Final three defendants in Thailand’s zero-dollar tourism case acquitted

[snoop1130]

 

The Thai Supreme Court acquitted 3 people today (Thursday), who were among 13 accused of involvement in the zero-dollar tourism scam exposed in Thailand almost six years ago, due to a lack of evidence that their activities caused damage to the tourism industry and were criminal.

 

Zero-dollar tourism refers to cheap package tours, which were popular among Chinese tourists visiting Thailand. They were placed in cheap hotels, ate in restaurants and were taken on many shopping trips to souvenir or jewellery shops and often required to buy overpriced products. The network of hotels, restaurants, shops and bus services were operated by the same group of businessmen, mostly Chinese, in cooperation with their Thai partners.

 

In 2016, the Thai government decided to crackdown on zero-dollar tourism, arresting more than a dozen people allegedly involved in this kind of tourism. The crackdown resulted in a substantial drop in Chinese arrivals in Thailand that year. Police also seized about 2,000 buses, which were used to service Chinese tourists using these package tours.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/final-three-defendants-in-thailands-zero-dollar-tourism-case-acquitted/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-03-03

 

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[ozzydon]

No surprises there it is thailand don't forget enough money and walk free

[RafPinto]

Order from the big boss in Scheina

[NanaSomchai]

Did you really expect any different?

 

Welcome to Chailand.

[Puccini]

Thailand has good laws and a good judicial system. I see nothing nothing wrong with the court decisions in this case.

[pegman]

These cases seemed strange from the get go. All inclusive vacation packages are on offer the world over. Likely the courts were being used to hammer the competition of friends of the junta.

[Oxx]

13 minutes ago, pegman said:

All inclusive vacation packages are on offer the world over.

Not for free they're not.

[Andycoops]

Another whitewash.

[topt]

Not surprised by the result but pleasantly surprised that there is even a press report on it. Too often we never hear any follow up following the original arrest/investigation.

 

Based on this I am guessing it went all the way to the Supreme Court on appeal for all the defendants to be finally acquitted.

Quote

The Criminal Court acquitted all the defendants, citing insufficient evidence to prove wrongdoing. The Appeals Court then also acquitted all but 3 of the defendants, who were each fined 500,000 Baht.

In acquitting the last 3 defendants, the Supreme Court said that the claim that the group had covered up the true nature of their package tours, that they were, in fact, shopping trips and tourists were overcharged for the products they bought, and that such tours had caused damage to local tourism businesses, was mere conjecture and unsubstantiated.

 Do they get all the buses back..............

[mtls2005]

Shrimp for EVERYONE!!

[Cake Monster]

Who would have believed this to be possible.

[Smokey and the Bandit]

6 hours ago, Puccini said:

Thailand has good laws and a good judicial system. I see nothing nothing wrong with the court decisions in this case.

Great, just love the sarcasm!!

[Will B Good]

Presumably not a zero dollar investigation!

[newnative]

  What a totally ridiculous lawsuit in the first place.  Rightly acquitted.

[JayBird]

7 hours ago, pegman said:

These cases seemed strange from the get go. All inclusive vacation packages are on offer the world over. Likely the courts were being used to hammer the competition of friends of the junta.

I think the issue here was that payment was also made in China, so no money was put into the Thai economy.

 

Instead of giving the restaurant 1000 THB per person, they gave 0 THB.  Then transferred money from Chinese account to Chinese account in China.

[Puccini]

16 hours ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

Great, just love the sarcasm!!

Let's get this all out into the open.

 

1. What sections of what laws did the plaintiffs accuse the defendants of having contravened?

 

2. What evidence did the plaintiffs provide in support of their accusations?

 

If someone will kindly post copies of the corresponding documents, we shall have a basis on which to start a discussion.

[Puccini]

14 hours ago, JayBird said:

I think the issue here was that payment was also made in China, so no money was put into the Thai economy.

 

Instead of giving the restaurant 1000 THB per person, they gave 0 THB.  Then transferred money from Chinese account to Chinese account in China.

If this was the case – and judging from the news article cited in the OP it may well have been – what sections of what laws did the plaintiffs accuse the defendants of having contravened and what evidence did the plaintiffs present?

[pegman]

On 3/3/2022 at 4:45 PM, Oxx said:

Not for free they're not.

Cheap doesn't mean free 

[pegman]

19 hours ago, JayBird said:

I think the issue here was that payment was also made in China, so no money was put into the Thai economy.

 

Instead of giving the restaurant 1000 THB per person, they gave 0 THB.  Then transferred money from Chinese account to Chinese account in China.

So the restaurant was giving away free food? Not likely. Like tour packages all over the world you pay the tour operator who then pays the restaurants, hotels, attraction operators.....

[Oxx]

1 hour ago, pegman said:

Cheap doesn't mean free 

In this case it does.  They're called zero-dollar tours precisely because they are free, they cost the tourists nothing.  The operators' profits come from the money spent in very over-priced souvenir shops and other places of that ilk.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Oxx

[pegman]

On 3/4/2022 at 9:19 PM, Oxx said:

In this case it does.  They're called zero-dollar tours precisely because they are free, they cost the tourists nothing.  The operators' profits come from the money spent in very over-priced souvenir shops and other places of that ilk.

So are you saying money was spent in Thailand by the Chinese tourists? 

[eisfeld]

On 3/5/2022 at 4:19 AM, Oxx said:

In this case it does.  They're called zero-dollar tours precisely because they are free, they cost the tourists nothing.  The operators' profits come from the money spent in very over-priced souvenir shops and other places of that ilk.

They are called zero-dollar because the local Thai industry makes close to zero dollars from these tourists because all establishments and transportation are owned by chinese and the money flows back to China. The tours are not free. The article starts by explaining this...

Edited March 6, 2022 by eisfeld

[it is what it is]

On 3/5/2022 at 3:19 AM, Oxx said:

In this case it does.  They're called zero-dollar tours precisely because they are free, they cost the tourists nothing.  The operators' profits come from the money spent in very over-priced souvenir shops and other places of that ilk.

haha, no the tours are not free. the business model is that there is very little financial benefit for thailand companies, the revenue is retained by chinese companies. the tourists still have to pay for their holiday!

[scubascuba3]

Golf trips to Turkey work the same way, everything is paid for in advance in euros, never need to spend any lira

[arithai12]

On 3/5/2022 at 10:19 AM, Oxx said:

In this case it does.  They're called zero-dollar tours precisely because they are free, they cost the tourists nothing.  The operators' profits come from the money spent in very over-priced souvenir shops and other places of that ilk.

I don't know if this is literally true.

But it reminds me of Las Vegas, where you could get a fabulous hotel room and gorgeous buffets at a very low price. Their money came from the gambling anyway, and they sure were not losing.

This case is slightly different, and cleverer, because the scheme is operated in a foreign country.

[Puccini]

3 hours ago, pegman said:

So are you saying money was spent in Thailand by the Chinese tourists? 

What purpose does your question serve?

 

1. If the Chinese tourists spent money in Thailand, who contravened what law?

 

2. If the Chinese tourists did not spend any money in Thailand, who contravened what law?

[Danderman123]

On 3/5/2022 at 12:19 AM, Oxx said:

In this case it does.  They're called zero-dollar tours precisely because they are free, they cost the tourists nothing.  The operators' profits come from the money spent in very over-priced souvenir shops and other places of that ilk.

I have taken a Chinese zero dollar tour in Thailand, actually a tour of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I will write about the Thailand portion.

 

The tour was booked by a Chinese national via a Chinese travel agent. The price was a few hundred dollars.

 

We flew into BKK from Cambodia, don’t remember the airline. We did a few days in Bangkok, i don’t remember much about Bangkok, we probably visited the Grand Palace, we went up the Siam tower and had lunch there. The hotel was near Suvarnaphumi, a truly crappy hotel.

 

Then we bussed down to Pattaya. We stayed in a small hotel on North Pattaya Road. During the day, we visited minor attractions mostly out of Pattaya, like the elephant show at Nong Noch, a tiger farm, a snake farm, and lots of shopping. We also took a boat out to a parasailing barge. I guess all of these were Chinese owned. All of the restaurants served Chinese food, with a little Thai flavoring.

 

The days were pretty long, but one night, I managed to get down to Soi 6 for a drink. Not too many songthaews on Pattaya Road North.

 

 

On the way back to Bangkok, we stopped at a minor temple on Sukhumvit Road.

 

And that was it.

[Puccini]

38 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

...And that was it.

Thank you. It is good to know that you did not get accused and prosecuted for not spending enough money in Thailand.

[JayBird]

On 3/4/2022 at 9:06 PM, pegman said:

So the restaurant was giving away free food? Not likely. Like tour packages all over the world you pay the tour operator who then pays the restaurants, hotels, attraction operators.....

The restaurant's owner is Chinese and the money changes hand in China.

[pegman]

6 hours ago, JayBird said:

The restaurant's owner is Chinese and the money changes hand in China.

If everything was Chinese controlled it's kind of strange that Thais were charged criminally