It’s not just about great weather, a warm welcome and white, sandy beaches… the poor performance of Thailand’s national soccer squad also scores highly with a lot of travellers.

According to a survey by Holidays Direct, an online travel agency in the UK, Thailand is among the top five destinations for escaping World Cup fever, along with Turkey, Tunisia, Goa and Bulgaria – whose teams also failed to qualify.

But football-phobic vacationers could be frustrated in their flight from the tournament.

While Thailand’s national team failed to qualify for the World Cup, Thai football fans are hard to beat in their passion for game.

Enthusiasm for British Premier League football, in particular, has been fuelled by decades of TV broadcasts (the time difference helps, as live games make popular evening viewing in bars).

Thailand’s millions of fans for Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal will be following their star players in the World Cup too. Escaping the big-game atmosphere will probably take more than a Thai break.