BANGKOK, 30 April 2024: Well-known editor and publisher Colin Hastings, a longtime Thailand resident and FCCT journalist member, died Monday at the age of 73 following a car accident in Bang Saray, a coastal village just 20km south of Pattaya. In a statement released Tuesday, The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand expressed its deepest condolences to the family and friends.
Colin died suddenly on Monday afternoon in Bang Saray near Sattahip in Chonburi province when he suffered heart failure* that caused the car he was driving to hit a wall. Emergency services were unable to revive him, and he was declared dead at the scene of the accident at around 1515. There were no other casualties.
(Photo credit: Chalisa Hastings).
A veteran British journalist with Fleet Street experience, Colin arrived in Bangkok in 1973 and worked on numerous publications with the Bangkok Post and at Media Transasia. He became the first editor of Thailand Tatler in 1991 and, in 1999, launched his own expat-focused publication, Big Chilli, which he managed to keep afloat while print media worldwide went out of business.
Colin contributed to various regional travel journals and was part of the founding editorial team of the regional publication Tourism Asia in the 1990s, the forerunner of today’s TravelWeekly Asia. Well-known in travel media circles, he covered the annual ASEAN Tourism Forums in its early days, played a pivotal role in promoting various Visit Thailand Year campaigns through his Big Chilli magazine and was a familiar figure covering the annual marketing conferences of Thai International and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
A superb squash player, Colin was an outstanding all-round sportsman and highly clubbable. He served on the board of the British Club and moved as easily in Thai society as he did in foreign circles.
Funeral arrangements
(Information updated 1 May)
Colin Robert Hastings
Venue:Wat That Thong, Sala 32
1800 Thursday 2 May
1800 Friday 3 May
Cremation: 1600 Saturday 4 May
(Source: FCCT with additional reporting. *Last updated 2 May)
