good bad ugly & future for thailand/pattaya

[nomad2019]

So many questions, like when do you think this lockdown will end, on beach alone yesterday cops came loud speakers telling everyone leave. Nothing open, when will lockdown in pattaya end, surely this cannot be sustained, many thais are very angry at government.

Bars, hotels, restaurants, gyms, etc all closed as many other businesses i cant see tourists come back anytime soon in next 2 years as we know jobs have been lost all over the world.

Maybe the chines will come back in numbers.

What about the thai baht, will it remain strong ? 

Talking to bar owner, he has lost the lot, he would need to pay his rent of 80k per month plus wages etc and he just cant do it, even if he could see out the next 3 months he says after 3 months the place will still be dead so hes cut his losses.

Talk of flights doubling if and when they get back up and running.

What can you see for the future . 

[Zikomat]

Pattaya will not recover any time soon. Open the bars, agogos, restaurants - open everything right now. But where will you get the customers? International tourism will be dead for a long time and will be one of the last industries to make a recover.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Zikomat

[3421abc]

Place was getting too arrogant and taking tourists for granted. Now sit and cry a bit and think about how to treat the hand that feeds you better. 

[JimmyTheMook]

Most of the world is in lockdown mode , why would Pattaya be any different?

 

[OneMoreFarang]

What's the point of trying to look into the future?

I think in the moment it's clear that all this will take some time. Months or years, nobody knows.

And it seems nobody has any clear plan how the social distancing will end.

 

I think speculating what might happen in the future without any reliable information is useless and might produce lots of headache. I think to avoid lots of headache it's best to take this one day at a time. Let's take care of today and tomorrow think about tomorrow.

[nomad2019]

46 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

What's the point of trying to look into the future?

I think in the moment it's clear that all this will take some time. Months or years, nobody knows.

And it seems nobody has any clear plan how the social distancing will end.

 

I think speculating what might happen in the future without any reliable information is useless and might produce lots of headache. I think to avoid lots of headache it's best to take this one day at a time. Let's take care of today and tomorrow think about tomorrow.

Because people like me have interests here family here house here ????

[Don Mega]

Hopefully this closure (Pattaya is not in lockdown yet) knocks the greedy bar owners down a peg or 2...........if they actualy have the coin to re-open !!

[OneMoreFarang]

23 minutes ago, nomad2019 said:

Because people like me have interests here family here house here ????

So what do you want to do?

Make 20 different plans what you will maybe do under conditions 1 to 20?

But then you forgot condition 21.

I know it would be nice to be able to plan. But with what? What are the facts to plan with?

[topt]

33 minutes ago, nomad2019 said:

Because people like me have interests here family here house here ????

Do you live here full time as your location is given as London?

[thainet]

36 minutes ago, nomad2019 said:

Because people like me have interests here family here house here ????

Yeah me too..but not a monger, so bars/gogo's open or close makes no difference to me. In a few months there will be some restaurants open, all the supermarkets, markets, essential every day services such as schools will be open, so as i said it doesn't really make any difference if your life is here.

[mr mr]

7 minutes ago, thainet said:

Yeah me too..but not a monger, so bars/gogo's open or close makes no difference to me. In a few months there will be some restaurants open, all the supermarkets, markets, essential every day services such as schools will be open, so as i said it doesn't really make any difference if your life is here.

forest. trees.

[Kwasaki]

Well look on bright side whatever happens you will still have Pattaya's  corrupt police and immitation police force and the owners of property will still want to charge extortion type rents. 

[steven100]

4 hours ago, nomad2019 said:

Bars, hotels, restaurants, gyms, etc all closed

They are closed for a reason ....  to stop the spread of a deadly virus.

You can't have it both ways ....  

[1FinickyOne]

I think it will be a slow process of getting back to normal... even if all restrictions were lifted tomorrow, I would not get on a bus or plane and would even be wary of being in a restaurant... 

[brokenbone]

i think pattaya will be a bit downsized with people and entertainment, and less traffic jam

[pgrahmm]

It'll be exactly where/how China wants it....

[Zikomat]

What if this crisis will put an end to Pattaya as the sex tourists’ main destination?

I have a feeling we will never see the old naughty Pattaya again. 

[WhatsNext]

When Thailand decides to have stores and services open again, it will probably still have restrictions on incoming tourists. As long as the virus isn't fully under control i can understand they would want some health certificate if you plan on coming here on vacation.

 

Tourism however will not go from zero to 100% in a day, it will slowly but surely pick up again. The centara group re-opens in September. You can see that as an indication that the Thai think that tourism will pick up again in the high season. 

 

Slowly but surely the normal state of affairs will take shape automatically within a year or so from starting to allow tourists back in. You don't actually have to -do- anything as a government, the whole machine will start up by each individual doing their thing again. 

 

In the beginning there will be an oversupply, prices will temporarily go down and attract more people, till we get back at what it was before. One nasty little virus with a death rate below 1% will not reshape the planet and/or Pattaya in the long run.

[OnTheGround]

Anyones guess is a good as your own. All depends when vaccine will be available. Tv news says 6-18 months.

 

My personal thoughts, within end of May, malls and general shops will be open again and lockdown will be history. Restaurants will slowly open with restrictions. Night curfew will continue for many months.

 

Entertainment areas will be closed for a long time. By the time nightlife are allowed to operate again, all the owners has cut their losses (before this summer). New owners will be difficult to attract until life (customers) are back to normal.

 

Lockdown and curfew is one thing. More important is when will international travel be allowed again, worldwide?

 

China already knocking on the door. Just read some travel limitations lifted.

But the rest of the world will be very careful to lift travel ban. I will be very surprised if any noticeable changes within 2020.

 

Realistically I think spring or summer 2021, before things are back to semi normal, and that is wishful thinking from a expat.

 

Wait for vaccine to be released, then add 3-6 months more to be back here.

[digbeth]

When all this is over, who's gonna have the money to reopen restaurants and bars, 

many will have cut losses with the way business was going before all this anyway, 

 

we will see a sea change for sure.

 

Five years ago the Russians seems here to stay, with just a minor crisis they are no longer around in force as before.... 

 

Until recently Chinese seem to have the run of the place, looks like they'll be the ones with money to snap up places yet

 

Indians? 

 

But through it all, the farang mongers of Pattaya stayed, but in what strength? the old guards are dying out, there aren't seem to be new crowds actively looking for the seedier part of Pattaya, even the areas in Bangkok are dying out 

[sezze]

It will take time , but in the end all will be back , maybe with different names or different faces but it will be there .

Right now , all is closed and will be like that for some time to come . Even if Thailand reopens , which i expect in 1 month , the majority of people just can't come . It might be because their country doesn't let them or because uncertain economy/work or because Thailand demands tests  or ... . 1st people who do come back are not the families , they would stay closer to home . Single tourists are the 1st who are willing to go that extra step , thus creating demand for what Pattaya was popular for . If there is a demand , then there will be people providing it . Thai government might dream of it being a family resort but this is further away then it ever was .

IMHO Pattaya will be back in business maybe August , but will get busy again by New Year , but not the same like last year . Many business will fail , but they will be taken over when the time comes .

[timendres]

If you want a glimpse of what will happen to Pattaya, take a look at Sukhumvit in BKK since 2014. It is a chicken and egg problem. Customers will not arrive in volume until the entertainment returns. The entertainment is dead until there are customers to support the expenses. It is not going to be easy, and will require some faith and serious investments by the business owners to prime that pump.

[BritManToo]

35 minutes ago, sezze said:

Even if Thailand reopens , which i expect in 1 month

I suspect next year.

[coastguard]

We were due for a winnowing of bars and massage shops, etc. even before this hit. This will only accelerate that. So, I think it will start to come back by high season, but at about 20-30% of normal. The Chinese may come back but they contribute little to the traditional "Pattaya experience," I predict high season 2021 is the soonest we can expect relief and some resemblance of normal. But, getting back to true normal is years away. Pattaya will be a shadow of its former self for years to come. Until there is a vaccine and people's memories fade..... 

[Kerryd]

It will eventually recover but it will take time. 

A lot will depend on who Thailand prioritizes with it's tourism campaigns once things get back to normal. If it's the Chinese and Indians again, then a large part of Pattaya (and some other places) are going to suffer, as they were already suffering due to those demographics not spending a lot of money (outside of what they paid for the tour they arrived on). Business owners have been complaining for a couple of years now about how business was suffering (even while TAT was crowing about the numbers of arrivals to Thailand).

The idea that Indians and/or the Chinese are going to come here and spend at the same levels the "Western" tourists used to ? Not likely to happen, though the "girls" on Beach Road will probably be kept busy.

Over the last couple of decades, actually more like ever since the Vietnam war, Pattaya (and other similar places) have been fueled by "Western" tourists. Americans, UK'ers (UKites ? UKians ? UKenese ? UKistanis ?), Aussies, Scandinavians, French, Germans, Canadians and some other rabble, most of whom shared two similarities.
They were (mostly) "white" and they drank and spent money like "two week millionaires" (which is how many of them were labelled).

All that money is what fueled many of the construction projects in Pattaya. Malls, hotels, condos, "villages", rows of shop houses, and kept the sick buffalo industry in Isaan thriving for decades.
A lot of that construction was planned and built with the expectation that the money train was going to keep rolling in - every two weeks. Sheesh, 10-12 years ago it seemed like every second Thai guy I knew was riding a Harley. One club had about 30 members and they were all business owners and they all had Harleys. People were rolling in the dough back then.

And then the wheels started to fall off the train. The "authorities" decided to start targeting the Indian and Chinese tourism markets instead, thinking that larger numbers of "arrivals" would more than compensate for lower spending by them. (And yes, I think there was some racism involved in the decision. One just has to look at recent remarks by the Tourism and Health Ministers to see what they think of "western" tourists.) 

Sure there were some rich Chinese in Bangkok shopping in the high end stores, but most of the Chinese tourists were on packaged "zero dollar" tours where they paid (in China) for an all-inclusive trip and didn't have to spend a single yuan in Thailand if they didn't want to.
I spoke with some businessmen (a couple years ago and a couple months ago), one owns a resort hotel in Jomtien, another owns a popular seafood restaurant on Walking Street and another used to own half a dozen a-go-gos and beer bars on Walking street. 
The story was the same, few, if any, of those Chinese and Indian tourists were spending any money outside of what the tour company had pre-arranged. 

<deleted> loads of people on Walking Street, but in the bars and go-gos ? Mostly "Western" tourists (except for Baccara which was quite popular with the S Koreans and Japanese).

If Thailand decides to pin their hopes on on Chinese (and Indian) tourism once things return to normal, I'd guess that the economic recovery will take a lot longer to happen.

I don't think all those bars and go-gos on Walking Street are going to go anywhere, anytime soon. A lot of money and influence behind them (which is why they are still there despite attempts to get rid of them a couple of times in the past).

It would be difficult to get back to the heydays of Pattaya, especially with the current state of affairs in the world, anytime in the near future. It may never come back again.

Especially if the government continues with the attitude that they don't want "Western" tourists here.

[ivor bigun]

drove down beach toad today ,there was one motorbike in front of us ,and one car about 200 yds behind us , as for people walking a couple of dozen ,joggers etc ,that was it .

[Enoon]

3 hours ago, Zikomat said:

What if this crisis will put an end to Pattaya as the sex tourists’ main destination?

I have a feeling we will never see the old naughty Pattaya again. 

 

Forget Pattaya.

 

I'm looking forward to new naughty somewhere.

 

With the previous generation all out of business it'll be a level playing field.

 

A purpose built, multi resort area, accommodation/restaurants integrated, on a greenfield site, with no "family"/beach paradise pretensions,

 

A real, hardcore, City of Sensuality.

 

A "Hyper Nana".

 

 

 

[fhickson]

only place id want to be in asia now is vietnam, unfortunately they barricaded the borders military style.

 

that stuff about the virus being foreigners fault is real nasty stuff. when people are under stress/fearful they band together and distrust people who are different more, especially if the accusers are poorly educated. thais would be real prone to this because of their pride in country, nationality etc. could be a nasty scene with the day to day thais you rely on for food, etc.

 

a good reason to not burn all your bridges in your home country. things seem great and euphoric abroad but things change, you never know.

Edited April 14, 2020 by fhickson

[Bagwain]

17 hours ago, OnTheGround said:

Anyones guess is a good as your own. All depends when vaccine will be available. Tv news says 6-18 months.

 

My personal thoughts, within end of May, malls and general shops will be open again and lockdown will be history. Restaurants will slowly open with restrictions. Night curfew will continue for many months.

 

Entertainment areas will be closed for a long time. By the time nightlife are allowed to operate again, all the owners has cut their losses (before this summer). New owners will be difficult to attract until life (customers) are back to normal.

 

Lockdown and curfew is one thing. More important is when will international travel be allowed again, worldwide?

 

China already knocking on the door. Just read some travel limitations lifted.

But the rest of the world will be very careful to lift travel ban. I will be very surprised if any noticeable changes within 2020.

 

Realistically I think spring or summer 2021, before things are back to semi normal, and that is wishful thinking from a expat.

 

Wait for vaccine to be released, then add 3-6 months more to be back here.

There is always someone!! You can shove ya Vac where the sun don't shine & the chip that will come with it!! Do you know how many people they killed with the SARS trial? I bet not!!

[BobinBKK]

It absolutely disgusts me and fills me with rage the stupidity that comes out of the authorities mouth and their feelings towards westerners. Who are they to say anything about anyone of any race from any country that comes here to spend money. Thailand has absolutely nothing more to offer than any other country in SE Asia that has beautiful beaches. These people and their so-called authority are a disgrace to the country and the people of the country and their religion. A religion that teaches tolerance and acceptance for everyone is being completely ignored. My message and advice for you is to lose the deplorable attitude and be grateful that everyone comes here no matter what their race or religion is or the color of their skin. Live by the motto "the rest of the world doesn't need Thailand - Thailand needs the rest of the world".