Disagreement over politics
Sri Panwa, a luxury resort in Phuket, is facing a wave of negative reviews online after its owner Vorasit Issara called for pro-democracy activist Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul to be arrested on his IG story after she openly criticised the monarchy on 19th September 2020.
The flood of 1-star reviews on Google has brought the resort’s 4+ rating down to 1.8 as of yesterday. However, the ratings have since bounced to normal the last we checked.
Image credit: Thaiger
Angry netizens not only flooded the Google reviews, but they also left bad reviews on Tripadvisor, prompting the website to release a statement as followed:
“Due to a recent event that has attracted media attention and has caused an influx of review submissions that do not describe a first-hand experience, we have temporarily suspended publishing new reviews for this listing.”
The hashtag #แบนศรีพันวา (Ban Sri Panwa) was also trending on top on Twitter after the news broke.
Allegation over forest reserve land
Image credit: Sri Panwa
Some pro-democracy netizens also revealed that Sri Panwa’s property may have trespassed on forest-reserve land, which is owned by the state.
Officials from several state agencies including the Department of Land, Interior Ministry, Royal Forest Department, and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will be asked to testify the case on 1st October 2020.
However, the authorities said today that the resort is not located on state-owned land.
“I’m not concerned…They’re not my client”
As a response, Mr Issara revealed to Amarin TV that he’s not concerned about the ban because these people aren’t his target group. For the allegation regarding his resort’s land, the owner claimed he did everything legally.
Featured images adapted from: Sri Panwa and Thaiger
Enjoying The Smart Local Thailand? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more stories like this