Pattaya is Dead - Lowest Foreigner Visits This Winter

[Huayrat]

5 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

white people numbers might be down, and businesses setup to cater to them might be suffering, but Chinese and Indians are still coming.

 

#2 does not apply to real tourists. first time visitors or once every few years with a very long return to home country not affected.

 

there is a a lot of buzz right now about a global recession. people don't go on vacation.

 

UK is on a war footing with fear and paranoia about shortages and civil unrest. 

The Chinese are not coming.. Read the reports of how many less now come.

[EricTh]

Winter? It's only Autumn so 3 more months to go.

[brokenbone]

9 minutes ago, Huayrat said:

The Chinese are not coming.. Read the reports of how many less now come.

at this stage i can differentiate chinese from thais,

and i see them every day in big c

[orchis]

22 minutes ago, EricTh said:

Winter? It's only Autumn so 3 more months to go.

It's still summer for 9 days

[newnative]

     Umm.  Excuse me.  If memory serves me, we have already had our "Pattaya is Dead" thread for 2019.  Please shelve this and re-submit it for 2020.  By the way, Pattaya is not dead--just the opposite.  Development going on everywhere you look.  Take a look around north Pattaya and you'll see what I mean.  The tourist demographic may be shifting but that doesn't equate to dead. 

[bkk6060]

1 hour ago, Destiny1990 said:

Imho there isn’t a recession in Europe going on but Europe travelers seem to be avoiding Thailand due too strict visa requirements and strong baht. 

Look at the Song teaws driving by do they have passengers??

Ask the driver how is his season is He making money?? Look at his face.

Then you know what’s up.

Makes absolutely no sense last I checked Europe is Visa exempt for "travelers".

 

Asking a Song Teaw driver about business is like asking a massage girl.

99% answer "no customer".

 

[bkk6060]

9 minutes ago, newnative said:

     Umm.  Excuse me.  If memory serves me, we have already had our "Pattaya is Dead" thread for 2019.  Please shelve this and re-submit it for 2020.  By the way, Pattaya is not dead--just the opposite.  Development going on everywhere you look.  Take a look around north Pattaya and you'll see what I mean.  The tourist demographic may be shifting but that doesn't equate to dead. 

Yes.

Either people reporting this are not here, or for some reason hate it.

See one empty seat in an otherwise crowded bar and they jump to some nonsense, noone is here.

 

Hey, on this, as a resident I would love it if noone was here.  Today was a beautiful sunny day played some golf. But it would be great to cruise around, no traffic, take a walk with no people, etc.  But, that is not the case.  At least from the beach up to 3rd road areas.

 

As far as north, you are right.  Had a coffee and drove around many people.

Went to the north seafood market packed could barely walk the isles.

 

So, whatever a persons distorted definition of "it is dead" I would say for some reason it is "in their head".

[DannyCarlton]

2 hours ago, dimitriv said:

 

A lot of Chinese tourists are "zero-dollar" tourists.  It works like this:

 

 

Back in China, would-be tourists are offered heavily discounted, all-inclusive package tours that include accommodation as well as flights, transport, meals and translators. The trade-off is that, along with the usual trips to the beach and fine restaurants, tourists are also taken to overpriced shops and urged – in some cases, reportedly even intimidated – into buying marked-up goods.

 

Money from shopping then flows back to the tour operator from the shop owners, to make up for the money lost from the discounted travel package.

 

The shops in Thailand are Chinese-owned and run by Thai proxies. And much of the revenue from the shopping component of the tours flows straight back to China. 

 

 

Definitely seen a downturn in zero baht tourists in Pattaya of late. However there seems to be an upturn in Chinese independant travellers. These tourist do make extensive use of local restaurants but not the ones catering primarily for farangs. Tend to be Thai, Chinese, Korean or fusion restaurants. And, of course, don't tend to frequent the girlie bars. There are reports of them visiting gogos but I'm not sure that people may be confusing them with Koreans.

[DannyCarlton]

2 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Which was apparently stamped out in the crackdown a couple of years ago.

One company operating zero baht tours was obliterated but was soon replaced by others, but I don't think that the numbers are as great as they were at the height of the phenomenon.

[DannyCarlton]

1 hour ago, bkk6060 said:

Yes.

Either people reporting this are not here, or for some reason hate it.

See one empty seat in an otherwise crowded bar and they jump to some nonsense, noone is here.

 

Hey, on this, as a resident I would love it if noone was here.  Today was a beautiful sunny day played some golf. But it would be great to cruise around, no traffic, take a walk with no people, etc.  But, that is not the case.  At least from the beach up to 3rd road areas.

 

As far as north, you are right.  Had a coffee and drove around many people.

Went to the north seafood market packed could barely walk the isles.

 

So, whatever a persons distorted definition of "it is dead" I would say for some reason it is "in their head".

The question isn't are there less tourists but are there less farangs?

[JonBreadMan]

3 hours ago, dimitriv said:

 

A lot of Chinese tourists are "zero-dollar" tourists.  It works like this:

 

 

Back in China, would-be tourists are offered heavily discounted, all-inclusive package tours that include accommodation as well as flights, transport, meals and translators. The trade-off is that, along with the usual trips to the beach and fine restaurants, tourists are also taken to overpriced shops and urged – in some cases, reportedly even intimidated – into buying marked-up goods.

 

Money from shopping then flows back to the tour operator from the shop owners, to make up for the money lost from the discounted travel package.

 

The shops in Thailand are Chinese-owned and run by Thai proxies. And much of the revenue from the shopping component of the tours flows straight back to China. 

 

 

I had a shop like that bang opposite mine a few years back in Pattaya, and talked to the owner a fair amount, he had to get an average of 600 BHT per Chinese that came in on the buses, and then something like 40% back to the tour operators, he never told me the about for sure but hinted at it on slow days   

[sunnyboy2018]

7 hours ago, Lone Ranger said:

Beware of Koh Samat! Huge "Hen" mosquitos plague the island from sunset to first light & then the sand fleas bite your feet to pieces...rip off locals-island from hell from personal experience.

And the worst plastic bottle dump i have ever ssen in 1993. There is a sex trade and Mafia there.

[wgdanson]

6 hours ago, sotsira said:

should of written

...HAVE......

[wgdanson]

5 hours ago, kellersphuket said:

I'm headed there next month, precisely because it's dead.

I'll have the lions share of the broads and will be taking advantage of the discounted rooms that will be on offer for low season.

Thank you very much!

The pretty ones will have gone somewhere else, leaving the fattie uglies, and do you not know that it is the Thai business plan to put prices UP if it is quiet.

[NanLaew]

7 hours ago, cooked said:

The water is clean. and Deet keeps off the mozzies and sand flies, both of which I didn't experience at all. We were on the Western side....

Didn't experience any ripoffs either, maybe it has changed,

What... in the last 10-15 years you mean?

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, EricTh said:

Winter? It's only Autumn so 3 more months to go.

Premature ejaculation... it happens.

[Naam]

30 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

7 hours ago, sotsira said:

should of written

...HAVE......

English is my third language but every time i read "of" instead of "have" i feel like

[pepi2005]

Pattaya once had something that is usually extremely expensive for tourism marketing agencies to achieve: a world-wide brand image. In this specific case, the image "A CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS", and for the city to be a fun place with CHEAP BARS and GIRLS (sex).

 

However, they turned arrogant and started to clamp down on bars that stayed open for longer than midnight (later to be slightly extended again), started with "crackdowns" on bars that displayed nudity, fun bars were replaced with faceless 'condo' buildings (mostly empty during the year) or fastfood shops, and the barfines and fees for girls are today a MULTIPLE of what they were just a few years ago. 

 

Sex in Pattaya is now more expensive than in most European countries (if you know where to go). To that, add airplane tickets, food and accomodation. Uniformed highway men on every 3rd corner checking alcohol levels, unfriendly faces from arriving at the airport until leaving, visa hassles and more. Mandatory biometric registration as if you were a suspect entering a jail.

 

No surprise that tourist numbers are dropping.

Edited September 12, 2019 by pepi2005

[Destiny1990]

2 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Makes absolutely no sense last I checked Europe is Visa exempt for "travelers".

 

Asking a Song Teaw driver about business is like asking a massage girl.

99% answer "no customer".

 

 

Yes you can deceive other members here who are not in Pattaya now about how vibrant the place is with tourists.

Some members might believe u Until the moment they come to take a look for them selves and then they will know what kind of a truthful person you really are. 

 

 

[champers]

4 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

Imho there isn’t a recession in Europe going on but Europe travelers seem to be avoiding Thailand due too strict visa requirements and strong baht. 

Look at the Song teaws driving by do they have passengers??

Ask the driver how is his season is He making money?? Look at his face.

Then you know what’s up.

There are no visa requirements for anyone staying up to a month and they are no more onerous for someone staying 6 months.

[Destiny1990]

6 minutes ago, champers said:

There are no visa requirements for anyone staying up to a month and they are no more onerous for someone staying 6 months.

It definitely became more difficult to enter for lots of expats/tourists even for myself nowadays  i get interrogated at the airports by supervisors. That made me broaden my horizon others did probably the same thing and left otherwise I cannot explain why tourist areas in Thailand are not full with tourists/expats hanging out.

[shdmn]

6 hours ago, yogi100 said:

 

No one I know goes to Pattaya to visit malls and food courts.

 

They go for the girls and the bars. My friend who lives in Pattaya says the bars are dead, there's little of the traditional party atmosphere and lots of girls have called it a day and gone elsewhere or back to their homes and families.

 

His immediate words were 'it's dead' when I asked him on the phone 'how is it out there'.

Then I guess "your friend" should try find some new bars.  Soi Buakao bars were a zoo on Tuesday night as was LK Metro.  The whole street was like one giant street party from Klang to Soi 15 and beyond.  It gets a lot busier on weekends.  So tell "your friend" to try something different.  

 

Walking street is busy as always.  Inside bars down there it's a different story. The places with happy hours and good prices can be busy.  Some places may be dead there but there is usually a good reason for that.  2 good reasons in particular.  

Edited September 12, 2019 by shdmn

[DannyCarlton]

1 minute ago, shdmn said:

Then I guess "your friend" should try find some new bars.  Soi Buakao bars were a zoo on Tuesday night as was LK Metro.  The whole street was like one giant street party from Klang to Soi 15 and beyond.  It gets a lot busier on weekends.  So tell "your friend" to try something different.  

 

Walking street is busy as always.  Inside bars down there it's a different story. The places with happy hours and good prices are busy.  

I was there Wednesday. Maybe everyone went home Wednesday morning as it was dead, apart from a couple of bars, the following night.

[shdmn]

3 minutes ago, DannyCarlton said:

I was there Wednesday. Maybe everyone went home Wednesday morning as it was dead, apart from a couple of bars, the following night.

Where?  What time?  What bars?

Edited September 12, 2019 by shdmn

[DannyCarlton]

Just now, shdmn said:

Where?  What time?  What bars?

Billabong was busy but it always is. Soi Diana beer bars, my old huntig ground, had neither staff nor customers, a wasteland.

[yogi100]

11 minutes ago, shdmn said:

Then I guess "your friend" should try find some new bars.  Soi Buakao bars were a zoo on Tuesday night as was LK Metro.  The whole street was like one giant street party from Klang to Soi 15 and beyond.  It gets a lot busier on weekends.  So tell "your friend" to try something different.  

 

Walking street is busy as always.  Inside bars down there it's a different story. The places with happy hours and good prices can be busy.  Some places may be dead there but there is usually a good reason for that.  2 good reasons in particular.  

 

 

Nice try, that's a good marketing ploy.

 

Out of interest what's the name of your bar.

 

 

[shdmn]

4 minutes ago, DannyCarlton said:

Billabong was busy but it always is. Soi Diana beer bars, my old huntig ground, had neither staff nor customers, a wasteland.

Then find some new places. There are lots of dead beer bars on some of the side sois.   Lots of bars right on Buakao were hopping.   I don't really go to Pattaya to sit in beerbars myself.

[Metapod]

6 hours ago, yogi100 said:

 

No one I know goes to Pattaya to visit malls and food courts.

 

That says more about you and the company you keep.

[Ron jeremy]

What a discrepincy , one man says it's packed with tourists, another says no one is in town.

[gk10002000]

11 hours ago, cooked said:

My son saw a cheap deal flight + hotel to Pattaya with his son and I told him to go somewhere else, filthy beach and sea, ripoffs, sex trade everywhere, try an island. he loved Koh Samet.

I was there during the Tsunami back in 2004, because luckily for some unknown reason my friends changed our travel plans at the last minute from Phuket to Ko Samet.  Couldn't believe when I woke up in the morning on Ko Samet and while watching the news about the Tsunami.  We stayed on the southeast part of the island, a place called Malibu resort I think.  Wonderful time.  Quiet for sure as it was not one of the cities.  Nightly barbecue out on the beach put out by about 7 of the hotels/villas there.  You could walk down the beach and pick the one you wanted.  Very inexpensive. Snorkel diving trip around the island or parts of it during the half day was great.  Not a big boat, not a big crowd.  Us 4 friends, and a japanese couple with two extremely well behaved kids.  It was great