THAILAND DEADLY DESTINATION PRAISED, CONDEMNED AND BANNED
Online abuse on internet forums around the world has labelled former journalist with The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald John Stapleton everything from a bitter old man to an attention seeking hack, all for his new book Thailand: Deadly Destination. Others, including top Amazon reviewers, have praised the work as a “riveting eye-opener”.
The book, which has just become available, has been condemned by the Tourist Authority of Thailand as sensationalist. Websites reporting news of the book’s publication have been blocked by the Thai police and it has been banned in Thailand.
Thailand: Deadly Destination exposes one of the worst scandals in the annals of modern tourism, the high number of deaths and mishaps befalling tourists in the so-called Land of Smiles.
Thailand is the single most dangerous destination on Earth for Australians, while more British tourists die in Thailand than any other country bar Spain, which has 17 times the level of visitation.
“Along with international experts on tourism in general and Thailand in particular, Deadly Destination references both Thailand’s major English language dailies and its numerous regional news outlets,” says John Stapleton. “The attention it has received, both good and bad, shows one thing, that the issue of tourist safety Thailand is a live wire issue. My aim was to make this the best collection of material on the chaos in the Thai tourist industry yet compiled. In the end, the only surprising thing about the book is that something like this has not been done before. I hope it will form the basis for other investigators to take the issue further.
“The daily bashing, drugging, robbing and murder of foreign tourists and the many safety scandals afflicting the multi-billion dollar Thai tourist industry are badly impacting on the nation’s international image. For the sake of the nation’s reputation, the all too many lives that have been cut short and the grieving families left behind, I hope the Thai government authorities addresses the many problems impacting on tourists. They also need to address the terrible environmental and social damage inflicted on their beautiful country.”