PAI — The conflict between Pai locals and foreign tourists who display disrespectful behavior towards locals has become prominent, especially this week when a group of Israelis disrupted medical personnel’s work at Pai hospital, Mae Hong Son province, leading to complaints on social media.
Although police have investigated the incident, leading to legal action and visa revocation for 4 Israeli tourists, the anti-foreigner sentiment, particularly towards Israelis, hasn’t subsided. One restaurant put up a sign saying “No Israel Here!” as shown in a photo posted on the Facebook group “Pai Group (Positive Energy) v.2”.
On the same page, someone posted a video exposing foreign tourists’ behavior, showing intoxicated individuals behaving inappropriately towards two female shop owners. The post stated, “Living in fear of these people’s behavior. Every Tuesday and Friday, from what I’ve observed, we have to close the shop early. Feeling unsafe. There are only two of us women. What should we do next? How to plan for business and safety? Feeling very uncomfortable at this time.”
Later, Police Lieutenant Colonel Wichai Panna, Immigration Police Inspector of Mae Hong Son, revealed that regarding the social media clip about tourist behavior causing concern and fear among business operators in Pai district, they are coordinating with Pai Police Station to locate the tourists for questioning and further legal proceedings.
Statistics for foreign tourists in Pai in 2024 show 221,776 visitors, ranked as follows: 1. British, 2. Israeli, 3. Dutch, 4. German, and 5. American. Of these, 31,735 were Israeli tourists who registered their accommodation, according to immigration records under Section 38.
However, business operators note that these numbers may be inaccurate. When tourists stay in Pai, they might first stay at one resort, which reports their stay to immigration, but if they move to another resort two days later, the second resort also reports their stay. This results in duplicate counts, inflating the numbers. In reality, they estimate there are only about 2,000-3,000 Israeli tourists currently staying in Pai district.
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