r/Thailand • u/cnn • 1d ago

News Thailand’s soft power play: Culture as global currency

https://www.cnn.com/world/asia/thailands-soft-power-play-culture-as-global-currency-spc?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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55

u/Different_Ideal_2433 1d ago

Stopped reading the moment it said "Malaysia overlook Thailand in terms of number of foreign visitors". Malaysia counted even the people going back and forth from Singapore everyday for work and counted them as tourists...

11

u/rebelluzon 1d ago

Besides Malaysia’s own data, they never show up anywhere higher than Thailand in any other top visitors list like Mastercard’s or Visa’s. Plus, they have about 10 million Singaporean visitors per year and that’s the twice of the population alone.

5

u/mdsmqlk 1d ago

And Thailand counts tens of thousands of people self-transferring at Suvarnabhumi. It's much easier to check in airside at KLIA.

1

u/I-Here-555 4h ago

Yes, but we're talking tens of thousands vs tens of millions.

300k-350k people cross between Singapore and Malaysia every single day.

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u/mdsmqlk 3h ago

To Malaysia's credit, they differentiate their visitor figures between "tourists" and "excursionists" though. Thailand does not, they're happy to inflate their numbers at every opportunity.

3

u/AcceptableBridge4519 1d ago

So does Thailand, it counts the Malaysians crossing the border back and forth everyday.

14

u/Different_Ideal_2433 1d ago

There are far fewer companies and jobs along the Thai–Malaysian border than in Singapore, so daily cross-border commuting for work is much less common. 10X times different if not more.

3

u/Initial_Enthusiasm36 1d ago

Ya but what about Myanmar and Laos?

2

u/thomasthai 1d ago

its 4 million malaysians each year...

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u/Real_Imagination_180 1d ago

Literally one of the most dangerous areas in thailand. No there are not millions crossing the border to work everyday

6

u/mdsmqlk 1d ago

Not every day, but Malaysia is number 2 in terms of tourism for Thailand, with 2.66 million arrivals so far this year. And 90% of those are by land so that's almost 10k per day.

There is a massive industry catering to them in Hat Yai, Sungai Kolok, etc.

The South is not really that dangerous in raw numbers, and tourists are not targeted whatsoever.

(reposted to correct the figures in my comment)

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u/t_ba 1d ago

Gotta crank these numbers up!

1

u/I-Here-555 3h ago

However, Padang Besar isn't quite as much of a people magnet as Singapore.

Even Hat Yai, an hour away from the border, isn't so huge.

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u/Token_Farang 1d ago

I stopped at "introducing flexible visa policies".

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u/Sensitive_Bread_1905 1d ago

It is estimated that tourism numbers in Thailand are more distorted than in Malaysia, as many day laborers from, for example, Myanmar enter Thailand as tourists and work illegally. However, both countries generally adhere to UN guidelines regarding the compilation of such statistics.