BANGKOK — Thai tourists appear to be acting on the grassroots social media hashtag “Ban Korea,” with the boycott campaign appearing to have manifested a travel preference for Japan and China over South Korea.
From the Thai perspective, problems with South Korea’s strict immigration checks have festered since last year. After landing in the country, some Thais with electronic preapproval are being turned back by immigration agents, costing the would-be tourists hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
South Korea blames the trouble on illegal workers showing up from Thailand.
“I was rejected by the immigration and was sent back to Bangkok immediately last year,” said Eve Khokesuwan, a 42-year-old housekeeper from the northeastern town of Kalasin. As she could not speak fluent English, she had no choice but to obey the Korean authority.
“I don’t want to go to Korea anymore because it was the most stressful trip ever. I felt a very bad impression [of South Korea],” she said.
The Thai hashtag began spreading on X in the final quarter of last year. Then, in the first four months of this year the number of Thais visiting South Korea fell 21% from the year-earlier trimester, to 119,000, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.
In 2019, before COVID shut down global travel, 572,000 Thai tourists made it through South Korean immigration.
While the hashtag’s English translation appears to carry negative connotations, it is a boycott movement rather than a cultural putdown. It is also the latest escalation in a series of moves that began when South Korea tried to ease travel to the country.
“We heard about ‘Ban Korea’ travel months ago,” said Yuttachai Suntornrattanavert, a vice president of the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA), an umbrella group of outbound travel companies. “But this is the first time that we have seen a measurable effect.”
Before the pandemic, South Korea began allowing Thai citizens and other foreign tourists to stay for up to 90 days if they were preapproved by the Korea Electronic Travel Authorization process, also known as a K-ETA visa.
The ability to be preapproved, however, encouraged some Thais to travel to South Korea, find jobs and stay longer than 90 days while earning three to four times the minimum daily wage back home.
South Korea says these illegal workers led to social problems and that they engaged in criminal activity, forcing immigration officials to put Thai travelers with K-ETA visas through secondary inspections.
According to South Korean government data, there were 157,000 Thai nationals residing illegally as of September 2023, triple the number recorded in 2015. The government said last year that since 2016, Thais have accounted for the largest portion of foreigners staying in the country illegally. When the Thai Ministry of Labor in 2023 opened a channel for Thais staying illegally in South Korea and wanting to return home, 2,601 Thais registered.
The “Ban Korea” movement originally emerged in Thailand when the pre-pandemic actions of South Korean immigration agents began costing ostensibly legal Thai travelers their vacations and reputations.
Many Thais who were turned away after landing in South Korea had no way to recoup their airfare, hotel or tour prepayments. More injurious were the rejection stamps South Korean agents inked into their passports, making it more difficult for them to enter other countries.
The hashtag has been gathering steam again in recent months, but TTAA Vice President Yuttachai attributes the fall in the number of Thai tourists to South Korea to that country’s relatively few tourist attractions. He claims the attractions South Korea does offer were popularized by hit movies and Netflix shows and are therefore ephemeral.
Besides having more attractions, according to Yuttachai, China and Japan offer Thais a couple of big, non-sightseeing enticements — visa-free entry and less-expensive options, plus “amazing views and good vibes.”
Suthana Sombutsatien, a 30-year-old office worker, canceled a trip to South Korea and switched his travel plans to Japan last year. He said the reason for the change in destination was the “cheaper travel costs due to the weak yen [against the baht]” and added that his friend “experienced rejection from Korean immigration.”
According to him, his friend was turned away and could not receive any compensation from the South Korean authority for hotel bookings. Suthana ultimately felt it was “risky” to travel to the country.
The TTAA estimates that following China’s waving of entry visas on March 1, 1.2 million Thais will end up visiting the country this year, nearly double the 693,818 trips in 2019.
“China is more attractive since it is a big country with several wonderful natural places and historical sites worth traveling to,” a Thai guide from an outbound tour company said. “And it is not very expensive to travel there.”
According to TTAA Vice President Yuttachai, a four-day China tour costs around 22,000 baht ($620) per person, less than the 30,000 baht it would cost for a similar trip to South Korea.
With rising demand, Thai Airways has increased the number of flights to China from seven to 11 per week, particularly to and from Beijing, Shanghai and Kunming, Yunnan province.
Japan is also a bargain. In fact, the country is experiencing a travel boom partly thanks to the historically weak yen. The country’s bustling metropolises, stunning landscapes and unique culture are additional draws.
Back in South Korea, the tourism industry says it has yet to feel a significant effect of the boycott campaign.
“We don’t know much about the decline of Thai tourists,” said a manager at the Korea Association of Travel Agencies.
However, South Korea has tried to retain its position as a major Asian tourist destination by announcing a new visa specifically for enthusiasts of South Korean pop culture. The Hallyu visa will allow non-citizens to register at local performing arts academies and stay in the country for up to two years.
Additional reporting by Kim Jaewon and Steven Borowiec in Seoul.