The top trending hashtag of "ban Korea travel" on the X platform had more than a million posts over the past weekend and should not be ignored by tourism organisations as both tourists and tour operators have incurred losses during the past couple of years.
As of September, the number of Thais visiting South Korea tallied 269,347, following Japanese, Chinese, Americans, Taiwanese and Vietnamese in the top five.
The Thai outbound market peaked in 2019 with 571,610 visitors, according to the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).
Charoen Wangananont, president of the Thai Travel Agents Association, said even though the KTO would like to increase the Thai market this year to the 2019 level, it could prove difficult because of growing concerns among Thai travellers.
On X, formerly Twitter, many users discussed the risks of being denied entry to South Korea, sharing their experiences during the immigration process, with some of them sent back to Thailand.
A number of Thai users compared South Korea with other countries that offer visa-free travel for Thais such as Japan and Taiwan, saying they prefer the latter two to avoid losing travel expenses and wasting their time if they are denied entry, ruining their vacations after planning for months.
Thai users also urged the Thai and South Korean governments to seriously tackle illegal export labour, which is cited as one of the main reasons for the denial of entry many tourists face.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Tuesday the government will assign related authorities to look into this issue.
Mr Charoen said public outrage is understandable as tourists, whether independent or group travellers, lose both their time and money when they are denied entry, often without any reason being given.
Outbound tour operators have been affected as losses tallied 70,000-80,000 baht for each group of 40 guests, as some of them randomly faced denial of entry.
In such cases, agents collected only part of the payment, such as air tickets and the K-ETA registration fee, but had to return the rest to customers.
However, he said South Korea's strict screening process is also understandable because after the pandemic a large number of Thais entered the country to work illegally in rural farms, which prefer to hire Thais because they work for lower pay than locals.
"Thais who lost their jobs during the pandemic flocked to South Korea after the borders reopened. During some periods, the number of illegal workers who entered via the visa-free privilege was higher than the number of real tourists," said Mr Charoen.
Moreover, some people incorrectly use the visa-free privilege, such as singers or YouTubers who plan to perform or create content for their channels in South Korea, activities which require the correct type of visa.
He said this resulted in stricter screening during the immigration process, which also affects legitimate tourists.
"This issue needs to be addressed by both Thailand and South Korea. They should work together to diminish corrupt networks, particularly those that assist illegal labour," said Mr Charoen.
"Taiwan has a large volume of legal workers from Thailand with a clear registration process, so tourists don't have to worry about denial of entry."
