Rivals, rain and rising costs: Thailand’s tourism crown slips

As the windows rattled from distant explosions, British tourist Brian* sat sleepless in a dim hotel room in Thailand’s Trat province, waiting out a curfew he had not known existed. With artillery ringing out from across the border with Cambodia, his dreams of reaching the island of Koh Kood seemed to dissolve into the darkness. “The police said the road was closed and I’d have to find accommodation overnight,” Brian told This Week in Asia, offering only his first name. “I heard explosions all...