Emerald bust: Chinese guides arrested near Bangkok’s Wat Phra Kaew

Thai Tourist Police officers yesterday arrested two Chinese nationals outside Wat Phra Kaew, also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, for illegally working as tour guides.

The two Chinese women, identified as 42 year old Ji Xianlan and 32 year old Na Xulan, were apprehended while assisting tourists outside the temple, yesterday, November 13. Police reported that a “sitting guide” from the travel agency accompanied the two during their work.

A sitting guide is a licensed tour guide legally permitted to operate in the country. However, to overcome language barriers, some of these guides act as sitting guides by illegally hiring foreign nationals to work for them.

They remain at the location to supervise these unlicensed guides, monitor their activities, and watch out for Tourist Police.

According to Channel 3’s report, there was no mention of the sitting guide’s arrest in the police statement.

The two Chinese nationals were charged under Section 86 of the Tourist Business and Guide Act for working as tour guides without a permit. The penalty they face includes imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both.

Their arrests were part of a broader operation targeting illegal activities that harm the image of Thailand’s tourism industry. Officers closely monitored popular tourist destinations in Bangkok, which led them to observe the actions of these unauthorised foreign guides.

There were multiple recent arrests of illegal foreign tour guides. In September, an Indonesian illegal tour guide was arrested at Wat Pho in Bangkok for offering unauthorised travel packages to 133 Indonesian tourists who were in Thailand between September 19 and 22.

In another incident, an unlicensed Chinese tour guide was detained in Pattaya in August after taking his foreign clients to visit the Pattaya Floating Market. He admitted to advertising his travel packages on TikTok and charging each tourist approximately 14,500 baht for a six-day trip.

A further arrest of an illegal tour guide was reported in June in Chiang Mai Province, where two South Korean nationals were apprehended for offering personal travel packages priced between 10,000 and 15,000 baht to foreign visitors in the province.