”I'm not going to Korea!” Why did 9,947 Thai people cancel their trips last year?

After the introduction of the Electronic Travel Authorization (K-ETA) system in Korea, it was revealed that nearly 10,000 tourists from Thailand alone canceled their trips to Korea last year.
Cases of high-ranking officials and celebrities being denied K-ETA have been shared, raising concerns that anti-Korean sentiment is on the rise in Thailand.
On the 16th, Kang Yoo-jeong, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced the "K-ET
The report also revealed that at least 91 group tours totaling 9,947 people in Thailand canceled their trips to Korea last year, citing a number of reasons.
One of the reasons why Thai tourists are canceling their trips to Korea is because they have not received K-ETA approval. In 2022, Thai companies with relatively good status will be able to enter Korea as Korean groups.
The company canceled the trip to Korea, but suffered damages such as not being able to refund the airfare and accommodation fees that had already been booked.
"Although many of the group tourists were clearly ineligible, they were not allowed to enter Korea due to the unclear approval criteria of the K-ETA," said Rep. Kang.
"In many cases, tourists who cancel their bookings change their destination to neighboring countries such as Japan and Taiwan, where they can enter without a visa," he said. In fact, the number of Thai tourists to Japan and South Korea in 2019 was 1.2 times that of Japan.
Last year, there were reports of a number of Thai high-ranking officials and celebrities being denied K-ETA, which sparked anti-Korean sentiment in Thailand.
In December last year, the wife and family of Thai Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiboth were denied K-ETA, and a famous Thai actor and his family of 18 were denied a luxury trip of about 4 million yen.
However, four people were denied K-ETA and were excluded from the family trip. It has become difficult to visit Korea, and the number of people traveling to Korea from Southeast Asian countries has decreased.
Thailand, which had the most visitors to Korea among Southeast Asian countries before the COVID-19 outbreak, dropped to fourth place among Southeast Asian countries with 203,159 visitors from January to August this year.
The recovery rate is 57.2%. Rep. Kang said, "Since the introduction of K-ETA, the number of illegal Thai residents has actually increased. The problem of illegal residents must be resolved by strengthening the Ministry of Justice's crackdown and punishing illegal employers."
"If we exclude tourists who visit with a positive attitude towards Korea, it will pour cold water on the Korean Wave," he said.