Thai tourism emphasises its neutrality in the Ukraine war, calls for a review of payment systems

[webfact]

Russian tourists holidaying in Phuket last week as Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Yuthasak Supasorn (right) tells tourism sector operators that everything must be done for stranded Russian tourists and that more are on the way. At the same time, Mr Yuthasak dismissed fears over an American advisory to its nationals not to travel to Thailand. Due to sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both Visa and MasterCard have suspended operations in the country leading industry bosses in Thailand to call for greater access to non-western networks including the Chinese Union Pay service headquartered in Shanghai.

 

by James Morris and Son Nguyen

 

The rising emergency and disruption to prospects for tourism come amid plummeting consumer and business confidence as the overall Thai economy has been hit with a record high consumer price index for February and faltering business activity.

 

Thailand’s tourism promotion agency will be attending a fair in Moscow over the coming days to drum up more tourism activity between the kingdom and Russia. Officials from the tourism promotion agency’s Moscow office will be attending the Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition from March 15th to 17th even as stranded tourists in places like Phuket and Ko Samui have experienced difficulty in paying their bills. The ongoing war in Ukraine has led many senior figures within the foreign tourism sector across the country to emphasise that the kingdom remains a neutral party to the conflict with calls for Thailand to explore its payments infrastructure which has been found to be at the mercy of western sanctions.

 

Thailand’s tourism supremo and Tourism Authority of Thailand boss, Governor Yuthasak Supasorn, has cautioned that foreign tourism numbers may be off by 30% in the first quarter of 2022 due to rising inflation and global insecurity caused by the war in Ukraine.

 

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Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/03/11/thai-tourism-emphasises-ukraine-war-neutrality/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Examiner 2022-03-11

 

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[cliobkk]

can do .... all transaction will be in Rubles only....or Ukrainian Hryvnias...

I do have empathy for the Russian and Ukrainian tourists and non tourist stranded around the world, not only those in Thailand....

But  to state that being Neutral.... entitles to anything.... hmmm...

anyway Asean Now give , or can we see , the official quote from TAT about "Neutrality...." if none given... : bad reporting

 

[MasterBaker]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Russian tourists holidaying in Phuket last week as Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Yuthasak Supasorn (right)

i almost mistook fat girls for the Minister

[daveAustin]

Sorry, but F neutral. Places like Switzerland, Ireland etc (albeit on a governmental level) did this before, didn't get their hands dirty and sat back with the eventual stability that the fighters brought. Thailand, do not be a wet rag! Don't dance with the devil if just your economy is at stake.

[cliobkk]

6 hours ago, Victornoir said:

Thailand is right to affirm its neutrality and seek ways around it. This country took no part in the measures and intimidation that led to this war and should not take sides or suffer the consequences.

 

 

Yes , Thailand like any other nation is entitled to neutrality. Rightly so. May i point out, that neutrality comes with a cost, neutrality is not "Gratis" or free of costs.... the interlocking and complexity of politics and economics global system makes "Neutrality" and the consequences of "Neutral position" unavoidable.
The article was badly written, and conveyed a non confirmed position of the Thai Gov.... The authors of the post just copy and pasted.

I agree with you, Victornoir, about the right of a government to express its neutrality.... but like any other choices in the real world, even "Neutrality" has its costs...

 

[wensiensheng]

So Thailand wants to help Russians circumvent western sanctions, huh.

 

they were put in place for a reason and that reason is readily available to be seen in the images of war shown in every available media source….outside of Russia.

 

i guess Thailand stands with Russia, not Ukraine. Serves the country right if it gets slapped with secondary sanctions

[wensiensheng]

6 hours ago, Victornoir said:

Thailand is right to affirm its neutrality and seek ways around it. This country took no part in the measures and intimidation that led to this war and should not take sides or suffer the consequences.

 

I think the same for Europe but I am in the extreme minority and anyway it is too late now.

Please do feel free to take your next holiday in Ukraine. You didn’t take sides and are neutral, so you should be fine.

[pomchop]

Wow.  Not a good look for TAT folks to fly off on a junket to Moscow in the guise of a trade show while the rest of the world rightfully is pulling out all the stops to distance themselves from the new Hitler wannabe.

 

Has to be one of the dumbest decisions by a tourism department EVER.

[TorquayFan]

The World is at odds with Putin not the Russian people. Thankfully Russians on holiday in Thailand presumably have return tickets. Russian expats have a serious problem.

 

Thailand will miss Russian tourists but hey - that's life. The idea of specially facilitating promotion of Russian tourism in these circumstance will be decried around the World and is likely to rebound - very soon.

 

I despair at Thailand's 'tolerance' of matters Russian (and matters Myanmar too).

 

 

 

 

[Karma80]

That's a terrible optic. I mean I get that the TAT has a moral compass that's glued firmly to $, but really?

 

It's not just morally bankrupt but makes zero commercial sense. The Russian economy is turning to ash, travel links are evaporating, thousands of Russians are stranded in Thailand.

 

I can only imagine this is a disgusting attempt to lure cashed-up Russians with the latest elite visa nonsense. Many other countries are moving to ban Russians from golden visa type schemes. I mean, I'm disgusted, but wouldn't be surprised.

[Walker88]

So one nation was perfectly peaceful and minding its own business, and the other country, ruled by an autocrat who suffers from small (nickname for Richard) syndrome, invaded and is targeting civilians, an example of both evil and abject cowardice.

 

Hmmmm, which side to take......

[Isaan sailor]

Would Thailand stay neutral if China invaded Taiwan?  How about SEAsia?

[Olav Seglem]

I understand:

They are not able to deside if its wrong to invade another country-or not.

Disgusting.....

 

 

 

 

[TheFishman1]

They should start calling this place Little China even Switzerland who is a very neutral country they condemn the war  Thailand doesn’t have any balls TIT

[sammieuk1]

He could have gone on to say the Baht is preforming better than gold no matter what the crisis enjoy your stranded skint guests keep up the neutrality and if Vlad survives a never ending supply of turret-less tanks could be yours????

[malibukid]

they seem to love authoritarian non-democratic governments in SE Asia, no surprise.  Thailand has its nose up China, Burma.  why upset Russia. 

[koele2]

So I guess the message thailand wants to send is that it is ok to invade another country and create a humanitarian crisis as long as a lot of your citizens spend money in our country.  

[FinChin67]

1 hour ago, pomchop said:

Wow.  Not a good look for TAT folks to fly off on a junket to Moscow in the guise of a trade show while the rest of the world rightfully is pulling out all the stops to distance themselves from the new Hitler wannabe.

 

Has to be one of the dumbest decisions by a tourism department EVER.

Disappointed but what you can expect from Thailand...
I have sent a copy of this to my friends and told them to go elsewhere for their holidays.

[wombat]

Uncle Vlad he be so smart,

8 years in the planning and Chinese banking is how he will get round the sanctions.

Suck it up western banking your about to lose money.

[Oxx]

The Moscow junket is not only crass, it's nonsensical.  The Rouble is worth less than a third of what it was in Thai Baht terms five years ago.  That makes Thailand very expensive for tourists.

 

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=RUB&to=THB&view=5Y

[wombat]

31 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Would Thailand stay neutral if China invaded Taiwan?  How about SEAsia?

The whole world will do nothing when Taiwan is taken back.

The same way the whole world did nothing when HK was taken back and all those bits of signed paper aka treaties were shown for what they were ...bits of paper.

[FinChin67]

Just now, Oxx said:

The Moscow junket is not only crass, it's nonsensical.  The Rouble is worth less than a third of what it was in Thai Baht terms five years ago.  That makes Thailand very expensive for tourists.

 

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=RUB&to=THB&view=5Y

Soon it's cheaper to use rouble notes for toilet paper based on exchange rate / toilet paper price. 

 

8 rolls of toilet paper 4,29€ or 0,536€ per roll. One roll has 153 sheets = 0,0035€ per sheet. At the moment one rouble is 0,0066€. Not yet but maybe next week? Shame that it does not have Putin's pic on it.
 

But hey, who cares, Unionpay to the rescue!

[ThailandRyan]

16 minutes ago, koele2 said:

So I guess the message thailand wants to send is that it is ok to invade another country and create a humanitarian crisis as long as a lot of your citizens spend money in our country.  

Now that's a perfect optic for a view.

[JayBird]

TAT:  We don't care who your country kill.  Just give us money.

 

Very Buddhist.

 

If TAT at least said:

 

We condone the actions of the Russian government, but welcome the peaceful citizens who do not share their governments views.

 

 

But in reality, they just say whatever China tells them.

 

Thailand feels more a part of China than Taiwan.

[Speedhump]

6 hours ago, Victornoir said:

Thailand is right to affirm its neutrality and seek ways around it. This country took no part in the measures and intimidation that led to this war and should not take sides or suffer the consequences.

 

I think the same for Europe but I am in the extreme minority and anyway it is too late now.

Yes everyone around the world should just turn their backs and put their heads in the sand. If atrocities are thousands of miles away they don't really matter. Putin agrees: "mind your own damned business, if I want to bomb these families it's not your concern". 

[Speedhump]

24 minutes ago, wombat said:

Uncle Vlad he be so smart,

8 years in the planning and Chinese banking is how he will get round the sanctions.

Suck it up western banking your about to lose money.

8 years to grab a bit of Ukraine. And in the process lose the entire global disinformation network he spent millions/billions on as western people finally are willing to believe that lies were being spread for many years in their own countries by paid agents and bots. Online hatred fostered by creating division between normally reasonable people with different views  No-one believes or trusts Putin after this. And RT News? It's exposed and shunned now. He has lost a lot more globally than he's gained regionally. Get it? 

[Speedhump]

Neutrality is odious. Well done. Even if you wouldn't dare to send arms or money, at least use your words to condemn the invasion of a sovereign nation and the bombing of civilians. 

[mikebell]

No Ballsland.

[vandeventer]

1 hour ago, daveAustin said:

Sorry, but F neutral. Places like Switzerland, Ireland etc (albeit on a governmental level) did this before, didn't get their hands dirty and sat back with the eventual stability that the fighters brought. Thailand, do not be a wet rag! Don't dance with the devil if just your economy is at stake.

The Swiss are not neutral now, and neither should we be. The Ukraine people are suffering everyday from Putin and we are worried about making a few extra dollars. Come on Thailand your better than this.

[tandor]

...no guts Thailand...RIP all those dying for their country.