Wearing face masks and keeping apart: Pattaya’s famous bar scene could be very different post COVID-19

 

File photo

 

Strict social distancing, limiting the number of customers and bar workers wearing face masks and gloves are just some of the potential measures that could be in place when bars and nightclubs in Pattaya are finally allowed to re-open post COVID-19.

 

Patrons could also be asked to submit ID prior to entering a venue in order to help with contact tracing in the event of a future COVID-19 outbreak. 

 

Pedestrian checkpoints which screen people at the entrances to Walking Street are also a possibility.

 

People working in bars could be made to wear face masks and gloves, while there could be new limits on the number of customers allowed to enter venues so social distancing can be properly enforced.

 

Thaivisa understands that these were part of a variety of measures proposed at a meeting on Sunday attended by more than twenty of Pattaya’s leading bar and nightclub owners, as well as representatives from City Hall and Pattaya police.

 

Picture: Pattaya Update News

 

The meeting, held at Hollywood nightclub, was a brainstorming session to discuss the issues facing the industry plunged into crisis following the outbreak of COVID-19.

 

At the meeting, bar owners also called for various taxes and licensee fees to be waived while bars are forced to remain closed, and action to be taken against landlords who continue to demand rent payments in full. 

 

While Thailand, like other countries, has tentatively begun easing some restrictions put in place to help combat the spread of COVID-19, bars and nightclubs are among the businesses expected to be forced to remain closed for some time.

 

Last week, a key industry figure said it may take more than two years before Pattaya’s tourism industry, of which the entertainment and nightlife scene are a fundamental part, returns to normal. 

 

Thanet Supharothatrangsi, an executive of Sunshine Group of hotels, said the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest crisis facing the resort in 50 years and that he expects many tourists related businesses not to survive.

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-05-05

 

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6 minutes ago, webfact said:

Last week, a key industry figure said it may take more than two years before Pattaya’s tourism industry, of which the entertainment and nightlife scene are a fundamental part, returns to normal. 

What's the rush then?

This group can get back together some time next year.

Stop dreaming about tourists coming in numbers, this year. Not going to happen. Don't think this group watch (much) any international news, or understand the severity of this pandemic.

 

If they're allowed to open up lets say in August this year, they must pay staff salary, electricity etc, but the most important thing will be missing: customers. What's the rush to open up? A last dream how to avoid go into bankruptcy. 

 

Bar opening: People working in bars could be made to wear face masks and gloves.

Hostesses already ignore customers because they're busy with their phone, Line chat and FB. Bars has been dead for years, much thanks to lack of quality hostesses, and their lousy attitude. Now add on face mask and rubber gloves. Will any imaginary customer frequent these places? Not unless they revamp their business, and cut down bar fees, and improve quality.

 

Better reconvene early next year. By then they know if any tourists are coming, or not.

 

53 minutes ago, webfact said:

People working in bars could be made to wear face masks and gloves

Available already on request at The Castle (if it was open), always ahead of the times.

YES, it's going to be much harder to detect if some Hottie is a ladyboy.

Best thing is that all the obnoxious 'customers' can be turned away.

 

'Sorry Ka, you smell like you've got coronavirus......' ????

2 hours ago, webfact said:

bar workers wearing face masks and gloves

gloves are a total waste of time, what is the difference between wearing gloves and not - zero 

 

All they have to do is wash hands often (including customers) and make sure beer coolers (Condoms) are used by only one customer and then cleaned thoroughly before reuse and tables/chairs are cleaned after every use 

1 hour ago, OnTheGround said:

This group can get back together some time next year.

Stop dreaming about tourists coming in numbers, this year. Not going to happen. Don't think this group watch (much) any international news, or understand the severity of this pandemic.

when they open the airports to international travel they are expecting a mad rush 

 

just shows how ill-informed they are and quite frankly stupid

Not much social distancing going on at that meeting!

 

all of these ideas and concepts are pure garbage. humans are a social species. lets end this madness and get on with life.

 

 

16 hours ago, Traubert said:

Best thing is that all the obnoxious 'customers' can be turned away.

 

'Sorry Ka, you smell like you've got coronavirus......' ????

Obnoxious customers are only the ones without money.

Welcome to the police state. The "new normal" Thailand 2.0 under an army boot with Nanny keeping us safe. 

One of the things that has always bothered me is that bars I have observed do not have hot water faucets for sinks used to wash glasses.  

Girls wearing masks will surely spike the Take-Home-Consideration-Probability Factor.

18 hours ago, OnTheGround said:

What's the rush then?

This group can get back together some time next year.

Why can't they discuss measures to be taken during period while the scene returns to normal? What's your rush to shut them down entirely for the next two years?

 

18 hours ago, OnTheGround said:

If they're allowed to open up lets say in August this year, they must pay staff salary, electricity etc, but the most important thing will be missing: customers. What's the rush to open up? A last dream how to avoid go into bankruptcy. 

Allowed to open doesn't mean they're all definitely going to open at that particular time. But it's their money, not yours. Why should you worry? Let's let them worry about their own businesses.

 

18 hours ago, OnTheGround said:

Bars has been dead for years, much thanks to lack of quality hostesses, and their lousy attitude.

Amazing how you're aware of this but these owners, who have the books, seem think they were making money. Maybe you missed something. ???? Doubtless most of us here, except for some fussy old ladies living in the weeds outside Pattaya's warm neon glow, would like the bars reopened anyway. On the bright side, after they're opened our doomsters can pass by them at random intervals and then enjoy chanting the "I told you so" chorus. That would be lots more satisfying, no? For at least two years!

1 hour ago, mr mr said:

all of these ideas and concepts are pure garbage. humans are a social species. lets end this madness and get on with life.

Why not just get on with death and end the species? No more garbage ideas and concepts!

12 minutes ago, BigStar said:

Why can't they discuss measures to be taken during period while the scene returns to normal? What's your rush to shut them down entirely for the next two years?

Because "Social distancing" just doesn't fit into the "Naughty entertainment" business model. I reckon that the venue owner/managers are just clawing at straws. I won't even go to restaurants if they put a plexiglass screen across my table to distance me from family member or friends.

Also, mongering will shift entirely to the on-line market and I can imagine that most girls will not be interested to move back to the bars if life returns to normal in two or three years time.

20 hours ago, webfact said:

Last week, a key industry figure said it may take more than two years before Pattaya’s tourism industry, of which the entertainment and nightlife scene are a fundamental part, returns to normal.

With a high baht and still dying economy and dead tourism industry I wonder how will the country not go into recession this year?

Who is going to travel 10000 kms to sit in a mask 2 metres away from any girl

The owners don't care about social distancing even at the meeting. Why should it work at their bars?! 

1 hour ago, BigStar said:

Why not just get on with death and end the species? No more garbage ideas and concepts!

Why not just stop all preventative measures, and let death take whom it will.

I'm happy to take my chances and prefer to live a normal life until the end.

Everyone seems to be over thinking the problem. 167 live cases from 165 million population I cannot see why everyone is pannicking. Why don't we just close the country off to the rest of the world and be done with it then we don't have to put up with foot and mouth disease, bird flu, the horse virus and any other imported diseases that affect the country. The virus is under control even with everyone traveling home for the holidays, overcrowed BTS trains, overcrowded trucks for building site workers just to name a few. Get your heads out of the sand and lets get the country back to normal. I expect to get some flak but this is one mans opinion. Thank you and be safe. 

GoGo girls dancing completely naked except for a mask....This I got to see.....

16 minutes ago, redwood1 said:

GoGo girls dancing completely naked except for a mask....This I got to see.....

A mask and the gloves

The bar/girl "scene" is pretty much finished. The virus has put the final nail in the coffin. Most of this kind of business is done via social media apps - has been for a while. Its only older generation men who've kept it going in places like Pattaya. Watching go-go dancers behind plastic screens might be the only future entertainment for tourists. Barfines, and "what your name? where you from ? you buy me dink?" is over. 

15 minutes ago, 4737 Carlin said:

The bar/girl "scene" is pretty much finished. The virus has put the final nail in the coffin. Most of this kind of business is done via social media apps - has been for a while. Its only older generation men who've kept it going in places like Pattaya. Watching go-go dancers behind plastic screens might be the only future entertainment for tourists. Barfines, and "what your name? where you from ? you buy me dink?" is over. 

I disagree socal apps are boring real girls in bars are fun....Money talk and money says we want real girls....So real girls in bars legal or not it will be...

2 hours ago, Boomer6969 said:

Because "Social distancing" just doesn't fit into the "Naughty entertainment" business model.

Yes, ma’am, according to some TVF Virologists, but why not let the businesses affected and their customers decide for the themselves?

 

2 hours ago, Boomer6969 said:

I won't even go to restaurants if they put a plexiglass screen across my table to distance me from family member or friends.

But that’s just you, and nobody's trying to tell you what to do. ???? Obviously, others are doing so already and will continue to do so. I will.

 

2 hours ago, Boomer6969 said:

Also, mongering will shift entirely to the on-line market and I can imagine that most girls will not be interested to move back to the bars if life returns to normal in two or three years time.

If Pattaya businesses had based their projections on what ace TVF Economists “imagine,” the city would be still be in 1995. However, the ranks seem to be thinning out as a result of a long list of previous failed “imaginings” over the decades. A number have fallen silent while waiting on the collapse of CentralFestival. Others were lost in the mass suicides after the first rainy season when the Tunnel didn’t flood, which had been an absolute certainty, given that water runs uphill. ???? For days you could hardly stagger down Soi Buakhao without hearing the thud of a balcony jumper nearby.

 

Again, why not let the businesses, whose money is on the line, and their customers, decide for themselves the course of the business instead of relying on your imaginings from the keyboard?

 

 

 

21 minutes ago, 4737 Carlin said:

The bar/girl "scene" is pretty much finished. The virus has put the final nail in the coffin. Most of this kind of business is done via social media apps - has been for a while. Its only older generation men who've kept it going in places like Pattaya. Watching go-go dancers behind plastic screens might be the only future entertainment for tourists. Barfines, and "what your name? where you from ? you buy me dink?" is over. 

Well, that's it then (hic!), the last final final nail. Please inform all the owners and request the thread be closed.

2 hours ago, Searat7 said:

One of the things that has always bothered me is that bars I have observed do not have hot water faucets for sinks used to wash glasses.  

Think of all the illness that's caused since 1978! Why, there was . . . er . . . .

3 hours ago, Searat7 said:

One of the things that has always bothered me is that bars I have observed do not have hot water faucets for sinks used to wash glasses.  

And they do not wash the glasses properly either. I can just see us all drinking out of the bottle and groping the girls while wearing gloves.... Well, whatever turns you on.

 

As for short times with social distancing???

 

I hear the virus does not like soap, so maybe they will reopen the soapy massage first? Well, that's my excuse for having a soapy taken care of!

2 hours ago, smiggley said:

Everyone seems to be over thinking the problem. 167 live cases from 165 million population I cannot see why everyone is pannicking. Why don't we just close the country off to the rest of the world and be done with it then we don't have to put up with foot and mouth disease, bird flu, the horse virus and any other imported diseases that affect the country. The virus is under control even with everyone traveling home for the holidays, overcrowed BTS trains, overcrowded trucks for building site workers just to name a few. Get your heads out of the sand and lets get the country back to normal. I expect to get some flak but this is one mans opinion. Thank you and be safe. 

The country is closed off to the rest of the world. Internal new infections are down to zero. Numbers still in hospital is down to a couple of hundred. Not been a single case in Pattaya for nearly a month. Good job Thailand.

 

I've been in self isolation (have serious pre existing conditions) since the very beginning. However, now I feel confident enough to re emerge.

 

I have 2 go to restaurants in Pattaya, if either of them reopen I will visit, assuming that safety measures don't totally detract from my dining experience. The nearest bar to my house did reopen on Saturday night, unfortunately raided by various authorities.  Had it reopened legitimately, I'd have been in there and wouldn't have worn a mask.

 

Its over in Pattaya, lets get back to enjoying our lives.