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.
“What I’ve experienced isn’t just from one person — it happens repeatedly.”
Over the past few months, such incidents have been increasingly highlighted by the locals, who started to record and share them on social media. In May, an Israeli woman went viral after a Koh Phangan restaurant employee requested that she leave for not respecting the establishment’s rules.
The employee could be heard saying: “You’re not welcome here,” to which the woman replied: “My money builds your country.”
Besides the nuisance that such behavior has become for them, locals are also worried about tourists competing with their businesses by renting out houses, running restaurants, organizing tours, or operating motorbike rental shops without permission.
A group of business owners and island residents recently filed a petition with more than 200 signatures, submitted to the governor of the Surat Thani province, urging action against what they described as “Israeli activities causing distress to local communities.”
Apiwat Sriwatcharaporn, assistant village chief in Koh Phangan, acknowledged the growing concern over foreigners running unlicensed business operations on the island.
“If they just live or travel here, that’s fine,” he said. “But business operations should be done legally.”
According to Thailand’s Immigration Bureau, as of late September, there were 2,627 Israeli nationals applying for visa extensions on the island, out of about 8,000 total foreigners, making Israelis the largest group under scrutiny for potential illegal commercial activity.
Tan, whose family has been operating a business in Koh Phangan, said problems with Israeli visitors are not new. But lately, they have become more noticeable, as more and more of them are visiting.
The number of Israeli tourists to Thailand has risen sharply in 2025, with an estimated 350,000 visitors expected this year — up 25 percent from the previous year.
“They have very distinct characteristics as customers, like bargaining hard or being quite demanding,” Tan said.
“Of course, tourists’ behavior varies — some are good, some are not. But in recent years, there have been more and more Israelis on Koh Phangan. Before, they used to come alone, but now we see them arriving as families. That’s made the Israeli community on the island much larger, and it’s also intensified local frustration toward them.”
Dr. Manoch Aree, assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Srinakharinwirot University, told Arab News that since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza in 2023, Thailand has become a preferred destination for Israeli citizens, largely because of its cultural openness and previous absence of anti-Israel sentiment.
But the lack of respect for local culture and the growing sense of economic exploitation have fueled public resentment.
Many Israelis are alleged to have used Thai nominees to register businesses, trading exclusively among themselves without contributing to local communities. The establishment of Israeli schools and centers for religious activities, which are closed to outsiders, has also stirred unease among local residents.
Some organizations have also brought Israeli soldiers for rehabilitation in Thailand. According to reports in the Thai state media, some of these groups have been directly linked to the Israeli military industry.
“This has led to fears among locals about why they are here and what they are doing,” Aree said.
“The government’s intention to boost tourism has backfired, creating unintended negative consequences.”
