Can Thailand Survive Without Backpackers? The 'Experts' In Their Ivory Towers Seem To Think So.
How Thailand Turned Its Back on Backpackers (And Why It Might Regret It) Ah, Thailand, the Land of Smiles, spicy food, and questionable decisions. For decades, it was the holy grail of backpackers: cheap, chaotic, and full of stories that would either make your mother proud or give her a heart attack. But lately, Thailand seems to have decided that backpackers are so 2010. The Golden Age of Backpacking (When Things Were Actually Fun) Remember the good old days? When you could survive on ฿30 pad Thais, sleep in ฿200 beach bungalows that were one strong breeze away from collapsing, and get a "full moon party" experience that didn’t involve Instagram influencers doing yoga poses at sunrise? Backpackers were the lifeblood of Thailand’s tourism. Sure, we were sometimes broke, but we were loyal. We didn’t care if our hostel had more cockroaches than guests or if the "VIP bus" was just a regular bus with a sticker. We embraced the chaos. Enter: The "Luxury"...