Thai tourism association apologizes to South Korea after official’s criticism of tourist attractions

In the letter sent to the Korean Cultural Center in Thailand and the Korea Tourism Organization on Sunday, president of the association, Charoen Wangananont, said the negative comments made by vice president Yuttachai Suntornrattanavert did not reflect the association’s official views, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

On August 11 Suntornrattanavert had attributed a decline in the number of Thai tourists to South Korea to the country’s “lack of tourist attractions” and many Korean destinations are famous partly because they are heavily promoted through movies and TV shows.

Korean tourism authorities expressed concern over his comments, Business Korea news site reported.

The number of Thai visitors to South Korea in the first half of this year fell by 19.1% year-on-year to around 168,300, according to data from the Korea Tourism Organization.

Before Covid Thailand had been the leading source of visitors to South Korea with more than 572,000 going there in 2019.