twice as much for what was called VIP. 

 

One video showed the storming of a stage amid "we demand our money back" chants as presenters tried to keep a cultural show going. Local dignitaries had been on stage adding to the embarrassment. 

 

Manager called it a disgrace for Thailand.

 

Operators said that no wonder tourism in Chiang Mai had gone down from 5 million to half that number of visitors. These shocking operators ripping people off should be investigated, they said.

 

They termed the social media coverage from China as "very damaging". 

 

And even suggested that the company - that was not named - had connections with the Phoenix boat disaster that killed more than three dozen Chinese people and thoroughly damaged tourism last year. 

 

Source: Manager online

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-11-19

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

 

[PatOngo]

Nek year come back, khup?

[BritManToo]

Dhamma Centre in MaeJo have done this special tourist fiasco event every year.

Problem this year, they weren't allowed to release Khom Loys on the 'VIP' day.

The free event for the locals, which used to be amazing and where all the 'advertising videos' were filmed, hasn't happened for 2 years now.

 

[worgeordie]

Where's TAT,not even bothering to make any comments

about how it was just a huge misunderstanding,and really

everyone is happy.

regards Worgeordie

[Just1Voice]

Welll, good. Now they have no reason to come back. lol

[andre47]

It gets more and more stupid on this planet....

[Happy Grumpy]

34 minutes ago, webfact said:

"we demand our money back"

Good luck with that. 

[cmsally]

Interesting , so the rumours I have been hearing are turning out to be true ! Was there by any chance more than one of this type of event.

[SoilSpoil]

6000 baht is a lot of Yuan these days. The Yuan Baht rate follows the same nosediving line as all the other currencies.

[Happy Grumpy]

Quote

rip off by Thai company

I find that hard to believe.

 

But a friend of mine that came over and started teaching with an agency earlier this year, and along with the 9 others didn't get paid after working the first full month, then for 2 weeks after as the agency strung them all along, pocketing the 500,000thb or whatever for the month, might believe it. 

[lemonjelly]

The video shows the Chinese tourists storming the stage whilst local bigwigs are on.... major loss of face there

[darksidedog]

More bad news heading into China about the pitfalls of visiting Thailand. The tourism industry here really love to kick the goose that lays the golden eggs square up the butt don't they?

[BritManToo]

6 minutes ago, cmsally said:

Interesting , so the rumours I have been hearing are turning out to be true ! Was there by any chance more than one of this type of event.

There always used to be two events at the same place.

Free event for locals, not advertised, usually the Saturday before Yi Peng, 10,000s of people would attend and the sky filled with lanterns.

Expensive 'tourists' only event which cost 1,000s baht with very few lanterns the next Saturday.

 

So now the locals event is cancelled (due to Khom Loy ban), and the tourist event happened without the Khom Loys (as they're banned).

 

 

[holy cow cm]

Come back, I give you VIP discount now. 

[davehowden]

And when you get home don't forget to tell your mates what a great place Thailand is !!

[cmsally]

All the rumours I heard were of places with a type of show and lantern release. They seemed to think north of CM.

[BritManToo]

19 minutes ago, cmsally said:

All the rumours I heard were of places with a type of show and lantern release. They seemed to think north of CM.

https://goo.gl/maps/FPmFQtzEuhwP5bs36

[spidermike007]

 

A great event was promised with fancy decorations, a slap up meal and all the culture they could handle. 

 

Wouldn't we all be lining up to pay $200 for that? Sounds amazing. I have never had a slap up meal, and would pay big money to experience that. 

[Kelsall]

Don't the Chinese act like that everywhere they go, all the time?

 

 

[mercman24]

come to Thailand and get ripped off, fake news, (by the way where are they) in hiding, and only one sided,

[AlexRich]

Come back farang, all is forgiven!

[thaibeachlovers]

I went on two different river tours in C M and both were disgusting. One had a decrepit boat, got off at a dangerous pier by crawling under the roof, taken around the historic wats on a broken down horse drawn carriage pulled by a starved horse, and the AC in the van was broken.

The other took me up river to a filthy restaurant and if I wanted to eat it was extra, even though I was told it was included.

Went to a Kan Toke dinner at a cultural  village where the food was rubbish, the dancing pathetic, and the staff didn't give a monkey's.

 

Sad thing is, I did all those things in the past, and they were really good. What the <deleted> happened?

[unamazedloso]

????????im unimpressed with everything thai. i have this same dilemma with everything i have to pay for here. Never worth a cent!!

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, unamazedloso said:

????????im unimpressed with everything thai. i have this same dilemma with everything i have to pay for here. Never worth a cent!!

I went on a tour up Doi Inthanon which was excellent. Not everything is bad.

However, back in the early 90s they'd pick everyone up from the hotels in a new van, then make us change to a decrepit broken one for the actual tour.

Best tour I went on was to see the sound and light show on the River Kwai bridge, but we stayed at a 5* hotel.

[hansnl]

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

Where's TAT,not even bothering to make any comments

about how it was just a huge misunderstanding,and really

everyone is happy.

regards Worgeordie

Tasty.

Chinese complaining about a ripoff....

[hansnl]

1 hour ago, davehowden said:

And when you get home don't forget to tell your mates what a great place Thailand is !!

That seems to be done in many places now.

[30la]

Have you already cheated tourists of all nationalities, result? Many no longer come!
Be careful with the most important tourist group of the moment, if you let them go, you will not have any tourists in the future!

[GalaxyMan]

21 minutes ago, unamazedloso said:

????????im unimpressed with everything thai. i have this same dilemma with everything i have to pay for here. Never worth a cent!!

The weather is still great, at least in Samui. ????

[simtemple]

The Chinese know that the Thai are habitual thieves and liars. The good news is that they are happy to let everyone know. Great news also for the Philippines Ministries of Immigration and Tourism.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-10/13/c_138468496.htm

[Denim]