Pattaya: City unveils ambitious plans to transform Bali Hai as 7 million more tourists expected soon

[owl sees all]

Well, as Paul Hogan famously once said - as he looked out across the Thames estuary at Southend-on-sea - hope the tunnel gets further than the bridge.

[ratcatcher]

11 hours ago, redwood1 said:

They seem to hate trees,shrubs,grass anything green....They also seem to dislike fountains.........They also dislike any kind of sitting areas or areas where people can congregate like open grassy areas.....

 

They seem to like that sterile barren stark concrete look...

Great comments. The word you need at the end is "soulless"

[ratcatcher]

Where's the connection between the drug-induced artist's rendering and the imminent arrival of 7 million tourists?

[Stargeezr]

Remember the garbage situation?  Until Pattaya can do better, forget the big futuristic

planning.

Geezer

[tlandtday]

11 hours ago, redwood1 said:

They seem to hate trees,shrubs,grass anything green....They also seem to dislike fountains.........They also dislike any kind of sitting areas or areas where people can congregate like open grassy areas.....

 

They seem to like that sterile barren stark concrete look...

The answer to improving Pattaya is simple... leave nature in its original state and build with it and around it and quit the <deleted> concrete jungle.  So much of this town looks like Soviet era architecture mixed with Thai town streets devoid of all the beauty nature can provide.  This is why Phuket will always blow Pattaya out of the water.

[tlandtday]

2 hours ago, Howiehotspur said:

I live up Pratumnak hill and have a view pretty much of all of it from the ‘ naval ‘ tower 

when are they going to knock down that eyesore of a left condo block ? 

Yeah the loser that built that thing is still building in Pattaya and running a hotel in that area.  He should be booted or chased out of the country until he cleans up his mess.

[WillyPlatt]

1 minute ago, tlandtday said:

The answer to improving Pattaya is simple... leave nature in its original state and build with it and around it and quit the <deleted> concrete jungle.  So much of this town looks like Soviet era architecture mixed with Thai town streets devoid of all the beauty nature can provide.  This is why Phuket will always blow Pattaya out of the water.

Bangla Road wouldn't.

It's a dump. Parts of Phuket are beautiful but is now to busy.

Pranburi below Hua Hin is still reasonably unspoilt but the Chinese are building a huge estate there.

[ThaiFelix]

11 hours ago, redwood1 said:

They seem to hate trees,shrubs,grass anything green....They also seem to dislike fountains.........They also dislike any kind of sitting areas or areas where people can congregate like open grassy areas.....

 

They seem to like that sterile barren stark concrete look...

No cant sit down..  Its a bit like Ikea, you have to keep moving to see everything so you keep spending your money before you get to the exit.

[Tom9999]

Soulless.... nothing else. 

They will never learn.... 

[tlandtday]

1 hour ago, WillyPlatt said:

Bangla Road wouldn't.

It's a dump. Parts of Phuket are beautiful but is now to busy.

Pranburi below Hua Hin is still reasonably unspoilt but the Chinese are building a huge estate there.

Who's talking about Bangla I am referring to other areas still plenty of greenery around phuket and krabi. It should be ideal there now with the slowdown.

[Iron Tongue]

This project is already a success since all of you are talking about it.  The only purpose is to distract people from real troubles in Pattaya for the next 3-6 months, after which this will quietly disappear and some new distraction will be devised.

[Soikhaonoiken]

Now wake up city Hall, you're only dreaming, never going to happen, and if they do decide to modernis Bali hai it won't look like the artist drawings, also where are these 5-7 million Extra tourist going to come from.... 

[P100]

6 hours ago, Letseng said:

Wonder where these 7 mill tourists come from.

From nowhere. It's just another lie to let people think, very soon all will be ok... Standard communication behaviour of various Thai military government offices. Nice to hear... Are you happ-py now??

[smudger1951]

What kind of market research does it take to understand what an average tourist expects to find when visiting Thailand ? Some acknowledgement of traditional thai architecture at least. Not some space age lunar landscape.

[hotchilli]

19 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Pictures of plans to completely revolutionize the area from Walking Street to the Bali Hai port in Pattaya have been unveiled by the local council.

This what living in a bubble does to you....  

[steven100]

which one is the ladyboy in that picture 

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by steven100

[Mulambana]

OMG, how can people inspect naked body and orgy skills of their future brides?

[hotchilli]

21 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The artist impressions show wide open boulevards with Ferraris and well dressed people walking without a care in the world.

There are marinas and ocean walkways and everything is landscaped to perfection.

A brand new transport system whisks tourists to their destination as they wonder at the new look, innovative and environmentally friendly marvel of the eastern seaboard. 

There is even a ferris wheel that could  become known as the Pattaya Eye like the one in London.

And then reality kicks in, a huge concrete eyesore, built on a budget [half or which got creamed off] by influential people, another un-finished project with many faults, two years of neglect and another blackened mess.

[nickmondo]

is it April Fools day again?

[Andycoops]

April's fool joke, surely.

[jacko45k]

9 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Remember the garbage situation?  Until Pattaya can do better, forget the big futuristic

planning.

Next flooding will take care of that....

[rooster59]

Pattaya revives 25-year battle to demolish Walking Street

 

 

Every few years, Pattaya officials contemplate tearing down Walking Street’s seedy bars and replacing them with a natural, family-friendly attraction. While a high-season river of cash used to wash away such thoughts, the nightlife strip’s current shutdown has administrators rethinking their options again.

 

That was the backdrop for a June 11 meeting where architects presented renderings and master-plan ideas for an all new walking street, where trees supplant chrome poles and where cruise ships dock where Bali Hai Pier is now.

 

Full story: https://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattaya-revives-25-year-battle-to-demolish-walking-street-303891

 

-- © Copyright Pattaya Mail 2020-06-14

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[jomtienisgood]

21 hours ago, redwood1 said:

They seem to hate trees,shrubs,grass anything green....They also seem to dislike fountains.........They also dislike any kind of sitting areas or areas where people can congregate like open grassy areas.....

 

They seem to like that sterile barren stark concrete look...

That is to prevent Virusses... 5555555 LOL

 

[brianthainess]

19 hours ago, GlassWayOverHalfFull said:

With the right planning

And this ain't it.

[steven100]

so where are the ladyboys going to sit ...

[brianthainess]

In these pics They forgot to draw the wheel chairs and other disabled people stuck at the bottom of that huge staircase.  Trust In Thailand init

[DaveE13]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

so where are the ladyboys going to sit ...

On someone's lap

[Geoffggi]

Why not turn it into an attraction instead of destroying everything, make it an attraction "The old & the New" 

[Kerryd]

"25 year battle" ? 

Thought it was going before that but back in the early-mid 90s I wouldn't have paid much attention to anything that wasn't wearing shorty-short shorts and a smile.

I think there's 2 or 3 more English language media in Pattaya that haven't copy/pasted the same story yet so expect to see the same thing a couple more times.

TAT has done a better job at wiping out Walking Street than then city has ever been able to do. All TAT had to do was start ignoring Western tourists with their travel promotions and concentrate on Indian and Chinese tourism promotions instead. 

Somewhere, someone decided that having far fewer "2 week millionaires" could be made up by hordes of "Zero dollar tour groups" and that as long as the "Arrival" numbers went up, it didn't matter if the economy was taking a hit and local business (and the 10s of thousands of people they employ) were suffering.

There used to be a distinct "high" season and "low" season every year. From what my friends (Thai business owners) were telling me before the covid crisis, "High" season wasn't any different than "Low" season anymore because there were fewer "2 week millionaires" flooding the place with cash from October to April.
And not just in the bars.
Hotels, restaurants, clothing shops, gold shops, tourist attractions and so on all made beaucoup dollars which, for many of them, was needed to carry them through the next "Low" season.

People usually forget (or just don't know) that a lot of the hotel and mall and condo projects were planned and funded back during the days when seeing a Chinese tour group on Walking Street was so rare that people would stop and stare at them.
But projects like that can take 10(+) years from "concept to opening". A lot projects were started when the money was flowing like water out of the sewers during a rain storm, but weren't completed until after the flow dropped to a trickle. Or were just abandoned altogether.

Many that were completed have sat empty (or nearly so) since they were built. Look at the shophouse complex across from Big C in South Pattaya. I remember watching it being built over 10 years ago. It appears that nearly half the units are still empty.
We used to laugh when tour buses would pull up in front of the bar and let out hordes of Chinese tourists who were "allowed" to shop in Big C for an hour before getting back on the bus and going somewhere else. They eventually stopped as people started blocking the area the buses were using to turn and park in (plus I'm guessing the "tourists" weren't impressed with what Big C had to offer as far as shopping was concerned). 

And unfortunately, none of that is going to change as long as the current junta continues to rule. Tourists will start coming back, slowly, but they will be the same "spend almost nothing locally" types that were the cause of concern long before the covid crisis.

And if people think all those tourists are coming to Pattaya for the beach and the chance to shop at Big C, they are sadly mistaken.

Which reminds me - I'm off to Big C myself ! Hopefully before it starts pouring rain again !

[Gandtee]

33 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

"25 year battle" ? 

Thought it was going before that but back in the early-mid 90s I wouldn't have paid much attention to anything that wasn't wearing shorty-short shorts and a smile.

I think there's 2 or 3 more English language media in Pattaya that haven't copy/pasted the same story yet so expect to see the same thing a couple more times.

TAT has done a better job at wiping out Walking Street than then city has ever been able to do. All TAT had to do was start ignoring Western tourists with their travel promotions and concentrate on Indian and Chinese tourism promotions instead. 

Somewhere, someone decided that having far fewer "2 week millionaires" could be made up by hordes of "Zero dollar tour groups" and that as long as the "Arrival" numbers went up, it didn't matter if the economy was taking a hit and local business (and the 10s of thousands of people they employ) were suffering.

There used to be a distinct "high" season and "low" season every year. From what my friends (Thai business owners) were telling me before the covid crisis, "High" season wasn't any different than "Low" season anymore because there were fewer "2 week millionaires" flooding the place with cash from October to April.
And not just in the bars.
Hotels, restaurants, clothing shops, gold shops, tourist attractions and so on all made beaucoup dollars which, for many of them, was needed to carry them through the next "Low" season.

People usually forget (or just don't know) that a lot of the hotel and mall and condo projects were planned and funded back during the days when seeing a Chinese tour group on Walking Street was so rare that people would stop and stare at them.
But projects like that can take 10(+) years from "concept to opening". A lot projects were started when the money was flowing like water out of the sewers during a rain storm, but weren't completed until after the flow dropped to a trickle. Or were just abandoned altogether.

Many that were completed have sat empty (or nearly so) since they were built. Look at the shophouse complex across from Big C in South Pattaya. I remember watching it being built over 10 years ago. It appears that nearly half the units are still empty.
We used to laugh when tour buses would pull up in front of the bar and let out hordes of Chinese tourists who were "allowed" to shop in Big C for an hour before getting back on the bus and going somewhere else. They eventually stopped as people started blocking the area the buses were using to turn and park in (plus I'm guessing the "tourists" weren't impressed with what Big C had to offer as far as shopping was concerned). 

And unfortunately, none of that is going to change as long as the current junta continues to rule. Tourists will start coming back, slowly, but they will be the same "spend almost nothing locally" types that were the cause of concern long before the covid crisis.

And if people think all those tourists are coming to Pattaya for the beach and the chance to shop at Big C, they are sadly mistaken.

Which reminds me - I'm off to Big C myself ! Hopefully before it starts pouring rain again !

Get me a loaf of crusty bread while you are there. Don't let the rain get on it.