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Publisher: Painting Elliot
It is well known that Thailand is cheap and has become the preferred destination for travel abroad in the country and in many countries around the world.
For Thailand, the increase in tourists not only increased the income, but also promoted local development, but no one thought that some local retailers in Thailand were cheap and sold well.
In August 2025, in front of the fruit stall at the Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok, Thailand, the mountains of mangosteen, durians and mangoes lost their former brightness. The shells of some mangosteens had turned black, and the durian pulp began to give off a peculiar smell. The stall owner could only put the rotten fruits into black plastic bags and wait for garbage trucks to clear them.
Data from the Market Management Office showed that the amount of fruit rot in the market surged by 45% in the month compared with the same period last year, and the amount of losses exceeded 20 million baht (about 4 million yuan).
Behind this crisis of unsalable fruits, it is not a simple imbalance between supply and demand, but a number of groups of Chinese slogans caused by Chinese tourists' consumption conflict-from "don't buy, don't touch, you will pay if you break it" to "Chinese tourists buy more discounts, buy less without bargaining". These blunt and even offensive slogans have made Chinese tourists who were originally the main fruit consumers in Thailand turn around one after another. Many people bluntly say, "With this attitude, you should keep the fruits for yourself", which eventually leads to a large number of fruits.
The degree of dependence of Thailand's fruit industry on the China market determines the willingness of China tourists to consume directly affects the rise and fall of the industry. Thailand is the world's largest exporter of tropical fruits. Among them, 80% of mangosteen, 75% of durian and 60% of longan export destinations are China. The consumption of China tourists in Thailand accounts for 35% of Thailand's fruit retail market.
Taking the Bangkok Chateau market as an example, in August 2024, the average daily consumption of Chinese tourists to the market reached 800,000 baht of fruit, while in the same period in 2025 this figure dropped to 280,000 baht, a decline of more than 65%.
Fruit markets in popular tourist cities such as Qingdao, Phuket and other are also facing similar difficulties, the Fruit stalls around the night zoo in Qingdao, can sell 500 kilograms of granules daily at this time of the year, but in August 2025 can only sell 150 kilograms, the remaining fruit because it can not be refrigerated in time, under the high temperature of 35 ° C less than two days will rot.
Chinese slogans that cause dissatisfaction among Chinese tourists are not an isolated phenomenon, but widely exist in fruit stalls and farmers' markets in many tourist cities in Thailand.
The problem of these logos is concentrated in three aspects: one is the hard tone and lack of politeness. A fruit store near Bangkok's Seoul Square, the Chinese logos "Do not buy, do not touch, do not touch" will be placed in the most prominent location of the Granolin showcase, the font is grossed, and the warm tourism propaganda atmosphere around is unmatched.
Fruit stalls at the entrance of the ancient city of Qingdao, with a red mark pen on the cardboard with the inscription "Buy less, do not discuss the price, waste time", directly deny the tourists' basic right to discuss the price.
The second is that there are stereotypes and have a discriminatory connotation. Some fruit stalls in Patong Beach, Phuket have Chinese slogans that read,"China tourists buy more discounts, buy less, don't disturb", implying that China tourists "only buy bargains" and ignore the differences in consumption needs of different tourists.
What’s more, adding “Avoid disputes, cash transactions” to the logo implicitly implies a lack of trust in Chinese tourists’ credit payments.
The Chinese slogan of a fruit stall in Krabi Province mistranslated "fresh fruit" as "new fruit" and "today's special price" as "today's cheap sale, average quality". The original promotional information turned into a negative hint, further reducing tourists' desire to buy.
Chinese tourists’ contradictory feelings about these signs are not simply a “glass heart”, but the result of the accumulation of long-term consumer experience.
In recent years, some Thai fruit stall owners' behavior of "slaughtering customers" against Chinese tourists has caused many controversies. In 2024, some Chinese tourists encountered "weighing cheating" at a fruit stall in Chiang Mai, and the actual weight of the 2 kilograms of mangosteen purchased was only 1.2 kg.
In May 2025, a fruit store in Bangkok caused both sides to argue that Chinese tourists refused to buy high-priced granola, and the store owners even insulted tourists with unprofitable Chinese.
These negative incidents have already reduced the trust of China tourists, and the widespread appearance of stiff Chinese slogans this time makes tourists feel "not respected."
On the social platform, the topic of # Thailand Fruit Stand Chinese Slogan Offends Tourists # has been read more than 230 million times. Some tourists shared their experiences: "When I saw the slogan 'Don't buy, don't touch', I originally wanted to buy a mangosteen to relieve the summer heat, but I instantly lost my mood and turned around to a small shop selling freshly squeezed juice next to me."
There were also tourists who said: "The shopkeeper doesn't even have the basic politeness, and would rather spend a little more money in the regular supermarket to buy, rather than want to get angry in such a stand."
Faced with the dual dilemma of fruit rot and the loss of tourists, some stall owners in Thailand tried to remedy it, but the results were minimal due to improper methods. Some stall owners chose to remove the controversial slogans and replace them with Chinese slogans that read "Welcome to taste, choose at will." However, due to previous negative impressions, tourists still hold a wait-and-see attitude.
Other shopkeepers launched "buy one by one" promotions, which will be rotting fruits as "donations", but are questioned by tourists "to mess up with bad fruits", instead of further lowering the mouth.
The Association of Thai Fruit Exporters has organized "Chinese service training" for standers, teaching standers to use polite terms and correct translation of slogans, but the training coverage rate can only reach 30%, and some standers due to the weak language base, the training is still unable to accurately use Chinese communication.
More importantly, some dealers do not recognize that the core of the problem is "respect for tourists", but instead blame the delay for "fewer Chinese tourists" and "too fierce competition" and failed to fundamentally change the business attitude.
Although the Thai government and industry associations have intervened, the effect lags behind. In mid-August, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand issued the Guide to Chinese Service Standards in Tourism Market, which clearly required that Chinese slogans in fruit stalls, restaurants and other service places should be "polite, accurate and non-discriminatory", and organized staff to check the slogans in popular tourist areas. As of August 25th, more than 230 problem slogans had been urged to be rectified.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand, in conjunction with China's e-commerce platform, promoted the "Thai Fruit Direct Mail to China" project, trying to digest some unsalable fruits through online channels. However, due to the high cost of direct mail logistics (the freight cost per kilogram of durian is about 50 yuan RMB), and the preservation technology is limited, online sales can only cover 15% of offline unsalable sales, which is far from solving the fundamental problem.
In an interview with local media, Thai fruit exporters’ association chairman Supa said: “We have underestimated the impact of Chinese signage on Chinese tourists, now not only to solve the rotten problem ahead, but also to regain the trust of Chinese tourists, this process may take 6-12 months.”
In the long run, this unsalable fruit crisis has sounded the alarm for Thailand's tourism-related industries. As China tourists 'requirements for tourism experience continue to increase, relying solely on "low prices" and "convenience" can no longer attract tourists. Respecting tourists' cultural habits and improving service quality are the key.
The problem of Chinese signage in Thai fruit stalls is essentially a lack of cross-cultural communication - stalls have ignored the tradition of "primitive" in Chinese culture, addressing international tourists in a local way, which ultimately leads to market feedback failure.
In the future, if Thailand's tourism-related industries cannot adjust the concept of services in a timely manner, a similar delay crisis may also appear in other areas such as catering, retail, and so on, affecting Thailand's overall tourism image.
conclusion
At the moment, some fruit dealers in Thailand have begun to try a more moderate way of serving. A granite dealers in the Bangkok Chagat Chai market, withdrew the controversial badge, in exchange for the hand-written Chinese note: “Welcome to taste granite, buy it or not, I hope you have fun in Thailand”, while offering free granite meat to try, the average daily sales have returned from the initial 80 kg to 150 kg.
Some fruit stalls in Chiang Mai employ overseas students who can speak Chinese as shopping guides to help stall owners communicate with tourists and answer questions such as fruit varieties and preservation methods. Tourists' willingness to consume has obviously improved.
These tiny changes may be the starting point for rebuilding confidence in the Thai fruit market, but a long-term effort from the entire industry is needed to completely reverse the situation.