Buri Ram in tune with K-pop star

Phanom Rung Historical Park, a key tourist draw in Buri Ram province.
Phanom Rung Historical Park, a key tourist draw in Buri Ram province.

The province expects a tourism windfall related to Blackpink member Lalisa "Lisa" Manoban.

Tourism officials in Buri Ram are banking on the popularity of the K-pop star – a Buri Ram native – to spur domestic visitor demand in the fourth quarter.

Ratpacha Teerapattharakit, president of the Buri Ram Tourism Association, said tourism in the province has directly benefitted from Lisa's first solo music video, which features her home town’s Phanom Rung Historical Park.

In addition to Thai traditional headgear – an element of the video that’s already gone viral – the "standing meatballs" shops where customers have to stand to eat at Buri Ram railway station have proved popular with locals after Lisa mentioned she wanted to eat this street food when she returns home.

Ms Ratpacha said there have been many inquiries about Lisa-inspired tour packages, so the association plans to introduce a three-day, two-night programme next month to Phanom Rung. The packages will feature visits to standing meatball shops and community-based tourism to Lisa’s home district of Satuek.

"We expect Phanom Rung will be crowded with locals dressed like Lisa, as happened a few years ago with a Thai period drama set in Ayutthaya that spiked tourism receipts there," she said.

Vocabulary

  • bank on (verb): to rely on somebody/something; to depend on - พึ่งพา, เชื่อถือใน
  • draw: to attract or interest somebody - ดึงดูดความสนใจ
  • home town (noun): the place where you were born, the place that you come from, your native place - ภูมิลำเนา
  • inquiry: a question intended to get information about someone or something - การไต่สวน
  • K-pop: Korean popular music - เพลงป้อปแบบเกาหลี
  • native: someone who was born in a particular place - ชาวพื้นเมือง
  • period drama (noun): a play, movie or book that takes place in a particular historical time, i.e., not the present -
  • spike: a sudden increase - การพุ่งพรวดขึ้น
  • spur: to cause something to happen - ก่อให้เกิด 
  • windfall: an amount of money that you get when you are not expecting it or which comes to you very easily, especially a large amount - สิ่งดีๆ ที่ได้มาที่คาดไม่ถึง, เงินที่ได้มาอย่างไม่คาดฝัน
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