‘I hate Thailand’ video revealed to be bizarre tourism campaign
HTLibrary | Nov 28, 2014 | Comments 0
Thai residents initially thought that the unbranded video, released on YouTube and entitled, “I hate Thailand”, had been filmed by a genuine tourist.
But the actor that features in the footage revealed last week that it had been funded by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). In the wake of the bad publicity the Land of Smiles has received recently following the brutal murder of two young backpackers on Koh Tao in September, TAT said the film aims to both remind tourists of the kindness of Thai people and also to remind Thai people to be kinder to tourists.
A rom-com in essence, the video needed to feel authentic in order to be a hit on social media, but it relied on a few questionable stereotypes to do so. The backpacker, “James”, is a hapless young hedonist with no grasp of the language and a temper, at one point hurling a rock quite unreasonably at a passing taxi.
“This is James”, says the backpacker, shirtless, smeared in body paint and less-than-fresh from last night’s beach party. “This is my first trip in Thailand, I was only supposed to be here for one week, I thought it was going to be my best vacation ever.”
The video then cuts to James whooping on the back of a jet ski and flailing about in front of fire dancers, before revealing that someone took his bag last night, leaving him with nothing more than a handful of baht. “I hate Thailand” he declares, before wandering about, at first hopelessly, then angrily, asking bar owners if they have seen his bag.
But we eventually see James reunited with his belongings and it’s not long before he is having the experience of a lifetime, thanks to the efforts of kind-hearted locals, in particular a young Thai woman.
Thawatchai Arunyik, the Governor of TAT, said: “This video is intended for both domestic and international tourists. For the domestic market, the intention is to remind and educate the Thai people to always be a good host and not to take advantage of tourists, but to offer help to tourists when they need it.
“For the international market, we would like to convey that beyond the beauty of the Thai beaches – one of the main tourist attractions – Thai people are very kind and ready to be a good host to all tourists.”
TAT said the video had been a success, attracting more than one million views within three days and more than 20,000 likes on YouTube.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/thailand/11257448/I-hate-Thailand-video-revealed-to-be-bizarre-tourism-campaign.html
