For God's sake don't let the Minister of Tourism see this headline !

At least when the holiday makers return home she can count them as ' arrivals '.

More Thais choose to go abroad during the long Songkran festival

Because its safer?

You know songkran has reached a certain level of stupid when the Thais are starting to avoid it

How do you know that?

A Thai friend of mine is now travelling in the UK and she didn't choose this time to avoid water and drunken idiots. She chose this time because companies close and you don't lose your holiday allowance. I suspect many of these holiday makers are the same.

Hey easydogg You have no clue ether so .... I have Thaifreinds who take vacation in the hot ... and yep one of the reasons is, escape Songkhran OOoops although if YOU asked them they would deny it ... heh! You have to be a friend.

So not one person mentioned the AirAsia Promos? 10 years ago they started a Bali Bangkok direct flight and would give summer promo fairs in November sales weeks. This was so popular with Thais that they do NOT give promos anymore and haven't for the last 3 years.Those flights are full up with Kone Thai! They have me hooked too. Why wouldn't I want to go to Manado or the Togeans for the hot season. Reverse monsoon patterns kids ....No contest

This article makes me wonder how many real expats we have left here on TV versus the professional troll team? I used to get e mails about when the promo fairs went on sale, all from my fellow expats .... troll teamers, up your game

Lomsak is the troll here.

Road carnage exported.

Nah. Very few Thais who travel abroad choose to drive and there are a number of reasons for this.

Renting a car is usually expensive while unfamiliarity with the driving conditions, driving on the other side of the road, finding your way around, scared of causing an accident and being in trouble with the law are major concerns that force most Thais to reconsider driving.

Hardly any Thais would consider driving in Europe or Japan because aside from car rental being expensive, train service is reliable and much more affordable. Of course that's assuming we're talking about independent tourists and not package tourists who get on tour buses.

As for driving to neighboring countries, again very few Thai tourists attempt this due to long driving distances, not being allowed to take their cars across the border (since most cars here are on hire purchase) and/or lacking the necessary documents and permissions. Some neighboring countries don't allow Thai vehicles in so that rules out driving there.

In fact, most middle class Thai holidaymakers forget about overland travel to ASEAN countries altogether and catch a cheap Air Asia flight. Spending 10 hours on a bus with an hour spent waiting at a dusty border crossing getting scammed by corrupt Cambodian/Vietnamese etc. border guards is not their thing.

Any travel over seas opens your mind,

may be among the holiday makers a light switch

gets turned on and a positive suggestion or outcome

gets brought back home by a local,

positive positive positive.

And if they do bring back the positive vibe, I hope there's enough to rub off on the inveterate TV Thai bashers.

I'm on holiday in NZ and talking to tourist geared business operators they say they've never seen so many Thais as this year.