Thailand has long been the first choice for mainland tourists to travel to Southeast Asia, welcoming more than 10 million visitors every year.
However, in recent years, Thailand's high-quality and cheap tropical fruits have suddenly "fallen out of favor" on the mainland, and there has been a backlog of rot.
What's going on here? It turned out that everything was because of the eye-catching Chinese slogan on the fruit stand......
At the end of this article, there are reliable sources, and some details are polished, so please read carefully!
Chinese slogans that caused public outrage
Among the Southeast Asian countries, Thailand's fruit industry is well-known, and its fruits such as mangosteen and durian are the best choice for mainland tourists. Whenever Chinese people go to Thailand, they always have to bring some fruits back, which makes Thailand gain huge economic profits.
So, why have Thailand fruits been put into the "cold palace" by the mainland in recent years? It turned out that Chinese tourists found that many fruit stalls in Thailand had clear Chinese slogans. Although the content of the slogan is different, it still makes Chinese feel uncomfortable to read.
"You can't press the fruit, you have to buy it if you press it."
Writing slogans in Chinese is abrupt enough, and if you emphasize "press and buy", it sounds a bit of a strong intention to buy and sell. According to the fruit, it will affect its appearance, and the concerns of merchants are understandable, but what does it mean to say it so deliberately?
In the eyes of many Chinese tourists, Thailand's words are equivalent to a disguised "threat", as long as you touch the fruit, you have to pay to take it away if you don't buy it. But if they write slogans in English or Thai, Chinese will not feel discriminated against when they read them, and they will feel deliberately targeted.
But fruit vendors in Thailand don't feel that they are at fault, and they believe that it is extremely unreasonable to choose to press in order to test the ripeness of fruits. This practice can easily lead to the deterioration of the quality of the fruit, which will affect the sales of the fruit and make the fruit vendors unable to make ends meet.
At first glance, it sounds reasonable, but no matter how much Thailand fruit vendors try to justify it, this "overlord clause" style of sales is ultimately not accepted by Chinese tourists. After this incident, the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand gradually decreased, and the fruit piled up.
Because they can't sell it, the warehouses of Thailand traders are full of slow-moving fruits, many of which have rotted because they have been sealed for too long. After losing the huge consumer market of Chinese tourists, Thailand's fruit industry "fell off the altar", which can't help but cause some traders to worry.
According to data published by the Wall Street Journal, China accounted for 60% of the 519,000 tons of durian exported by Thailand in 2018. However, with the increase in durian production in Thailand, the mainland has also imposed new regulations on imported durian, namely Agricultural Practices GAP certification.
Officials at Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture have also admitted that as China continues to improve the inspection system for imported fruits, the pressure on Thailand's fruit merchants will increase exponentially. Once the fruit is returned, its selling price will increase above the market price, which is not a good thing.
The main problem is that as Malaysia and Viet Nam increase their exports to China, Thailand durian will no longer have the ability to monopolize the Chinese durian market. Under the premise of increasingly fierce competition, Thailand's move can be described as a self-defeating way out, and it should be reconsidered.
Behind the fading popularity of "overseas travel".
In the 90s of last century, when the spring breeze of reform and opening up just blew through China, Thailand had already become one of the "four Asian tigers". With its beautiful natural environment and affordable tropical fruits, Thailand has become a "holy place for mainland tourists".
Fruit can be said to be the "stepping stone" for Thailand people to make a fortune, especially those fruit farmers in remote areas of central Thailand, and the Chinese's love for durian has allowed them to find a new way to make money. For this reason, these fruit farmers did not hesitate to cut down the fruit trees and plant durian instead.
However, I don't know if it is because they have been comfortable for too long, and the Thailand who enjoy the economic profits brought by China have become more and more fluttering in recent years. On the one hand, they accept the good of Chinese tourists, and on the other hand, they use Chinese slogans to "backstab", how can it not be chilling?
Chinese tourists who come to Thailand are all in the mood to play sincerely, but the domineering practices of Thailand fruit vendors are really unacceptable. A slogan makes the shopping experience of Chinese tourists worse, and of course Thailand will not be considered again in the future.
"Shop bullying" is a taboo in the industry, and Thailand people have finally paid for this turmoil, and the Chinese who travel there are no longer as endless as in the past. Moreover, the accidents that have occurred in Thailand in the past two years make it difficult to believe in the safety of tourism.
After all, Thailand is a Southeast Asian country, and gray industries such as human trafficking and electronic fraud and gambling are not inferior to Myanmar and the Philippines. So now, more Chinese are no longer keen on traveling abroad, but regard domestic travel as a "new favorite".
From Zibo barbecue to Harbin ice and snow tours, the "fancy revitalization" of cultural tourism in various places has ushered in a warm spring for China's domestic tourism market. And with the implementation of the 144-hour transit visa-free policy in the mainland, the number of foreign tourists who come to travel has also increased, who is still obsessed with going abroad?
As the saying goes, "If you don't die, you won't die", Thailand merchants want to embarrass Chinese tourists with Chinese slogans, but in the end they shoot themselves in the foot. If Thailand want to end the vicious cycle of fruit overflow, they may wish to reflect on themselves and change their attitudes.
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Resources
[1] Sina.com "A fruit stall in Thailand uses the Chinese label "Don't press durian to buy it"; https://news.sina.com.cn/s/2019-04-15/doc-ihvhiqax2913205.shtml
[2] Observer Network "A fruit stall in Thailand uses the Chinese label "Do not press durian" to cause controversy"; https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2019_04_15_497745.shtml
[3] China Overseas Chinese Network "A fruit stall in Thailand used the Chinese label "Do not press durian" to cause controversy"; https://www.chinaqw.com/hqhr/2019/04-15/220350.shtml
[4] Global Network "Thailand a fruit stall with a Chinese label "Don't press durian" caused controversy" https://world.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKjMTE