Far fewer Brits, more strife
FIGURES revealed by the British government show a huge drop in the number of visitors to Thailand in recent years but a massive rise in arrests here, especially for drugs. The conclusion is clear that the criticism of Brits behaving badly in Thailand is an increasingly observable fact.
Meanwhile, in percentage terms, far more British people are dying or being hospitalised in Thailand than just three or four years ago.
While worldwide figures show fewer overall problems for British embassies and consulates, the situation in Thailand has been getting worse.
Percentage-wise, more British nationals are reporting rape or sexual assault while on holiday in the Kingdom.
Thaivisa obtained official statistics from the years 2012-13 to 2015-16. Stats are from April to March of each relevant period.
From a high of 906,000 visitors in 2013-14, there were only 432,000 British visits to Thailand in 2015-16. Yet despite this drop of more than 50 per cent, drug arrests soared from 29 to 46 – up by more than 60 per cent.
Total arrests and detentions of Britons in Thailand were also up by a quarter last year compared with 2013-14.
While total deaths of British people in Thailand remain at around one per day, the figures must be looked at in the light of the number of people here. Some 374 British people died in Thailand in 2015-16 compared with 362 in 2013-14 – when there were twice as many visitors.
This could be explained by an increasing number of ageing retirees, but the British statistics were not broken down according to age.
The only statistic that shows a decrease in the last two years is hospitalisations, but even this is much higher than it was a few years ago.
The number of reports of rape or sexual assault last year was identical to 2012-13 when there were more than twice as many British tourists in Thailand.
In a report titled “British Behaviour Abroad”, the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office indicated that Britons conducted 65 million foreign trips last year. Thailand rated third in the number of assists for tourists in trouble, behind Spain and the United States.
Thailand was No 5 in the world, again behind Spain, for the number of arrests of British nationals.
It was No 3 in hospitalisations, 10th for lost passports and sixth worldwide for rape and sexual-assault reports.
In deaths reported to the British authorities, Thailand ranked No 2 in the world, behind Spain.
