Koh Tao named Asia's No 1 island

[skildpadden]

Yep that island is to die for

[asdecas]

Now that the Chinese are coming in their teeming millions, I am glad to see that none of my favourite islands are mentioned in the list.

Far be it from me to mention any names though, let Lonely Planet and Tripadvisor readers trudge their weary way from one overdeveloped island to the next under-resourced island.

Toodle pip!

[toybits]

Can you bribe Tripadvisor to get a better ranking?

Some hanky panky has been going on with Tripadvisor reviews. Some proprietors induce reviewers to write glowing reports of a facility to raise its rank. I don't trust many of the Tripadvisor reviews.

[maidee]

first in what? getting away with murdering tourists ? ah ... they have a short memory

how much did this cost TAT ?

[CapeThai]

Top Island of death yeah.. If you want to commit suicide you can spare the city cleaning up your mess from jumping the balcony and go to Koh Tao instead.

[Lovekorat]

Someone's bar running a little short of cash then?

It would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

Did TripAdvisor include the number of 'unexplained' deaths on the island I wonder?

[emilymat]

TripAdvisor needs to be read with many grains of salt. Anybody can dump his/her opinion on something without the proof of qualification nor ever having been there. Many restaurant owners are being threatened with leaving a nasty comment on TripAdvisor. Some people are impossible to please (one cannot be everybody's darling) and have strange interpretation of product and/or service.

Unlike Agoda or any other product purchasing site TripAdvisor allows anybody to vent their spleen; Agoda requires that the reviewer must have at least purchased the product in order to leave a review.

It is being grossly misused; I've seen restaurants on rank 1 in Pattaya (remember "Froggies" ; upon physical visit I found a hole in the wall which got closed meanwhile and reopened as an Indian delight.

It takes LOTS of writing to get a unjustified review out again and you have to proof the reviewer wrong while the reviewer does not even need to prove their identity.

Koh Tao might have been "jacked up" by order of some TAT boys telling the staff to leave positive reviews. Wonders never seize and mysterious are the ways of the East.

On a different note; what actually happened to the Burmese prisoners who were accused of the double murder?

Syd..I think you will find they are going on trial in about two/three months time. A cooling off period the Thai authorities hope will help to keep it out of the headlines.

By the way, my Thai wife went with me to the Isle of Man in 2009. She thought it was great!. It's not on the list though.

[ToddinChonburi]

Number one island of DEATH !!!!!!!!

[LuckyLew]

the forgot the 2nd half of the title "..... for gangsters, murderers and the mafia"

[Muirton]

Ko Tao is No. 1. No. 1 for unsolved murders, No. 1 for island mafias and No. 1 for routine torture of Burmese slaves.

[Chao Lao Beach]

Trip advisor is a waste of time.

I knew two people who were living in Thailand and their primary income was posting reviews on Trip advisor, both positive and negitive for oposition of their "clients".

It is a bizare wrld we live in.

Wonder how many proprietors on "Death Island" use this service http://real-tripadvisor-reviews.com/

Haha that website is pretty damn funny. Learn something every day,

I had no idea positive reviews could be bought.....

"We offer to post POSITIVE reviews about your establishment on

TripAdvisor, and the good news is, you only pay once the review

has been approved and posted on TripAdvisor.

[jmccarty]

I believe TripAdvisor less and less as time goes by. I see how restaurants and pubs get to near the top of the list in some places with 8 reviews total and anyone can make a review if they work for the place, visit it, or not.

[Thaddeus]

Wow. Tripadvisor's credibility just took a nosedive as far as I'm concerned.

Did it have any before?

Any website that requests content from contributors but has a ''you pays, it stays'' policy should not be allowed to fool a blind man on a dead horse.

[madmitch]

Don't forget what Tripadvisor really is: a selling site making millions from affiliate fees.

They've done extremely well to get to the position they have in this market but, as said before, reviews from online travel agents such as Agoda tend to be more reliable.

[fritzzz25]

Wonder how many proprietors on "Death Island" use this service http://real-tripadvisor-reviews.com/

Haha that website is pretty damn funny. Learn something every day,

I had no idea positive reviews could be bought.....

"We offer to post POSITIVE reviews about your establishment on

TripAdvisor, and the good news is, you only pay once the review

has been approved and posted on TripAdvisor.

Do a search for "yelp" and check out the scam they have going with fraudulent reviews. Pretty much all of these sites have become a "pay for reviews" scam.

[simon43]

Wonder how many proprietors on "Death Island" use this service http://real-tripadvisor-reviews.com/

Now that's a useful service

I will advise my ex-wives about it - their hotel ratings could do with a boost

[phuketandsee]

Remember when Tripadvisor shut down the KT page after the recent murders? Someone is definitely getting bought off.

Tripadvisor reviews are not verified and anyone can write anything about anywhere, good, bad or indifferent...

sorry you are wrong

there are moderators on tripadvisor the same as this thai visa site

so you cannot write freely whatever you want

Wrong, as long as you keep the vocabulary right you can dump anything there. You do not have to provide proof of who you are nor if what you write is true based on facts!

Sorry, you are the one who is wrong. See my previous post. I was very careful to keep my vocabulary "right" and I was still not posted. I have over 100 reviews there good and bad and never had this problem before. I think there is a connection between Tripadvisor and TAT

[godden]

#1 island destination, some one has excelled their selves this time.

[TheFishman1]

Well looks like they got it wrong once again

[bbbbooboo]

Just when you think you've seen it all....this sort of stupidity comes up....lol

[xtof2]

You name it. It's part of TAT PR budget. Same way you buy likes on fb, you buy reviews on TripA.

[NanLaew]

Totally laughable reporting where the TBS reporter thinks that the worldwide winning island is in Turkey whereas it is actually in the Turks and Caicos, in the Caribbean. Then again, we already know the Thai take on world geography.

But TripAdvisor has absolutely NO credibility and is just a machine for making loadsa money by its advertising channels. I seldom if ever use it but just last month I clicked on a link while looking for information on a specific dining venue in Nha Trang, Vietnam. I found the place I was looking for, a foreign-owned US-style barbeque and Tex-Mex restaurant. One of the top-listed and most recent reviews gave it 1-star. Why? The writers started by admitting they were "...looking for a Vietnamese noodle shop," but decided to "...try this one," and although the food was good, "...it wasn't what we wanted." So the rather excellent restaurant got a bad review by people that weren't even wanting that sort of food. Lord help them!

TripAdvisor is for numpties that don't stray too far off the beaten path and tend to follow the herd.

[SupermarineS6B]

Amazing ! This could only happen in Thailand.............Just shows you what your're dealing with........ Have a nice trip, and please mind the serial killers...........The more i think about that this whole situation, how sick is this ?

[kannot]

Wonder how many proprietors on "Death Island" use this service http://real-tripadvisor-reviews.com/

Being that it claims only 8200 members worldwide I would have to say very few.

keep reading......."in their first year"..........at $20 a go and maybe they each asked for more than one review

[gandalf12]

Just had a look at www.Tripadvisor.com to see the comments that make this island No.1. I couldnt find anything that would lead me to say this is the best island in Asia. It comes in at No.5 but I couldnt find a reason for that either

[DaveinAsia]

Can you bribe Tripadvisor to get a better ranking?

You can ask 100's of customers/friends/family members to write a very good review and give 5 stars. That's how it mostly works for cheaters and scammers. Not saying that all top ranked businesses on Tripadvisor do that but I do know of at least a few on Phangan that have got their top ranking that way. You can also pay people to do it of course

[biplanebluey]

TripAdvisor needs to be read with many grains of salt. Anybody can dump his/her opinion on something without the proof of qualification nor ever having been there. Many restaurant owners are being threatened with leaving a nasty comment on TripAdvisor. Some people are impossible to please (one cannot be everybody's darling) and have strange interpretation of product and/or service.

Unlike Agoda or any other product purchasing site TripAdvisor allows anybody to vent their spleen; Agoda requires that the reviewer must have at least purchased the product in order to leave a review.

It is being grossly misused; I've seen restaurants on rank 1 in Pattaya (remember "Froggies" ; upon physical visit I found a hole in the wall which got closed meanwhile and reopened as an Indian delight.

It takes LOTS of writing to get a unjustified review out again and you have to proof the reviewer wrong while the reviewer does not even need to prove their identity.

Koh Tao might have been "jacked up" by order of some TAT boys telling the staff to leave positive reviews. Wonders never seize and mysterious are the ways of the East.

On a different note; what actually happened to the Burmese prisoners who were accused of the double murder?

Syd..I think you will find they are going on trial in about two/three months time. A cooling off period the Thai authorities hope will help to keep it out of the headlines.

By the way, my Thai wife went with me to the Isle of Man in 2009. She thought it was great!. It's not on the list though.

Yes but what happened about them getting bail.The money was forthcoming but it all went quiet

[animatic]

Manipulated, with or without Trip Advisors, knowledge and acquiescence,

[wabothai]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Can you bribe Tripadvisor to get a better ranking?

They cannot be reached other than for a hotelbooking.

[wabothai]

You can ask hotelowners about tripadvisor. Bunch of greedy bullying bandits.