kinyara

Definately a case of, " Not the real Thailand ", however the authorities have decided for Pattaya a week long tourist orientated festival benefits the city overall. At least it's concentrated mainly in the worst bar orientated areas of Central Pattaya. Buakow, 6, 7 & 8. I find it hard to believe that any tourist would choose to come here if they weren't prepared to be participants. Let the tourists have their fun. If you live here and your life revolves around those areas such that you can't put it on hold for a few days a year if it bothers you then I think you've got bigger problems than Songkran That or you're just a poor planner with limited interests or imagination. If you need to go into Central Pattaya it's one of the few weeks left where having a car is actually an advantage and dare I say enjoyable.

Double post

You don't even have the ability to master being a happy few week tourist so why would any expat living here pay attention to your incoherent rambling assumptions regarding their lives.

Bye bye little black duck, poor you.

If you were able to spend a day in Bangkok then you could go to Mega Plaza in Chinatown, which has a floor of used camera outlets. Since DSLR's are going out of fashion they are excellent value these days, and there is a plentiful choice of Nikon and Canon Full Frame and Crop Sensor models as well as a wide choice of lenses. You could also take the MRT from there direct to Phra Ram 9 MRT station and Fortune Town mall. There is a good secondhand outlet on the first floor there. Also check out the " Used" section of avcamera.com, they are a reputable bricks and morter shop in Bangkok you can order used gear from. They update their used section online daily.

There is a guy on here called Mike Bell who posts daily on every thread he possibly can that the local " plod " are inept and don't enforce traffic violations Why on earth then would you be worried about parking regulations ?

Good to read Nams are protecting their staff from the nutters.

If I tell you what to do, what do I get out of it ?. You don't expect this little black duck to give you free advice do you ?

From the TAT Governor, " Indian tourists to Thailand stay on average 7-8 days with daily spending of around 5,500 baht. "

Ask yourself why was it that City Hall, the hospitality industry and the local branch of the tourism association in Pattaya were crying out to the government to extend nightlife opening hours after COVID reopening if the City had actually transformed itself away from nightlife dependency. Utter fiction as usual from the Pattaya Mail.

Why would anyone believe what the OP "news" outlet writes. It has a trolling agenda as far as the straight nightlife scene is concerned. During COVID it reported that it had it on good authority that Walking Street nightlife businesses weren't going to have their licences renewed because the powers that be wanted it cleaned up. So what has happened ? - absolutely no change.

Correct, all my friends from the UK have taken advantage of the extension to 60 days visa free this high season. Similar situation with Europeans from the likes of Germany and France in my condo. I would class these as wealthier tourists and you said in an earlier post Thailand is turning away these quality tourists, when in fact it has encouraged them to stay longer by extending visa free. As I said before I very much doubt the high volume near markets like Malaysia, China and India are spending longer here, they are typically short stay visitors. You didn't answer my question about average length of stay in India compared to Thailand, I'm genuinely curious.

Currency exchange figures possibly.

The amount of spend is directly related to length of stay, so what was the average length of stay for tourists to India compared to Thailand ? Thailand's main, and growth, tourism markets are its near neighbours who are typically short stay tourists of 4-5 days on average. This is why an increase in tourist numbers doesn't necessarily equate to a large increase in overall tourism revenue.

I wish " Leaver " was still here. 😂

Anyone agreeing with you clearly hasn't done their research.

The Chinese numbers are still 50% lower than pre-Covid so it is not them driving the tourist numbers. You are conveniently ignoring the fact that tourism from Western countries is back to pre-Covid numbers and in some cases now exceeding Pre-Covid. India may well have a lower GDP than Thailand, but just like poor Thais from the boonies aren't likely to holiday abroad so it is with Indians. You need to lose your blinkered racism.

Haha what a load of rubbish. The figures are broken down by country and I can assure you Thais are not counted. As for moving hotels, what on earth are you smoking !!

I can understand why someone who chose to leave the country would hold that view.

What a stupid statement, you can hardly blame TAT for an adults inability to control their drinking. Ever heard of personal responsibility.

Let's not forget that Bhumjaithai secured a measly 2.99% of the national vote in the 2023 General Election. It has ridiculous influence above its station purely because of the concerted effort to block the popular Move Forward/PP party from reforming the corrupt system that benefits the influential political families and institutions.

You can build all the upscale hotels and attractions you want, unfortunately it won't elevate the general state of the city when the public sector is stuck in a time warp of corrupt inefficiency and deliberate low quality service provision.

Regarding the residence proof can someone remind me what the : " Copy of DBD if purchase was made by company/organisation " Is that the company registration document that Krung Thai Bank can provide a print of from the online companies database ?

Case solved, poor old georgegeorgia's latest career plan scuppered before it even got started. Looks like it's Mop till you Drop GG.

" Thailand is no longer attracting very many Western tourists for a dozen very good reasons " There you go again stating this falsehood without actually looking at the data. In 2024 4 out of the top 5 Western tourist markets - UK, Germany, Australia and France - were either just over or just under the 2019 peak numbers. None of those markets have ever been in the top 10 numbers wise, so nothing has changed in that regard. As usual your post relies more on your borderline racist outlook without any reference to factual information