The national parks “passport”, introduced by Thai officials so people can receive a stamp for each park visited, has sold out, thanks to the influence of popular South Korean You Tubers (who record their programs in Thai with English subtitles).
Thai PBS World reports that the “Passport to Thailand’s National Parks” is out of stock, as a result of being promoted by Cullen Hateberry on their You Tube channel. Cullen Hateberry is made up of 33 year old Park Kideuk, aka “Cullen”, a model and music producer, 34 year old “Brother Jung” who came to Thailand for work and to learn Thai, and 25 year old “Nong Dan”, a marketing student at Thailand’s Assumption University.
Given the success of their channel we suspect Cullen, Jung and Dan won’t be doing much of their old jobs as the viewing numbers for each of their videos run from 2 – 5 million views… EACH.
Their You Tube channel showcases their visits to various locations, as well as their attempts to learn and speak Thai, and has a reach of over 1.52 million. Having learnt of their popularity among Thai netizens, Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation now wants to work with the trio to further promote tourism in the national parks.
The result of the department’s work with the young South Korean influencers has been stunning.
Department chief Atthaphon Charoenchansa says an initial release of 90,000 national parks passports has sold out and they are awaiting another delivery, which should be available at parks around the country by mid-January. He says that while each passport normally costs 100 baht, their popularity with the South Korean influencers means they are being resold for between 250 and 300 baht each.
Atthaphon says his department is considering offering rewards to frequent national park visitors, in particular those who manage to visit all the country’s parks in a 2-year period.
“Maybe we will give them a free pass to the national parks.”
SOURCE: Thai PBS World
