Thailand On 'most Dangerous' List For Travellers

[bingobongo]

say bye bye to the tourists, investors, and the economy

Thailand on 'most dangerous' list for travellers

Thailand has made the list of the Top 20 Most Dangerous Places as compiled by the Telegraph newspaper of London.

The latest edition of the list puts Thailand as the seventh most-dangerous spot for travellers behind Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, South Africa, Somalia and Sudan. Thailand is said to be more dangerous than Colombia and Haiti at the moment.

It justifies the Thai spot on the list because of "major political demonstrations and a temporary state of emergency" at the two Bangkok airports.

It also cites the continuing demonstrations around Government House, the Cambodian-Thai fighting on the bordefr, and "civil unrest and frequent attacks" in the deep South.

The British "Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to these areas," the newspaper said.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=132361

[londonthai]

discussion already in the general forum http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Travel-warning-t225930.html

[skippybangkok]

LOL

Maybe shud add Washington DC

[brahmburgers]

....more dangerous than Ethiopia and Pakistan and Georgia and Yemen?

Thailand is quite safe in areas away from Bkk and the touristed areas such as Pattaya, Phuket, so to be termed dangerous on average, it must be mighty dangerous in those touristy places - Ironically, it's those places that have the highest real estate values.

I think the Telegraph's survey is flawed. Is there some highly subjective person there doing the survey alone?

[MJP]

More dangerous than Liverpool !

I'm seriously reviewing my travel plans . . .

[phaethon]

Okay, I have investigated and...

The original article from the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/3534072/In-pictures-worlds-most-dangerous-places.html) is a qualitative analysis on their part just based on the latest hysteria from 20 'selected' countries. Horror stories accompany each picture, but no hard numbers.

Earlier in the year the Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued statistics for visitor safety (in terms of problems presented as consular assistances) and by my metric (below) Thailand did come out worst. The table below is reproduced from "British behaviour abroad annual report (12/08/2008)" with my addition of the ratios for number of Deaths per Thousand Visits and per Thousand (British) Residents.

This is a quick, imperfect analysis, it does not differentiate between resident and tourist deaths, nor between violent, accidental and 'natural' (retirement) deaths, but it's just for fun, right?

Spain has far more deaths per year of British Citizens, but then Thailand with fewer annual visits comes out in front as a proportion of visits. In terms of deaths/1000 visits India is a close second but, surprisingly, Australia is a not-that-distant third (may be because they are the only ones with more resident than visiting Brits). In terms of lethality to British residents LOS is second to Greece and a near-rival to Italy.

It should be noted however that these are the top 15 destinations for Brits and, obviously, less touristy destinations like Iraq and Colombia were not included in the ranking.

Separately, the Travel Advice Page states that "Seven British nationals have been murdered in Thailand since January 2006."

[PhilHarries]

....more dangerous than Ethiopia and Pakistan and Georgia and Yemen?

Thailand is quite safe in areas away from Bkk and the touristed areas such as Pattaya, Phuket, so to be termed dangerous on average, it must be mighty dangerous in those touristy places - Ironically, it's those places that have the highest real estate values.

I think the Telegraph's survey is flawed. Is there some highly subjective person there doing the survey alone?

I agree entirely if you are talking risk of physical injury or death to visitors from causes other than natural or accidents.

This is why I always base my travel plans on my perception of the dangers and totally ignore trash like this published by the likes of the Daily Mail, Express and Telegraph. I also never bother visiting the likes of the Foreign Office website preferring to base my decisions on world news gleaned from several different sources.

Sure the current situation is likely to end in violence but if you avoid crowds of red or yellow, or any other colour, clad people waving banners, staves, baseball bats and machettes in the air you'll be okay. Read the newspapers, ask advice and if you see such people on the street walk away. It's not rocket surgery .

Unfortunately these days that great quality that used to be found in abundance, namely common sense, is now rarer than rocking horse sh1t.

[temo1051]

LOL

Maybe shud add Washington DC

and Detroit, MI and a few others as well

[VegasVic]

LOL

Maybe shud add Washington DC

and Detroit, MI and a few others as well

First of all tourists don't visit Detroit, and while they do visit the monuments in D.C. they don't travel to the inner city D.C. where the trouble is black on black street crime (98% drug related)! As far as what the PAD is doing to Thailand currently it is not only a shame, but it is occuring at the worst possible time for the LOS. Given the strong baht and the worldwide recession Thailand was getting ready for one of the worst tourist seasons in recent memory already. Now with this PAD nonsense closing the airports the situation not only for tourisim is geting bleaker by the hour but the prospects for future foriegn investment retuning to Thailand has all but dropped off the map. I don't know how this experiment by the PAD forces is going to end, but my gut tells me that its going to get very ugly before its over

[bingobongo]

LOL

Maybe shud add Washington DC

and Detroit, MI and a few others as well

dam_n, your brainwashing truly is obvious, 50 states with 50+ operational aiports,

the 3rd world deserves you, the 1st world doesnt need you

[Thaddeus]

I think the Telegraph's survey is flawed. Is there some highly subjective person there doing the survey alone?

That really doesn't matter..... the average holiday-maker will not spend any time at all researching, they will not look up the stats and make comparisons (we do, because we live here, and usually have enough free time to do so) the average holiday-maker will just see the big print in front of them.

[thaimate]

More dangerous than Liverpool !

I'm seriously reviewing my travel plans . . .

[thaimate]

More dangerous than Liverpool !

I'm seriously reviewing my travel plans . . .

Thailand can be and is a very dangerous part of the world.

the soi dogs where i live sometimes bark for hours ,and chase the car

Edited November 30, 2008 by thaimate

[MJP]

More dangerous than Liverpool !

I'm seriously reviewing my travel plans . . .

Thailand can be and is a very dangerous part of the world.

the soi dogs where i live sometimes bark for hours ,and chase the car

True.

Ever been to Koh Samet?

Used to do the midnight raoid dog gauntlet run from the Sausage Factory to Mac place. Basically one end of the main street to the other.

The trick was to accelerate to 80 kph by the time you reach 'mad dog zone', do not yield!

The old woman used to say 'I scare dog!'.

I scare dog too love.