5 hours ago, keith101 said:

They should talk to TAT who keep saying tourist numbers are up .

keith101 they should talk to themselves as to how they have fleeced and abused tourists.five or six fellows beating up one person does not send the right signals to others.

Karma!  As ye will sow thus shall ye reap? Amen

30 minutes ago, Destiny1990 said:

You Marcus know how to spin all news into good news.

Yeah hop in at Hopf reservation isn’t needed!

By saying hundreds of restaurants along the beach and on walking street I'm spinning a story into good news?  More like truth.  Pattaya has many good restaurants and many mediocre to bad ones.  Ask a local and find the good ones.  JT's been talking about them for 10 years.  

9 minutes ago, Paul Henry said:

Karma!  As ye will sow thus shall ye reap? Amen

How's that working in Russia or China? 

Edited July 17, 20196 yr by marcusarelus

What to believe, Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat says that there are no problems with tourists, they come in large numbers and expects an increase. The Baht fort is no problem!
And then this: "They must have gone to the temples instead!" - Pattaya as dead as a dodo in the holidays!
Where is the truth? There is not even a middle ground, dead is dead!
As usual, TAT and Minister of Tourism tell of beautiful fairy tales adorned with dream numbers, the fighters on the spot see the naked and cruel reality!

I am a Canadian and I have been in Pattaya 8 years now! I used to get 30b per dollar then...but weakness of the Canadian dollar and strength of the Baht have reduced my buying power in Thailand by more then 25%! I am lucky now if I get 23b to the dollar! When tourist travel to areas of bargains they'll certainly look at the cost of their holiday and go where they get most for their dollar! Add trip advisor discouraging comments plus friends whom had past bad experience in Thailland...you have a recipe for disaster!

1 minute ago, gillap said:

I am a Canadian and I have been in Pattaya 8 years now! I used to get 30b per dollar then...but weakness of the Canadian dollar and strength of the Baht have reduced my buying power in Thailand by more then 25%! I am lucky now if I get 23b to the dollar! When tourist travel to areas of bargains they'll certainly look at the cost of their holiday and go where they get most for their dollar! Add trip advisor discouraging comments plus friends whom had past bad experience in Thailland...you have a recipe for disaster!

It would be if any of that was printed in Mandarin or Hindi.  

Countless trips to LOS since 1994. I visited Pattaya once in 2004 and pretty much decided after an hour of being there, having teeth pulled is a more pleasant experience.

Perhaps others are starting to catch on

5 hours ago, keith101 said:

They should talk to TAT who keep saying tourist numbers are up .

Great idea but the problem is one has to listen while the other talks, then if they still can't agree they have to agree to disagree. Can it be done? 

Guess they will need to increase their prices by 80% then.

5 hours ago, keith101 said:

They should talk to TAT who keep saying tourist numbers are up .

Those beach vendors they're such a laff, joking all the time about tourist nos being down 

It's getting really confusing now...

 

27 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

By saying hundreds of restaurants along the beach and on walking street I'm spinning a story into good news?  More like truth.  Pattaya has many good restaurants and many mediocre to bad ones.  Ask a local and find the good ones.  JT's been talking about them for 10 years.  

The topic is that there are No VISITORS  at the Jomtien beaches!

 

 

 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Yes, about that. I believe they deserve the bad publicity, I think it is emblematic of the decline of quality tourism here, and I think the analogy speaks volumes about what is wrong with Thai tourism. 

Look ok so you like drinking wine but pls don't make a whole show about it.

Try this ask for the wine list then finger point at a picture of a bottle of wine you fancy and say hap? Or no hap?

4 hours ago, petemoss said:

He didn't mention the knob who banned smoking on the beach then. Used to regularly hire a rake of deckchairs in Jomtien and enjoy a day on the beach with my family. Haven't done it once since the smoking ban. I had the curtesy to go and tell our regular vendor the reason why we wouldn't be visiting her again, lovely lady, really miss her. The only reply I got was one of those sick fake smiles. som nam na.

There are far more of us disgusted to get a nauseating blast of some selfish idiot's cigarette smoke. If your life is ruled by cigarettes you need to re-evaluate your priorities...not to mention your health regime.

1 minute ago, nchuckle said:

There are far more of us disgusted to get a nauseating blast of some selfish idiot's cigarette smoke. If your life is ruled by cigarettes you need to re-evaluate your priorities...not to mention your health regime.

My choice. Glad you are happy with the new rule on not smoking on the beach. Smokers aren't happy with it and the beach vendors aren't happy with it.

 

BTW. I think "far more" is a gross exaggeration. Most non smokers don't share your extreme and irrational view of smoking.

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Speedboat operator Uthit Attasaengsee painted an even greater picture of gloom. No one was taking recreational trips on his boat and business was down 80% year on year he reckoned. 

He called on someone, somewhere to do something about it. 

Well, clean up the beach then, since you got nothing else to do and a cleaner beach would be something to appeal to tourists, which are your bread and butter.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

 

1 hour ago, xxeo said:

Chinese people, I assume, (arriving as individual tourists in growing numbers) spend more money in TH than supposed, but they do not replace the Western falang with their big budget

It is raining season and in the northern hemisphere it is summer! Which farang, except some Australians from the southern hemisphere, travel to Thailand in the low season?

 

And Farang spending more money than the 10 million Chinese ? - Here in the North, I see them shopping like crazy, whereas the Farang are mostly only taking photos. 

 

And Chinese spending was ahead of all other nations, 536 billion THB, acc. to KKB. They are also leading the expenditure per day per tourist http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourism-income-Thailand.asp

 

I suggest to also check this article, showing the enormous increase since 2009 in Asian tourists compared to western tourists:

 

Edited July 17, 20196 yr by BernieOnTour

This is the downside of Pattaya's wide new beach - compared to before it looks empty even if there would be more tourists than before. 

5 hours ago, JayBird said:

He needs to adjust his business model to cater to the changing demographic of visitors.

What would the influx of Indians want?

Adjust his business model??

No. It's always been done this way and it's so much easier to make sure the tourists adjust their ideas. The adjustments are based on price rises every year so the tourists just have to accept that.

Thailand is the only place that tourists go to, why would they go to other places?

1 hour ago, marcusarelus said:

Food was always sub standard in any open restaurant by the beach.  Go inside at Hopf next time and have a good meal and locally produced wheat beer.  That's what the locals do.  Or go away from the beach and eat at a decent French restaurant.  

I prefer Leo from 7-11, a bag of ice and plastic cups. For my culinary delight it's BBQ chicken with sticky rice. But, I'm just a lo-so. Oh, and I pee in the sea religiously. Only I call it warming the water.

Edited July 17, 20196 yr by EVENKEEL

6 hours ago, keith101 said:

They should talk to TAT who keep saying tourist numbers are up .

And that statement by them should be in the Thai Comedy Store ... Thai Baht Thai Baht Thai Baht

42 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

Guess they will need to increase their prices by 80% then.

That will defo be their fix

1 hour ago, marcusarelus said:

Food was always sub standard in any open restaurant by the beach.  Go inside at Hopf next time and have a good meal and locally produced wheat beer.  That's what the locals do.  Or go away from the beach and eat at a decent French restaurant.  

Must be either fake or an illegal operation if produced locally in Pattaya, Microbreweries are illegal in thailand. it is very important to protect Chang and Singha pissbeer for the Guvment.

 

https://bk.asia-city.com/nightlife/news/bangkok-beer-geek-check-list

 

All of them are brewed in Cambodia, Vietnam and co - truly local.

They did it to themselves (with a lot of western help)... too many big businesses and conglomerate bar/entertainment groups trying to manipulate tourist expenditures. Glad to see it's on the verge of crashing down on their heads. 

 

Pattaya is nothing more than a man's playground, it will never have the infrastructure to support more. The sooner they realize that, the sooner they can recover from this pipe dream.

5 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Indian food in Thailand is expensive

Not in Vietnam. I paid there for four people for dinner what it costs for one person here in BKK or Phuket.

18 minutes ago, Beggar said:

This is the downside of Pattaya's wide new beach - compared to before it looks empty even if there would be more tourists than before. 

Yes this explanation makes the most sense.

The beaches only look more empty because they have been made more wide.

You nailed it Sir.

But how about that speed boat operator saying his bookings are 80% down?

As a resident, I could truly careless about any of this.  Several of these type threads every week. Ignore it and move on just like US politics.

Busy or not just go about my usual business of golf, girls, the gym, eating at my usual spots, occasional ly hanging out with friends.  I walk on the beach in the morning sometimes riding my motorbike to Jomtien to walk. Usually the same people walking or jogging. Even later,  Jomtien has always been pretty quiet from my observation.

 

2 hours ago, MrMo said:

Next week they will tell us that business is down by 130%.   I have found it difficult to find a Thai who has a clue as to how to calculate percentages.

 

To be fair, I do recall during 'the "Icelandic Cod War" of whenever, a Billingsgate fishmonger did report on the BBC News that fish supplies were down 200%.

There's nothing wrong with using more than 100% if used as an expression of how far something has dropped or increased.

 

If you caught 1000 cod one month compared to 900 the previous month then catches are up 10%

 

if you then caught 2100 cod the following month then catches are up over 105%

6 hours ago, keith101 said:

They should talk to TAT who keep saying tourist numbers are up .

My be they are but not in Pattaya