Amid border tensions and terror concerns, is it safe for Australians to visit South East Asia at the moment?

7NEWS

3 days ago

More than five million Australians visit South East Asia each year, but a series of deadly events across the region has created a mixed bag of travel advice and warnings from the Australian Government.
In recent weeks, many were shocked to see the rapid escalation in violence at the border between Thailand and Cambodia, two countries popular with Australian travellers.
A ceasefire declared on Monday appears to be holding and 260,000 people who evacuated homes in the region are returning.
Exchanges of heavy fire left at least 38 people dead, with soldiers and civilians lost on both sides.
Horrifying imagery of the conflict has flowed to the wider world — showing explosions, rockets, and destroyed homes, businesses, even a hospital.
Along with thousands upon thousands of terrified and displaced people.
For the Thai Government, these are sights difficult to reconcile with the image it promotes of a holiday paradise which attracted some 800-thousand Australian visitors last year.
And the conflict is just the latest cause for tourist concern to pop up in the country, which relies on holidaymakers to generate 20 per cent of its gross domestic product.
In June, explosives found outside Phuket International Airport and elsewhere prompted the Australian Government to update its terrorism advice for Thailand.
The whole nation is covered by advice to exercise a high degree of caution, with a note that popular tourist areas including Phuket and Bangkok may be targeted.
While do not travel warnings are in place following the border conflict for within 50km of anywhere along the Thai and Cambodia border.
7NEWS visited the capital, Bangkok, last week to look into the latest with the ceasefire and make sense of the current travel advice for Thailand and the broader region.
Thailand's Tourism Minister Sarawong Thienthong told 7NEWS Australian visitors had been rising from January, but in July saw a dip of 2 per cent or about 3000 people.
'First of all, Thailand is very safe, very safe,' Thienthong said.
'Cambodia and Thailand are like brother to brother countries, but they hurt us,'
'It's happened, but we are neighbours, and I think everything is going to be well very soon.'
The tourism trade remained busy, but international arrivals had taken a hit in recent days, Thienthong said.
'Yesterday, I checked and about 7000 had cancelled.'
'But mostly Australians do not go to that area anyway, the most popular locations that Australians go to are Bangkok and Phuket.'
'Only seven provinces on the border are affected out of more than 70 provinces in Thailand.'
About 300km from the border is Bangkok which is home to more than 10 million people, and in charge of the metropolitan area is popular Governor Chadchart Sittipunt.
Sittipunt often runs 10km or more each day, and we met with him in a Bangkok city park where he was jogging.
'Today I ran 12km, all the way from home at 4.30am, so Bangkok is safe,' he said.
'The border conflict is a sad event, we didn't want it to happen, but from Bangkok it is quite far away.'
'We support our soldiers and people at the front line, but if you come to visit Bangkok you won't see any effect from that.'
The governor recently played a prominent public role in helping with the aftermath of the March earthquake, which saw an office tower under construction in Bangkok collapse, killing 92 people.
'Only one building collapsed and it had some problems with the construction and design, but we recovered quickly from that event,' Sittipunt said.
'And we have seen improvements, now we have alerts and warning systems if an earthquake hit again or some other emergency.
'And our regulations are prepared for nearly twice that magnitude, so most buildings had no effect.'
The collapsed tower was to be the State Audits office, a government building.
Since the collapse about 17 people have been arrested with investigators pointing to corners cut on the building's construction.
Just a few hundred metres from the now empty site of the collapsed tower was the scene of Bangkok's latest deadly tragedy on Monday.
On the same day the border cease fire was declared and Thais felt they finally had some good news to welcome, Bangkok was rocked by a mass shooting.
A gunman opened fire at the Or Tor Kor Market in Chatuchak, killing five people and then himself.
It has been reported the man's wife is a vendor at the market and he held a long-running grudge with security staff there following an incident five years ago when his car was scratched there.
His victims included four security guards and another market vendor.
'That was a tragedy, but I think it was a random thing that happened,' Sittipunt said. 'But in Bangkok that's not common, very rare.'
Bangkok was the world's most visited capital city in 2024 and Australian man, John Gamvrogiannis, who has lived there for eight years now said that is because for the most part the city is safe and welcoming.
'Thailand gets a bit of a bad rap for being a place that's dangerous,' he said.
'I've always got my mum on the phone to me after reading some article or hearing something in the news, worried beyond belief about me living in Thailand, when actually I find it to be a super safe place.'
'You really have to be living in a particular way to find trouble here, it's a very cosmopolitan place, people are looking out for each other.'
Gamvrogiannis, along with wife Arin, run one of Bangkok's famed rooftop venues Aesops.
The restaurant was inspired by his father's Greek restaurants in Sydney of the same name in Double Bay and on Macquarie Street, with some added party atmosphere.
Along with the skyline views, Green dancing and traditional plate smashing draw crowds.
'The idea is social dining, so fine dining is kind of done, and it's all about fun dining, so we want a space where people can interact,' Gamvrogiannis said.
'The tables are sturdy enough that you can get on, stand on the tables, smash plates, and party all night.'
On Fridays and Saturdays, Aesops is usually a full house, with a mix of locals and tourists.
But Gamvrogiannis fears tourists may be put off visiting Thailand by a perception that the border conflict is nationwide.
'It's such an odd thing when you live in a country like Thailand, which is so friendly and peaceful,' he said.
'So, it hit home, and it hit home for me, especially because my wife is from a border province.'
'You could see she was scared about what was happening and maybe impacting her family.'
Gamvrogiannis asked her parents to evacuate to safety in Bangkok, but they stayed behind in Trat to help their neighbours.
'They're in good spirits,' she said.
'We're all just trying to get on with our lives, we don't want to be fighting with our neighbour.'
Outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Brisbane tourists Emily Miller and Dani Aylward said they were feeling safe in the city.
'I guess we did have some concerns, but we were researching on the Smart Traveller website, and I spoke to a couple of people who said we would be fine just don't go to the border area,' Aylward said.
Elsewhere in the region the Smart Traveller website warns of dangers of methanol poisoning from cocktails, after two Melbourne women died in 2024 after consuming tainted drinks in Laos.
While terrorism advice is in place for Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Thailand.
'I think terrorism is a risk for every city, and we have to take precautions, but here there has been no incidents for a long time,' Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said.
'And I think Bangkok is quite an inclusive society, it is a city where we embrace everyone, so we don't have any conflict between religion, or gender, or anything.'