A welcoming message for participants at this week’s APEC summit in Bangkok that featured two major mistakes has been fixed as of Tuesday morning, the Expressway Authority has confirmed.
The Expressway Authority of Thailand clarified that all of its LED welcome signs for the APEC meeting are now spelled correctly after one sign, seen along the Chalong Rat Expressway, went viral for featuring the word “Welcome” spelled “Welcom”.
Many were quick to share the gaffe after it was spotted on Monday evening, with some expressing embarrassment that this would be the first thing APEC representatives would see after arriving.
Some also noted that the country flags seen below the spelling mistake were those belonging to G20 countries and not APEC members. It appears all flags were removed from the sign after the misspelling was fixed.
กูอายมาก ป้ายทางการของประเทศไทย เขียนคำว่าต้อนรับผิด จาก welcome เป็น welcom โอ้ยยย อีตู่มึงทำอะไรเนี่ย#APEC2022 pic.twitter.com/87tmUeJC7M
— บอล ธนวัฒน์ วงค์ไชย (@tanawatofficial) November 14, 2022
แก้แว้ววว 555555 แต่จะเป็นตำนานบทใหม่ตลอดไป welcom to APEC 2022 #APEC2022 pic.twitter.com/cAthOdBoCg
— พพชค.ชอบชัชชาติ (@pitpatchakim) November 15, 2022
Deputy spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office Trisuree Trisornkul confirmed that the message has been corrected and apologized for the error. She requested that the public refrain from sharing images of mistakes to maintain a good image for the country as APEC leaders continue to arrive for the summit, which starts tomorrow and ends on Saturday.
The authority said it had also inspected signs along seven other routes and found that there weren’t any errors.
