Pattaya: Tourism recovery may take TWO YEARS, says industry expert

[petermik]

7 hours ago, UbonThani said:

when was it ever good?

dirty city

not sure why they call it a resort

The term "resort" usually means that you have to pay more for the privilege of staying there

[skorp13]

It will take a lot longer than that if they keep this up. Prohibition is not a tourist attraction. Thailand is now a hard line Muslim dry state masquerading as a peaceful Buddhist country

[spiekerjozef]

If you close the airport for two years...

[davidmann]

3 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

Pattaya has lost way too much.  It will never fully recover. 

 

Good. was nice quite fishing. village. ,jungle. out site. ,clean sea.  up till 1970 ,for sure never return. ,but i have never been to beach where its to dangerous to go in the sea. ,last time tried. came out brown from mud. ,never again. ,Island did seem ok 

[sahibji]

pattaya will take a serious hit if it is going to take two years to recover. meanwhile are any relief measures planned for the businesses there. we also hope the business operators will rethink new strategy to keep themselves going and also in the process learn some lessons in humility.

[sahibji]

3 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

this seems more realistic. 

and only the strong will survive and it may be much longer than this before we see the level of small business return to pre-virus days. 

i only hope my favorite restaurants in Pattaya survive.

 

also a time to reflect and learn some lessons in humility.

[sahibji]

13 minutes ago, davidmann said:

Good. was nice quite fishing. village. ,jungle. out site. ,clean sea.  up till 1970 ,for sure never return. ,but i have never been to beach where its to dangerous to go in the sea. ,last time tried. came out brown from mud. ,never again. ,Island did seem ok 

everybody needs a chance to survive. we hope they will get it.

[pattayadude]

Anyone here who thinks Pattaya has come to an end only recently, and with the coronavirus, think again!.

It was already dead on arrival.

 

The city was slowly changing/dying the last 10 years and nobody could have done much about it.

These things don't last forever. Nothing does.

Even myself have witnessed several sex destinations around the world dying for various reasons during the past 30 years and Pattaya won't be the last.

Reason? Maybe go-go dancing was slowly becoming a thing of the past, maybe smoke filled bars ain't the thing anymore. Maybe the relentless traveling of hundreds of millions of travelers facilitated  the virus to spread faster and unnecessarily, who knows! But that was the final nail in the coffin, I assure you!

Now the world has to go back to the drawing board and re-design the sex&fun industry, that's for sure. $500 designer face masks or sex in body gloves without kissing, that may be interesting...

 

In Pattaya, what will take a major hit next  is the real estate.That won't be too good.

and as far as the 2 year prediction for a recovery? I am not sure there can be a recovery after two years of vegetative state, but what do i know!

we'll see, if we're still around that is...

Edited April 30, 2020 by pattayadude

[sahibji]

39 minutes ago, spiekerjozef said:

If you close the airport for two years...

will be prudent to do so to cut costs.

[Aussie999]

I'm no expert, but I predict it could take 18 months, 5 days and 13 hours... but then I could be wrong.

[sahibji]

43 minutes ago, skorp13 said:

It will take a lot longer than that if they keep this up. Prohibition is not a tourist attraction. Thailand is now a hard line Muslim dry state masquerading as a peaceful Buddhist country

sure. is it that bad?

[Wildliferescue]

Sherlock is quoted here as saying businesses should be preparing for things like this to happen. How on earth can anyone be prepared for 9 months of complete closure of ones business? Saving up 9 months operating costs is just not feasible in these times of strong competition and fast changing markets. 

[madmen]

What lessons should be learned? What's he talking about you cant plan for a pandemic 

[gamini]

The main attraction of Pattaya is it sheer decadence and a sex  supermarket. The last time I went there, a friend of mine took me to South Pattaya. He showed  me live sex shows, bars where all the waitresses were naked and every kind of decadent situation. Nearly every bar is a brothel with prostitutes. The owners are pimps. Most of the expats who live there only do so because it's where they can find a young attractive girl cheaply. It is a haven for criminals and people on the run. And if you read Thai Visa there's not a day goes by without muggings murder drunken brawls et cetera. As the part owner and Executive Director of a large hotel there for five years and visiting it regularly for the past 40 years I've seen the resort get more and more decadent. I remember it when it was a beautiful fishing village in the 60s.  It is now filthy, full of ugly condominiums. The seawater is polluted and and the traffic is horrendous.

I believe that Thailand will have to maintain social distancing and that does not seem possible with rampant prostitution. The sexpats will all leave too. There's no way that Pattaya will ever recover. 

[swerve]

Everyone loves a booze ban, why come back?

[ianezy0]

4 hours ago, jomtien99 said:

Instead of stating the obvious about the amount of time Pattaya's tourism industry may take to recover, why don't they look at the opportunity in front of them: time to clean up Pattaya and make it a resort for the New World that is coming, less jet ski scams, less double pricing, sort out the waste water drains going out to sea, the songtheaw mafia, etc - time to make it more welcoming

Yes and less overweight farangs sitting on bar stools who spend their days thinking of ways to complain about Thailand.

Double pricing occurs in most countries. Discounts on hotels, car hire and most tourist destinations, so why not here too.

[RedPill]

2 hours ago, UbonThani said:

when was it ever good?

Oh yeah ... you missed out ????

 

[yellowboat]

4 hours ago, jomtien99 said:

Instead of stating the obvious about the amount of time Pattaya's tourism industry may take to recover, why don't they look at the opportunity in front of them: time to clean up Pattaya and make it a resort for the New World that is coming, less jet ski scams, less double pricing, sort out the waste water drains going out to sea, the songtheaw mafia, etc - time to make it more welcoming

The corrupt officialdom see that as the city's underlying charm, and they are far to lazy to fix the filth in the water and elsewhere.   Less than nimble minds will not make any real, positive changes.    

 

The whole country needs new leadership.  The army's vision for Thailand cannot keep up with Malaysia or Vietnam.  They have been deserted by the elites in their time of need.  The country is far to closed up to get anywhere.   Thai Airways bailout will most likely fail with cha cha overseeing it.  He will look for a local solution, where there isn't one.   

[JonnyF]

If the word gets out that Thailand can ban alcohol for 7 weeks at the whim of a virtue signalling puritanical General masquerading as a PM then the place will never recover. Why bother with Thailand, so many other options. 

[pattayadude]

1 hour ago, Aussie999 said:

I'm no expert, but I predict it could take 18 months, 5 days and 13 hours... but then I could be wrong.

 I predict it will take longer than that. my guess is 18mo 5 days 13 hrs and 22min

[Greg O]

Will be cut in pieces and sold to the only bidders ..Chinese casinos and sweat shops. No they won't learn from this they're not capable of critical thinking, community planning or zoning etc..The dozers and wrecking crews are lining up.

[hobobo]

5 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

this seems more realistic. 

and only the strong will survive and it may be much longer than this before we see the level of small business return to pre-virus days. 

i only hope my favorite restaurants in Pattaya survive.

 

Do you mean Soi 6 ones, or all of them?

[phka]

I think as soon as the visus is over a

Western tourist will flood back to pattaya that's if they haven't been forced out of Thailand 

[rtco]

I like his optimism ... it was going down the pan even before Covid-19 ... I'll give it 5-years

[ozz1]

I don't think it will ever recover and be like it was with the bad publicity and booze bans going on bad news travels fast  I do feel sorry for all the girls who made money there without having any education I guess they will have to go back home and do some real  work

[Pattaya46]

 

1 hour ago, gamini said:

The main attraction of Pattaya is it sheer decadence and a sex supermarket.

Fully wrong. Pattaya doesn't need sex business anymore. Pattaya "normal" tourism didn't stop to increase for years while sex activity decreased a lot and will have another big reduction thank to Covid-19. 

  

1 hour ago, gamini said:

The last time I went there, a friend of mine took me to South Pattaya. He showed  me live sex shows, bars where all the waitresses were naked and every kind of decadent situation.

Seriously !? When was that? 20? 30 years ago?

I have been living in South Pattaya for 12 years and never heard of "live sex show" there.

Many agogos don't even have nudity nowadays ! (or just some barely erotic show)

 

Edit: "Live sex shows"still exist in Pattaya though, but they are very choreographed ones in big theaters targeting asian tour groups (like in Big Eye) and are in North Pattaya area.

Edited April 30, 2020 by Pattaya46

[Fairynuff]

After the Bali bombing years ago, I went there. Tourism was wiped out and hotels pretty much empty. Prices had dropped on everything and restaurants were giving free desserts or coffee to entice repeat customers.

I’m sure businesses here will do what they need to, they’ll  put prices up.

[Mark17AA]

Expert, and Thailand can you actually say that in the same sentence.

 

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.

[couchpotato]

The last time I went there, a friend of mine took me to South Pattaya. He showed  me live sex shows, bars where all the waitresses were naked and every kind of decadent situation.

I think you are embellishing the facts (or telling porkies), or as another poster said, this is an old story of probably the 90's.

From memory the last Live Shows were at Marilyn Agogo at least 20 years ago.

[Greg O]

Yeah there I was...well how bout now ?