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Punched in the Face: Plunge in Chinese Tourists Rattles Thailand
By Randy Thanthong-Knight (Bloomberg)
October 3, 2018, 4:00 AM GMT+7

Chinese tourist arrivals in Thailand are tumbling, dragging down overall visitor growth in the Southeast Asian nation and dimming the outlook for an economy that relies on spending by holidaymakers.

Travelers from China slid 12 percent in August, the biggest drop in more than a year, keeping the overall pace of visitor growth near a 16-month low. Thai officials are rattled as Chinese visitors are the top source of foreign receipts in an industry that makes up about a fifth of the economy.



The trigger for the drop was a tour boat of an airport guard apparently punching a Chinese tourist.




Ambulances at Chalong pier after a tourist boat capsized in Phuket, on July 6.
Photographer: Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images

"The negative growth in Chinese arrivals is a downside risk in the second half of 2018," said Kampon Adireksombat, the chief economist at Kasikorn Securities Pcl in Bangkok. The tourism slowdown and the impact of global trade disputes will cut Thai economic growth to 4.2 percent next year from an estimated 4.5 percent in 2018, he said.

The Thai military government this week moved to limit the damage from the video of the attack on the Chinese tourist, saying on Twitter that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha regrets the incident -- underlining the administration’s sensitivity to bad press on the mainland.