- Dozens of tourists' luggage fell into the sea from a ferry in Thailand between Koh Tao and Koh Samui
- Tourists lost essential items like passports and travel insurance due to the luggage incident
- Alice Zamparelli secured 50,000 baht compensation but said it was insufficient for her losses
Dozens of tourists' suitcases and backpacks ended up in the sea when they fell from the upper deck of a ferry traveling in Thailand. The incident occurred during a ferry crossing between the popular tourist islands of Koh Tao and Koh Samui. Alice Zamparelli, a tourist from Perth, captured the chaos on TikTok, showing suitcases and backpacks floating in the water as the crew attempted to retrieve some of them.
Notably, the bags slipped over the wet surface and fell into the water when the ferry encountered increasingly rough and choppy seas. The tourists were left stranded, with some losing essential documents, including passports and travel insurance.
The incident has sparked outrage, with many blaming the ferry crew's negligence for not securing the luggage properly.
Watch the video here:
Zamparelli managed to secure 50,000 baht (around Rs 1,38,528) in compensation, but felt it wasn't enough considering the value of her belongings.
"The ferry staff were fully convinced that a suitcase could not be worth more than 20,000 baht (around 470 pounds) when in reality all our belongings would definitely have been around the 100,000 baht (around 2350 pounds) range for each of our suitcases," she said.
"In Thailand…everything is much cheaper than in western countries like Australia so they almost laughed in our faces when were were explaining the worth of our belongings. Thankful we were able to get 50,000 baht but it took a lot of convincing and arguing and they finally had to take us inside and pay us discretely. No one else got paid as much as us unfortunately even though it still wasn't anywhere near enough. [The] only reason we got paid that much was because we stayed there until the very end wearing them down," she added.
Several other affected passengers also reported significant difficulty in obtaining compensation from the ferry operator. In the end, only a handful received any reimbursement, and even those payouts fell far short of covering the real losses. Many received nothing at all.
The incident has raised concerns about the safety standards and baggage handling procedures of some ferry companies operating in Thailand.
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