Russian tourism group threatens Thailand boycott

[Tomtomtom69]

The so called highways in Thailand are some fo the most dagnerous ones in the world by both design and lack of enforcement. In fact, the police is one of the greatest threat to the road safety in Thailand, as they can set up check point anywhere without any warning sign that would allow motorists to slow down. As I was driving from Bangkok to Udon Thani during midnight, I saw what I thought was a person crossing the road with a flashlight. There were two cars ahead of me and we were all traveling at about the rate of the speed limit on the highway (110-120km). Suddenly, they came to a sreetchy hault forcing the rest of us behind to do the same. One big tractor trailer was not able to stop and we went off the road in an effort to avoid colliding with the cars ahead of it and tipped over its load. I then noticed that the person with the flashlight was a police officer who just stood in the middle of the highway with a flashlight waving at cars or trucks that he wanted to stop. There was no flares or warning lights like the fixed check-points where you could at least see from a distance that there is a police check point ahead. I wonder if there is a record with the Ministry of Transportation to show the number of accidents caused by police officers in Thailand. If such record does exist, I bet the number is quite substantial. Another great safety hazard to motorists is the U-Turns that all highways are designed with, excluding the U-turn overpasses. Those U-Turn in the middle of the highways are so dangerous and a serious design flaw that no one seems to take notice. These U-Turns have killed thousands of motorists and many more are being killed as I am writing my comments and no one in Thailand care to do anything about it. As far as I am concerned, the U-Turns in the middle of the road should all be closed off to motorists by having the median of the highways completed divided with physical barriers that neither pedestrian or any motorists can cross over it; especially where it is populated and heavy traffic. Overpass U-Turns should be built as many as possible to accommodate the flows of traffic. The police should be banned from just standing in the middle of the road with a flashlight and forcing vehicles to stop like what I have described above. All police check points should have warning system to slow traffic down, in order to avoid sudden stop, which will cause serious accidents.

+1. An absolutely solid and accurate report, which reflects how I feel about the issue. More motorways also desperately need to be constructed. Naturally these motorways won't feature any u-turn bays.

[Tomtomtom69]

As someone who has written extensively about tourism development around the world for American industry publications, I think the key issue here is mass tourism.

Mass tourism is a very demanding and potentially very destructive business anywhere in the world, and it makes no difference if the tourists are Russian, Swedish, British or American or whatever - the equation is the same. If a country does not have the infrastructure for mass tourism, the country would be well advised to focus on what is called special interest travel. Mass tourism is synonymous with more people paying less, while special interest travel is fewer people paying more. i had the opportunity to advise some states in Northeastern Brazil on sustainable tourism development in the 1990'S and the experience was very educational. At that time, the primary markets for Northeastern Brazil were Argentines coming for sun n' sand, and Europeans coming for sex. This was not by plan - this region had great beaches, lots of sun, and lots of girls willing to be accommodating to foreign men. For the girls, the incentive was simple enough - in one night with one man, a girl could make as much as any man in the family could make in a month. Unfortunately, for public health reasons, this was not desirable, so I was tasked by the state governments to find other things for tourists to do, It wash't that difficult - there were many natural tourist attractions, and positive cultural activities that foreigners were willing to pay to learn - fishing, dancing , cooking, trekking etc. There were also Brazilians capable of serving as tour guides. Eventually, we built up a niche market for these activities, which provided both employment and income for locals.

The mass tourists were not a target, since they were not interested. However, the authorities who approved hotel construction were at least smart enough to build hotels for the sun n' sand crowd outside of crowded urban areas. This was a no brainer, since cities like Salvador, Maceio, Joao Pessoa and others in the Northeast have the highest murder rate in Brazil - higher than Rio, in fact. These authorities understood you cannot have mass tourism in urban areas. Likewise, they understood that the different groups of tourists did not mingle well together, and that you cannot mix Germans, Italians, French and Argentines, without problems. Therefore, like tourism authorities around the world, they designated certain areas for certain nationalities. They know that some people get along, and some don't.

I realize this sounds boring, but it is a fact of life in tourism industries around the world. Rule#1 is that you cannot have bad things happening to your guests - it is not a question of blame, but rather avoiding the situations which leads to the bad things. Any savvy traveler will know what I am talking about - the best way to get out of trouble is not to get into it.

The only area in Thailand with the infrastructure for mass tourism is Phuket. Tour operators sending charter groups to other areas like Pattaya are being completely irresponsible, since the tourists are like chum for the sharks. I applaud the Russian tourist organization for their very legitimate complaints, but they need to understand that changing a country's motor vehicle culture takes a long time, even with the best of intentions.

If they want to have safe, happy tourists, send them to Vietnam , Hainan, or Bali. Send the special interest travelers to Thailand!

This is the kind of positive action that more countries should be willing to take to protect their people. The threat of a HUGE percentage of their tourist market being warned off by their country's government.

I have lived here for 6 years and this stuff is every day. You work your life around it and eventually find yourself well away from it in a lovely piece of normal Thailand. You work your transportation options around it as best you can, etc. The problem is that the average tourist is being led and everybody is looking for a margin so you end up with 30 people being driven on a bus by somebody's "cousin" who turns out to be a dim-witted drug abusing f-tard with zero common-sense....but he was cheap!

Until TAT understands its true raison d'etre these problems will continue and Thailand will see the revenue streams from tourism continuing their steady marginalisation. This year alone we have had incidents with tourists including:

Train crashes

Bus crashes

Plane crashes

Political unrest including roads seized next to THE biggest tourist ghetto

Drugged tourists

Robbed tourists

Murdered tourists

Scammed tourists

Oil slicks

Flooding

and so many more that I can't be bothered to research right now that have all made news outside of the Kingdom.

It is not a pretty picture and people ARE wising up. Time will come when Thailand will start asking the question "where did the money go?". By then this will be too late. The normal people of Thailand should be aware of how important tourism is to this country not just for the obvious "heads in beds" equation but also people experiencing the country and deciding this is the life of them, moving their money and starting new businesses. Visitors to the kingdom are NOT 1 dimensional.

Very well said...

Bravo for Russia. Although nothing will change, it is about time a foreign government questioning tourist/foreigners safety here in Thailand and actually threatening to take action. The thing about the Russians is that they address problems and find solutions and don't sit about crying and bitching. It is too bad that the Brits, Australian, US, Swedes, Indian, etc; do not get the same comfort or support of a government that actually gives a shit. I have no issues with the Russian or Chinese tourists but I hope there is a boycott or at least a decrease in tourism from both countries to Thailand. Perhaps the loss in revenue will open some eyes, doubtful though. If, the Thai government did not represent Thailand as not being a third world country but developed in their eyes, one would have only minimal complaints. I do live here, I do complain and no I'm not leaving for home. No, I don't sit about with foreign buddies all day and night drinking beer and complaining about the country and life then sit down and post as I sadly realize that I have nothing more constructive. Honestly, I stay fairly positive in regards to Thailand except for when I read Thai Visa posts.

It seems that the Vietnamese are doing something about the Russians' safety. In Nha Trang and Mui Ne, two Vietnamese coastal resort areas which are the Vietnamese equivalent of Phuket and Krabi, Russian tourists make up the majority of visitors, not just a substantial number like in Pattaya and Phuket but actually the majority to the point that most signs, restaurant menus and tour guides also have a Russian language option, in some cases even at the expense of English.

For a while now, tourists, often Russians, getting into motorcycle and scooter accidents was becoming a big problem in these two resort areas. The local Vietnamese operators didn't require local licenses (or any licenses for that matter) to be shown in order to rent a bike. The tourists were crashing, even getting killed. With pressure brought on by the Russian authorities, the local government has started to enforce a ban on tourists not in possession of a Vietnamese motorcycle license from renting motorcycles and scooters. This has resulted in safety going up. Perhaps the same should be applied in Thailand (although since Thailand recognizes foreign issued licenses, showing one should be acceptable too). It is unbelievable that you can still rent a bike in Thailand with little more than a passport and no ability to ride the bike...no wonder so many irresponsible and inexperienced tourists are crashing. The other issue of stolen and lost passports by motorcycle and scooter shops I don't need to get into as that's already been covered en-masse since the disappearance of MH370.

Of course this article is more about tourism operators safety standards being low, applying to buses and boats, rather than self-driven motorcycles, however, I think my point is valid as there's a long way to go regarding motorcycle rental shop safety standards in Thailand too.

[jpeg]

+1. An absolutely solid and accurate report, which reflects how I feel about the issue. More motorways also desperately need to be constructed. Naturally these motorways won't feature any u-turn bays.

It's a well known fact traffic increases expontentially the more motorways are built. I cite the Highway To Hell that is the Vichit Road, once a sleepy little two way soi, as a case in point. And let's not go near the infamous Bypass (bypass what?) road here.

Edited March 31, 2014 by jpeg

[dude123]

It seems like the word is slowly getting out that Thailand has problems and dangerous ones at that. As the world is so connected on the net, people start to read more and choose their destinations more wisely. Many beautiful things about Thailand, but if Thai's take their country and ways for granted, there is a big chance that the slide will continue to spiral downwards.

Edited March 31, 2014 by dude123

[Dannyboy6]

Russian Tourism Group Threatens Thailand Boycott

You don't normally open up Thaivisa.com expecting to find good news, but, my goodness.. Jackpot this morning!

Absolutely...

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[bigbamboo]

Russian Tourism Group Threatens Thailand Boycott

You don't normally open up Thaivisa.com expecting to find good news, but, my goodness.. Jackpot this morning!

Absolutely...

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

The more Russians the worse it will be for crime 'ere.

As they say in Ukraine.

Edited March 31, 2014 by bigbamboo

[leggo]

The positive things here are slowly and surely being replaced by negative activity that will erode Thailand's popularity as a tourist destination and unfortunately it is being fuelled by greedy, arrogant and uneducated people who for the most part have nothing to do with the general population.

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 2 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[osiboy]

how about a deal between the two respective governments? russians remove its mafia thais give no dose to the bus drivers?

Dear friend! I am Russian. There is no mafia in Russia except mr. Putin. Yes, 15 years ago mafia rules in my country. Now all of them gone. I say it not as a BBC journalist, I say it as a person who live in Russia. 15-20 years ago I knew some of them. Today they are dead or lives normal life, be sorry about that crazy times.

All blablabla about russian mafia in Thailand is bullshit. Hooligans - yes, but they are not mafia

stay off the vodka and read this post again,....no russian mafia in los, hahaha , ... well if they are wot you call " hooligans" god help brazil if your going to the WC !, YOUR COUNTRY IS RUN BY MAFIA , EXTORTION , BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION, if its not , please explain how , in 5 yrs from being a communist country there are so many billionairs from russian natural resources , if it belonged to the ppl of russia a few yrs earlier ?you are a weak ppl with no principles ,... you can fool some ppl all the time .....i hate wot russia stands for and how the ppl of russia will do nothing to stop corruption but their fathers died for a share of it a long time ago,..... they died for nothing . they will kill for money but not to be free of a corrupt state ,instead trying to spread their corrupt mafia ways to where free westerners have had the privilage of peacefull holidays for 40-50 yrs ,....our fathers died for this right too , only difference is they gave it to to the free world ............bring back the curtain i say , stay at home russia if you want to spread your desease go to saudi arabia or UAE / IRAN , enjoy your stay !!, stay away from OUR places WE made GREAT .................SIGNED the WEST

[osiboy]

Limp threat.

The Russians will keep coming.

What are their alternatives ?

They want their cake and to eat it.

Turkey, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Egypt (Red Sea - although right now it's not safe as well), Italy, Bulgaria, etc

Not sure if there are suitable alternatives in SEA area though - maybe Cambodia?

just bring the curtain back down, when they are civilized we can take it up again ,...........MAYBE !

[osiboy]

Help me out. I speak to many people in Thailand and they all hate the Russians. So it's not about the money, it's the attitude they have about life. For some reasons they think they are above the law, that's why they hang out and live in big groups.

With how many people exactly did you speak? By the way, all of them hate you too.

RUBBISH, Thais do not like russians , FACT ; who do you talk and mix with ? aliens ? ,.........i talk to thais everyday , the best i get is " some not too bad " ,..... usually its " i like farang , arab , russia no good . keeneow and mai sanook " , " farang like mix with khunthai , russia no like ,ony like ding vodka satay loom " ..............what you hear ?...........thai like every money ?

[kurnell]

I met a bus load of Russians at a zoo in Chonburi. Door opens and they swarm en masse charging over everyone in their path, throwing inappropriate food to the animals, take a handful of photos, then pile back on to the bus to the next exhibit. Please, please, please boycott Thailand!!!

[Tomtomtom69]

+1. An absolutely solid and accurate report, which reflects how I feel about the issue. More motorways also desperately need to be constructed. Naturally these motorways won't feature any u-turn bays.

It's a well known fact traffic increases expontentially the more motorways are built. I cite the Highway To Hell that is the Vichit Road, once a sleepy little two way soi, as a case in point. And let's not go near the infamous Bypass (bypass what?) road here.

Not sure which roads you are talking about but there are only two motorways in Thailand: the Bangkok-Chonburi motorway and the Bang Na to Bang Pa-in eastern outer ring road. The southern outer ring road, which is an extension of the eastern one and all the at-grade and elevated expressways (motorways that charge tolls or tollways) are located only in Bangkok and vicinity. These roads are quite safe and more of them need to be built. All other roads in Thailand, even if they have multiple lanes are not anything close to being of expressway/motorway standard. Even if they increase traffic as you say, traffic will increase anyway and the existing roads will only become dicier and more dangerous if something isn't done to fix the problems you find now. U-turn bays are only appropriate in outlying areas with low traffic volumes.