It is believed that the tense situation in the three southern provinces of Thailand has had an impact, causing the Malaysia-Thailand Rantau Panjang border checkpoint in Kelantan to appear unusually quiet during Malaysia's National Day long holiday and school holidays, especially on Friday morning, where there were no long queues of cars waiting to enter Thailand.
According to a report shared by "77 ข่าวเด็ด สงขลา ไทย-มาเลเซีย (77 Top News: Songkhla, Thailand-Malaysia)" on Facebook, the Rantau Panjang Malaysia-Thailand border checkpoint in Kelantan seemed deserted, with no traffic at the checkpoint parking lot, let alone long lines of cars.
The post indicated that the Rantau Panjang border checkpoint, which is directly connected to Sungai Kolok in Thailand's Narathiwat Province, appeared extremely quiet.
As of Friday (28th) noon, despite it being the holiday period in Malaysia, the number of tourists entering Thailand still remained below usual levels.
In previous years, a long weekend holiday would usually see long car queues at the Rantau Panjang border checkpoint with people lining up to enter Thailand.
However, after a spate of 51 bombings and violent incidents occurred in the three southern provinces of Thailand—Narathiwat, Yala, and Pattani—from August 22 to 23, coupled with warnings from the Thai Consulate General in Songkhla and Malaysian police advising Malaysians to postpone travel to Southern Thailand unless necessary, it is believed that these incidents have deterred many Malaysians from traveling to Southern Thailand, especially to the abovementioned three provinces.