Tourists "flooding into Pattaya" highlights New Year boom: But where's the evidence?

[NoMeAmes]

Denial seems to be TAT's number one skill. 

[theanimaster]

I was told that after posting so much negativity I should just leave the country. 

 

So I did, and settled down in Florida. 

 

Now I bitch and complain about Floridians. 

 

Huh. 

[OZEMADE]

The only place they are flooding into is the Immigration Office trying to beat the Christmas, New Year break.

[jacko45k]

4 hours ago, OZEMADE said:

The only place they are flooding into is the Immigration Office trying to beat the Christmas, New Year break.

Bloody right there, but actually a lot of them seemed to be Western retirees trying to get extensions ahead of unknown scenarios. 

[toenail]

Note:Pattaya is a nice venue for New Year’s Eve. Plenty of decent hotels with special dinner celebrations and the fireworks along the beach at midnight is spectacular.  Who cares what the numbers are? 

[davidst01]

I was there this week. Had a haircut at a high end salon in the centre of town. The boss said its so quiet. worst season ever so far

[Bill Miller]

I just spent a night in Pattaya, and for fun walked the maybe 1 1/2 clicks to Walking Street to view the "flesh pots" of Pattaya.
Well, not complexly deserted and empty at 21:00. but fairly quiet and subdued compared to what I have been led to expect.
Lots of euro families getting ice cream for kiddies, flag led Chinese groups taking many photos, but not noticeably spending money at the mostly empty venues.
About 22:30 I staggered in ( somewhat disabled) to a New York establishment and found a four topper with no trouble, had my 39 baht Singha  and some tasty onion rings, and hobbled back to my hotel.
Maybe it just doesn't get started until the Witching Hour?
A little tame even for this old Papa, though I did have to turn down several offered "extras" when I went for a massage. I did okay a finger nail trim. ????

Edited December 13, 2018 by Bill Miller
Currected a number.

[KneeDeep]

23 hours ago, hyku1147 said:

Pattaya is humid year round, the ocean is full of sewage, traffic is always heavy, and the air is polluted; however, as the world's biggest brothel - it operated like (no massage pun intended) a well oiled machine. Then a group of highly intelligent fathers of industry decided to turn it in to a Family Tourism Zone.

ROTFLMAO

"You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time".

[Sumarianson]

On 12/11/2018 at 7:01 PM, ToddinChonburi said:

Just finished a busy weekend in Jomtein with the Jet Ski competition.   more than enough people running around .

Certainly not like a hot weekend in Southend or Brighton. A couple of hundred at most. I never seen more unless you count the streetwalkers and locals. It's certainly no Miami beach.

[jacko45k]

I was out last night. Pattaya is quite busy but well down on past years (for Peak season) . Nightlife fairly quiet, and girls complaining of it. 

Here is a pic of that sliver of a beach everyone derides, plenty people enjoying it last night.

 

 

[pattayadude]

I counted more pigeons than tourists in photo

[GAZZPA]

On December 11, 2561 BE at 2:02 PM, upu2 said:

There is certainly less spending going on than is the norm. I went to Future Park in Rangsit over the weekend and it is normally full with Thais, you dont get many foreigners there. This weekend it was very, very quiet by comparison.

It looks, but no one will admit it, that there is a recession in operation

Completely agree with you. Nobody will ever admit it, especially with approaching elections. However the reality seems to be that business is dire. It is a common discussion I have with people here from friends who have restaurants, small hotels and also developers. There also seems to be a theme that many people are simply saying times are hard and they simply dont have any money. I have been through a few recessions in my time and this feels the same. 

[Songkran18]

As a Miami Beach resident, I'm reminded of the hashtag we dust off every year. #thereisnohurricane. 

[Halfaboy]

To be honest, over Christmas it was rather busy. Guess it will calm down now and in two weeks time it will be business as usual.

[jacko45k]

43 minutes ago, Halfaboy said:

To be honest, over Christmas it was rather busy. Guess it will calm down now and in two weeks time it will be business as usual.

Until Chinese NY.

[stud858]

Its the same in Australia

 

The person you deal with on the day or the writer of an article has their own agenda.

 

Trust no one.

 

 

Except yer ma.

 

Edited January 8, 2019 by stud858