Last year, Malaysian tourists made up the largest number of foreign travellers to Thailand with a whopping 4,626,422 visitors, with the Kingdom’s popularity among Malaysians not waning, as can be seen by the 100,000 Malaysians going north of the border during the Hari Malaysia weekend.
While many have associated Thailand’s popularity among Malaysians, especially the Southern Thailand province of Songkhla where Hatyai is located, with the low prices of goods and food there, a viral social media post disagrees with this narrative and went as far as saying that this is nothing but a lie.
No such thing as cheap prices in Hatyai
Taking to Facebook, Rosly Yusof debunked the narrative spread by local media that the reason why Malaysians flocked to Hatyai was due to the tourist destination offering cheaper prices for goods than in our country.
Instead, he revealed that while this was true in the past, currently, food prices from Dannok to Hatyai have increased.
He asserted,
“Tales of food in Thailand being cheap is just a lie nowadays, but in the past, it was true. From Dannok to Hatyai, they’ve increased the food prices.
“For those who frequently travel to Thailand, they’d know that the food prices there are not as cheap as before.”
Rosly then associated Hatyai’s increasing popularity with the ‘free promotion’ by our own citizens, which made others rush to make their passports to go to Hatyai and eat at the viral eateries that aren’t cheap.
However, Rosly did point out that certain parts of Southern Thailand, especially the deep south’s Pattani and Narathiwat provinces near Kelantan, still have cheap food prices.
For illustration purposes
As of the time of writing, the Facebook post has gone viral with over 13,000 reactions and 1,400 shares.
For illustration purposes
Malaysians gave their 2 cents on the matter
In the comments section, many Malaysians agree with Rosly’s claims, though they shared various other reasons why Hatyai is popular among Malaysians.
One commenter said that Thais themselves are perplexed at Malaysians’ claim that the goods and food prices in Hatyai are low.
Meanwhile, another commenter said that Malaysians who like to go to Thailand are like Singaporeans who like to visit Malaysia, whereby they just want to have the feeling of visiting other countries and posting the photos on social media.
Besides that, one commenter jokingly said that while food prices in Hatyai aren’t dissimilar to Malaysia, the massage prices are still ‘B40’.
So, what’s your opinion on the matter? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Also read: 100,000 M’sians ‘Celebrate’ Hari Malaysia in Thailand, Contributing RM129.5 Million to Thai Economy
