Chinese arrivals in Thailand are set to fall about 2 million short of initial estimates in 2026 amid a rise in kidnappings of Chinese artists and influencers, a Thai tourism industry body has said. Confirming the growing fears, China’s embassy in Thailand this week has warned its citizens to plan their trips carefully after a string of high-profile kidnappings, the South China Morning Post reported. The embassy advisory singles out online influencers and performing artists, who are increasingly being lured to Thailand with fake high-paying jobs and trafficked to scam compounds in Myanmar.
The notice warned Chinese travellers to “pay attention to transport arranged by others” and to choose licensed transport and legal operators. It cautioned against accepting free rides from strangers or acquaintances, urged people to refuse sudden changes of venue or travel route, and asked them to keep their families informed of their whereabouts at all times. The embassy had issued a similar warning in April. Still, this time it stressed the growing number of entertainers and live-streamers being targeted through fake invitations to shoots and auditions. It also advised travellers to avoid the Thai-Myanmar border region unless essential, and not to hand over passports, phones or bank cards to others.
Missing travellers
The warning comes against the backdrop of a fresh arrest in Thailand. The SCMP, citing Thai media, said police arrested a 30-year-old Thai man on October 10 in Tak, near the Myanmar border. He is suspected of being part of a gang that tricked three Chinese men into coming to Thailand with fake job offers in early September, then transported them to the border. Thai news reports say the three men, aged between 27 and 31, were found bound and blindfolded with packing tape in a pickup truck. Thai police teams rescued them before they could be handed over to a network waiting on the Myanmar side.
Other cases have unsettled Chinese travellers in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a 34-year-old Chinese photographer went missing after travelling to Bangkok for a shooting job. His family received a ransom demand while searching for him in Thailand and reported the abduction to Chinese and Thai authorities. In another case, an urgent social media post on October 1 alerted the public to the disappearance of a Shanghai music teacher, who went missing in Thailand on September 25. In August, The Beijing News reported that a Chinese tourist was abducted after getting into a vehicle she mistook for her tour guide’s, and was freed only after shouting for help at a police checkpoint.
Wang Xing’s case
The most prominent case remains that of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was lured to Thailand in January 2025 by a telecoms fraud syndicate with the promise of a fake filming project and forcibly moved to a scam compound in Myanmar. According to a documentary broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV, he was resold across three different scam operations within just four days before Chinese embassy officials mediated his release. Though safely back in China, he is still burdened with large online loans he was forced to take out while in captivity. The case dealt a heavy blow to Chinese tourism to Thailand through 2025, and demand has only begun to recover this year. China and Thailand later agreed to set up a coordination centre in Bangkok to tackle the scam complexes.
The embassy has repeated its warnings throughout the year. In May, it said it had received several consular help requests from people lured by fake job offers who then lost contact. In June, it announced the rescue of a 23-year-old man, who was trafficked into Myanmar after travelling to Thailand for a magazine cover shoot. In August, prosecutors in Shanghai indicted 17 members of a cross-border ring accused of luring job seekers and selling them to scam compounds in Myawaddy, Myanmar, according to Caixin. SCMP has also reported on China sentencing more Myanmar crime bosses to death in its scam-centre crackdown. Transnational criminal networks are known to run multibillion-dollar scam compounds along the Thai-Myanmar border, using false high-paying job advertisements to draw foreign victims into forced labour, human trafficking and online fraud.
Tourism losses
The fallout has affected Thailand’s tourism industry. Thanapol Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said in June that the 2026 forecast for Chinese arrivals had been cut to around 7 million from an initial estimate of 9 million. He said safety concerns had become Thailand’s main challenge in the Chinese market because they directly affect travel decisions. “Such stories have spread quickly across Chinese social media and short-video platforms, further hurting Thailand’s image as a safe destination,” he said.
