KOH PHANGAN: After months of enduring Israeli tourists snatching his restaurant’s tissues and condiments without permission, hogging seats without paying, and skipping lines, Bob reached his breaking point and decided to no longer welcome them.
Having worked all his life in the hospitality industry, he had never come across such behavior by visitors to the island. Each time he tried to intervene, he was faced with a wave of negative reviews hitting his establishment.
“After I asked one group of Israeli tourists to leave, I received more than 4,000 bad reviews — my restaurant’s rating dropped from 4.8 to 2.2 stars. It’s now been corrected, but that experience was really frustrating,” Bob told Arab News.
In October, his restaurant, Pun Pun Thai Food, a popular establishment on Koh Phangan, a holiday island in southern Thailand, put up a sign making it clear that Israelis were not allowed even past the threshold.
“I hate the repeated behavior I’ve encountered from many Israeli tourists — it happens so often that it led me to put up a ‘No Israel’ sign at my restaurant,” Bob said.
