Government urges Thais to take ‘best care’ of Chinese visitors in order to rebuild confidence

Government spokesman Chai Watcharong said he believed Thai people across the country would do their utmost to take care of Chinese tourists in order to “compensate” for the distress caused.

“The action by a Thai child with possible mental abnormality has created massive damage to over 67 million other Thais across the country,” Chai said.

“We are very sad for the losses. We Thais throughout the country will take the best care of you [Chinese tourists] during your visit to Thailand. This is to compensate for your distress and to show our sincere regret and apology for this unexpected incident,” said the spokesman.

On Tuesday afternoon, a 14-year-old boy armed with a modified blank gun fired shots at people in Siam Paragon, which is highly popular among foreign tourists, leaving two people dead and five others injured.

A Chinese tourist and a Myanmar worker were killed, while a Chinese tourist, a Lao national and three Thais suffered injuries.

Chai said on Friday that the incident had been used to create negative sentiment towards Thailand. He said there were “exaggerating” predictions that up to 50% of Thailand trips planned by Chinese would be cancelled due to the mass shooting.

The spokesman also stressed that the shocking incident was unexpected – and not a conspiracy or something that would happen repeatedly. “An incident like this could happen anywhere in the world,” he said.

Chai said that prospective Chinese tourists would make their final decisions on whether to cancel their trips to Thailand but he requested his compatriots to offer their best care to the Chinese visitors.

Meanwhile, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Panpree Phathithanukorn said on Friday that the Thai government would provide the “fullest possible” compensation and remedy to the families of the victims.

“There should be no concern about this. There are regulations as to how much the government can help,” he said.

Panpree said the relevant embassies had been informed about compensation for the families of the victims.

Regarding the shooting incident involving a 14-year-old assailant, the foreign minister said he was convinced that foreign countries would understand this was unexpected. He added that relevant agencies, including the Royal Thai Police, would take tougher measures to prevent a repeat of the incident.

According to Panpree, the government would take measures of remedy for relevant families and prevent such incidents from recurring. He expected those measures to restore confidence in Thailand.
 

However, he admitted that the fatal shooting would have a short-term impact on the confidence of prospective tourists.

The Thai government started offering visa-free entry to tourists from China and Kazakhstan last month for a 30-day stay here, anytime between September 25 and February 29. The move was meant to attract more tourists from China.

Over the first nine months of the year, there have been 1.8 million tourist arrivals from China, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The visa-free policy is expected to boost the number to 4.2 million by the year-end.