Playground no more: Thais sick of badly behaved tourists hail stricter visas

I t’s late afternoon at Bangkok’s Khaosan road, the city’s backpacker strip. Bar staff are calling after passersby, enticing them inside with drinks promotions. The smell of cannabis, widely sold in the city, wafts into the street, where vendors sell anything from fake tattoos, flip-flops and icy fruit shakes. This street, and its famously noisy nightlife, has attracted visitors from around the world for decades. But increasingly, some in Thailand are growing tired of the country’s party-loving visitors. Some assume Thailand can be treated “as a playground,” says Minnie, who runs Thai’d Up with Minnie, a social media channel teaching visitors about the Thai language and culture. Last month, Thailand, famed for its hospitality, drew a line in the sand. The government announced it would tighten visa rules, cutting the length of visa-free stays for visitors from more than 90 countries from 60 days, replacing this with a new allowance of up to 30 days in most cases. It is unclear when the new rules will come into effect. The changes have been welcomed by many in Thailand, fed up by a constant stream of news about misbehaving tourists, including reports of visitors refusing to pay restaurant bills, viral clips of drinkers brawling in the streets and foreign couples deported for reportedly having sex in a tuktuk. Videos have also shown abusive treatment of locals; in one case, a foreign visitor apparently blew mucus from his nose at a street food vendor. …