TAT Krabi office director, Wiyada Srirangkul, said the office will work with the provincial authorities and the private sector to set up a safety zone at Ao Nang after a Dutch pop singer posted a song on YouTube, Evil Man From Krabi, in part slamming the police response to his 19-year-old daughter’s rape.
The song was uploaded to YouTube on October 23, identifying a suspect who the singer said is now free on bail. Since then it has received 470,000 hits.
The TAT confirmed there would be an increase in police officers and volunteers patrolling the beach areas.
Tourism and Sports Minister, Chumpol Silpa-archa, said he has ordered the tourism office to revive tourist confidence, but said very little about the increase in crime against tourists, especially attacks on single women travellers.
He did claim that the ministry would provide B200 million from its 2013 fiscal year budget to install CCTV in popular tourist destinations including Ao Nang.
Police in Krabi uploaded their own video clip to YouTube, Monday, called The Truth from Krabi to explain legal process in connection with the sexual assault of a Dutch tourist by a Thai tour guide. They attempt to counter the claim by the victim’s father that the authorities allowed “easy” bail for the suspect.
But it had a one big short-coming. The four-and-a-half minute clip was in the Thai language, with no English subtitles to present the police message to an international audience. It has since been pulled off YouTube.
Police argued that Krabi’s tourism was damaged by the Evil Man from Krabi clip posted on the internet last month by the father of the 19-year-old model.
Rape and violence cause the damage to a country’s tourism, not a song asking for justice, but that was not reflected in the authorities’ response. Police assertions that the clip damaged the image of Thailand are an example of a standard response when a problem is featured on popular media.