Pattaya’s Walking Street. Will it return to high rents and high heels?

[webfact]

Pattaya’s Walking Street. Will it return to high rents and high heels?

By Tim Newton

 

 

Now that Pattaya’s infamous Walking Street is open to traffic along with parking for the first time in many, many years, what’s next?

 

Thai officials and the local constabulary have long had a love-hate relationship with the red light district. It has attracted tourists but perhaps to the tourists the bosses in Bangkok were hoping for. It was a hive of lawless rents, sub-leases, sub-sub-leases and graft. Whilst police turned a blind eye to much of the illegal activities along the strip, they were happy to profit from kick-backs, “security” and tea money.

 

Now the Pattaya Mayor Sonthaya Khunplume says the local council wants to “reboot” Walking Street. There is no secret that the Thai government have wanted to re-invent Pattaya as a world class family destination, something quite different to what Pattaya has been famous for since WW2, the Korean and Vietnam wars – as a place of recreation for young men seeking “pleasures of the flesh”.

 

But now that Thailand’s borders remain closed to foreign tourists, and many of the feeder markets are not allowing their citizens to travel anyway, Pattaya City officials have decided to temporarily “make over” Walking Street. But many of the shop owners, renters and bar girls are wondering if “temporary” might become “permanent” even when the flood gates are opened and tourists start flocking back?

 

But even if Walking Street (with less ‘walking’ and more ‘parking’) is gentrified, there are plenty of other Sois in Pattaya where the the red light life is alive and well, and away from the high-rent, high-yield Walking Street real estate.

 

The Pattaya News reports that the opening to traffic and allowing parking is just Phase 1 of the make over. Pattaya Police are so far putting a brave face on the early days of Walking Street 2.0 and say that the plan has been “smooth”. Baht buses and taxis have been instructed not to “loiter or wait for customers”… you know the way the girls did in the past.

 

Phase 2 includes encouraging street vendors and other types of market vendors to directly park and set up shop on the street, with a focus on products and services that appeal to Thai customers. As most of the potential tourists, for now, are mostly Thais, this makes sense although it sounds much like a thousand other streets already doing the same thing around Thailand.

 

Part of the plan will encourage tourists returning from day-trips to Koh Larn and nearby islands to be taken to browse Walking Street for dinner, snacks, nik naks and local souvenirs. And dodge the traffic whilst they’re at it (or are they going to rename the street?)

 

The council is also organising street festivals, again aimed at domestic tourists. No dates have been announced for these events but the City is eager to draw tourists back ASAP as many of the local businesses have been suffering since the end of March.

 

Meanwhile, council officials are working with local business owners to get them to re-open their shops to make the street more tourist-friendly and worth visiting. Some of the more entrepreneurial businesses have already changed up their business model to be more ‘Thai friendly’. Gogos and discos that previously did not allow Thai customers (did someone mention discrimination?), especially transgender and Thai men, have been forced to change their policies. Adapt or die.

 

So the two litmus tests will be, firstly, whether the new-look Walking Street (with less walking and more durian) will attract the Thais from Bangkok and nearby provinces. And, secondly, will it revert to the ‘good old days’ when the borders open to the world and the young and restless, and mostly male, tourists again flock to Sin City.

 

There will be a push from “those that have a say” in Bangkok to keep Walking Street a beacon of family values into the future, but the likelihood is that the baht will overrule and the high rents and high heels will be back again soon.

 

 

 

Source: https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/expats/pattayas-walking-street-will-it-return-to-high-rents-and-high-heels

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2020-08-12

 

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

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[OZinPattaya]

This is the age-old delusion of turning Pattaya into Disneyland. Someone might want to remind the high-so officials that if people wanted Disneyland, they'd go to Disneyland. They come to Pattaya precisely because it's NOT Disneyland. THAT is what makes Pattaya unique. Sanitize that, and at best you're left with a pale and hopelessly under-funded reflection of a thousand other places on this earth that are easier to get to, cheaper, more hospitable, and far more cleverly developed.

[epicking]

LOL "and many of the feeder markets are not allowing their citizens to travel" ..... or rather Thailand are not letting Turist go there with being in Government quarantine their whole vacation.

[RichardColeman]

40 minutes ago, webfact said:

Adapt or die.

Re-open airports or die would be more appropriate 

[scubascuba3]

Looks like they are <deleted> it up. They can't even sort out drainage, no chance getting walking st right

[rasmus5150]

Pattaya without Walking Street and "trade-of-the-flesh", is like Disneyland without Mickey Mouse.

 

Who in their right mind goes to Disneyland without "hugging" Mickey ? ????

[ezzra]

Poor attempt to reinvent the wheel and to something out of nothing, the only way this street will come back to life is when things will go back normal way past covid, for now without tourists, nothing will work...

[Justgrazing]

Dudes on the right of bottom pic' 

" She's about to pop out of that Leopard top " 

 

" Yea I've spotted that " ..

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

place of recreation for young men seeking “pleasures of the flesh”.

and then for some the pain of the subscriber trunk dialing clinic not long after .. 

[greenbottle555]

This doesn't mean anything. Of course they are going to re-adapt the layout of walking street to meet the "new-reality" market brought about by copid19. Would anyone expect them to behave as though it weren't happening? I suppose maybe some very hopeful monger wishes this was all open and operating just as before so he could be like one of 5 guys in on walking street 5555.

 

So yes, they are going to park vans on the street and turn it into a rot fai night market as to better adapt to Thai local, and later Chinese tourists tastes and to address those market needs. When the tourist numbers increase back to capacity they will get rid of the parked cars/vans selling trinkets as that does not scale well.

 

 

There are no decent news sources about if walking street will remain the same or change, just speculation. Show me some real sources, in Thai language (which I can read/translate) and I will tell you what's up. As for now, some random anonymous blogger doesn't know diddly monkey squat. There is another blog way better than thaiger maintained by an expat in Pattaya who also speaks/reads Thai and has verfiied sources on the ground in Pattaya, look him up (thepattayanews). He isn't some anonymous diddler either.

[Fex Bluse]

14 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

Dudes on the right of bottom pic' 

" She's about to pop out of that Leopard top " 

 

" Yea I've spotted that " ..

 

and then for some the pain of the subscriber trunk dialing clinic not long after .. 

Yes, HE is about to pop out of it. ????

[tribalfusion001]

Walking Street will become driving through street, the go go bars/beer bars will either go bust or move around LK Metro area. The clubs will probably be ok with a few beer beers/go go bars dotted around, plus more restaurants and BBQ places.

[impulse]

1 hour ago, OZinPattaya said:

This is the age-old delusion of turning Pattaya into Disneyland. Someone might want to remind the high-so officials that if people wanted Disneyland, they'd go to Disneyland. They come to Pattaya precisely because it's NOT Disneyland. THAT is what makes Pattaya unique. Sanitize that, and at best you're left with a pale and hopelessly under-funded reflection of a thousand other places on this earth that are easier to get to, cheaper, more hospitable, and far more cleverly developed.

 

Yeah.  Because pimping out your nation's daughters to foreigners is such a great way to get the GDP up. 

 

Covid is an opportunity to hit the reset button.  Because there will be suffering no matter what they do.  The question is, how do they want to come out the other side?  The world's sperm receptacle?

 

[baansgr]

Return to high rents??? Have they reduced them?...WS was in dire straights befor Covid. A very popular bar was for sale at 600k late last year befor Covid...that same bar only two years ago commanded and sold at a price just over 6 Million....It became exactly as it's a name... A place to walk and look while supping a pepsi from 7/11.....even the larger well know bars may have been full but mostly with freelancers that may buy one drink, the ratio of partying drinking foreigners to freelancers wasn't exactly high.

[spiekerjozef]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Pattaya has been famous for since WW2, the Korean and Vietnam wars - as a place of recreation for young men seeking “pleasures of the flesh”.

Since when turned these young men into old farts ?

[scammed]

cars has no business on ws in the evening

[Destiny1990]

Rename it into Parking-Street !

[mr mr]

all the old punters scrambling now that their sandbox has been paved over. maybe you can reminisce about the 14 dollar samui bamboo hut days ? 

 

you had to know it was coming ?? the largest open air brothel on the planet isn't something modern day thailand wants to be known for. 

 

 

[Pravda]

1 hour ago, rasmus5150 said:

Pattaya without Walking Street and "trade-of-the-flesh", is like Disneyland without Mickey Mouse.

 

Who in their right mind goes to Disneyland without "hugging" Mickey ? ????

 

Times change. 

 

These days you go to Disneyland to hug Darth Vader. 

 

Same in Pattaya. 

[scammed]

7 minutes ago, mr mr said:

all the old punters scrambling now that their sandbox has been paved over. maybe you can reminisce about the 14 dollar samui bamboo hut days ? 

 

you had to know it was coming ?? the largest open air brothel on the planet isn't something modern day thailand wants to be known for. 

 

 

thailand will remain the worlds biggest brothel even if pattaya is burned to the ground and no foreigner is allowed to stay or enter

[baansgr]

4 minutes ago, scammed said:

thailand will remain the worlds biggest brothel even if pattaya is burned to the ground and no foreigner is allowed to stay or enter

Correct..even nakon nowhere has its fair share of karoakes

[mr mr]

5 minutes ago, scammed said:

thailand will remain the worlds biggest brothel even if pattaya is burned to the ground and no foreigner is allowed to stay or enter

i didn't say it wouldn't. i am talking about the open air meat market that is walking street pattaya. try and keep up. 

[Kerryd]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Gogos and discos that previously did not allow Thai customers (did someone mention discrimination?)

BS. It wasn't about discrimination. The go-gos wouldn't admit Thai men (alone or in groups) to try and prevent undercover cops from seeing what was going on inside the go-gos. I used to go with Thai friends and most places would let them in as long as they were with a foreigner (though a couple times they were temporarily held up).
 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Phase 2 includes encouraging street vendors and other types of market vendors to directly park and set up shop on the street

So the great plan is to let traffic flow down the street and then fill the street with street vendors, reducing the traffic (vehicle and foot) to a crawl and making it just another soi like almost every other soi in the city.

Wow. Awesome. Can't wait to not got there. I can get the same on half a dozen sois where I am and that's on the Darkside. Pretty much every soi in Pattaya itself is already like that already.

But if their long range plan is to choke off Walking Street and hope that the actual land owners finally give up and sell, then maybe this will be a good start.

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, Fex Bluse said:

Yes, HE is about to pop out of it. ????

Those puppies are rock solid and going nowhere!

[ChrisY1]

Squatters and soi dogs.....!

Another 6 months of nothing will decimate all tourism business here....!

[Matzzon]

No, it will never be back to same again. Sadly, because it has been a part of Thailand that has provided food on the table for many Thai families as well as a great travel destination for many tourists.

[steven100]

They want walking street to be for the family, not sex p_issheads and old farang looking for one thing.

I seriously doubt that income from families will be sufficient to support any business that is game enough to set up shop along the walkway.  

This will be a dead loss,  who the heck is going to open a bar anywhere near there if it's only mom, pop & the kids.  Even opening a restaurant would be suicide as there won't be enough customers to keep the business afloat let alone make a profit. 

You can either leave it alone and get some s_xpats back or spend some cash and make an upgrade to the whole setup, upmarket bars and eateries  ....  but whatever happens, unless it stays as a red light area for flesh, it will surely fail.   imo

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Justgrazing said:

Dudes on the right of bottom pic' 

" She's about to pop out of that Leopard top " 

" Yea I've spotted that " ..

"He doesn't know it's a bloke"

Is a more fitting subtitle.

[jacko45k]

2 minutes ago, steven100 said:

but whatever happens, unless it stays as a red light area for flesh, it will surely fail.   imo

Doubt tat markets, restaurants and whatever they come up with can afford the rent and millions in key money the landlords have got used to.

[BritManToo]

Just now, steven100 said:

They want walking street to be for the family, not sex p_issheads and old farang looking for one thing.

I seriously doubt that income from families will be sufficient to support any business that is game enough to set up shop along the walkway.  

I think if I were a bar owner, I'd be walking away from the 85k/month rent.

[bbbbooboo]

3 hours ago, OZinPattaya said:

This is the age-old delusion of turning Pattaya into Disneyland. Someone might want to remind the high-so officials that if people wanted Disneyland, they'd go to Disneyland. They come to Pattaya precisely because it's NOT Disneyland. THAT is what makes Pattaya unique. Sanitize that, and at best you're left with a pale and hopelessly under-funded reflection of a thousand other places on this earth that are easier to get to, cheaper, more hospitable, and far more cleverly developed.

I agree