Pattaya: Grim picture for future of resort as post pandemic optimism dries up

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Pattaya: Grim picture for future of resort as post pandemic optimism dries up

 

Picture: Sophon Cable TV

 

Any optimism that traders in Pattaya felt after lockdown measures were eased and domestic tourists started travelling again at weekends has now almost completely dried up. 

 

Sophon Cable TV published a grim report on Facebook that gave no hope for Pattaya whatsoever. 

 

They said that there were for sale, rent  and lease signs everywhere. 

 

Beer bars, pubs, massage parlors, hotels, spas, discos - you name it, they were all shutting up shop. Even those who were persevering and hoping for an improvement in a few months were holding out little hope and were predicting more misery.

 

Picture: Sophon Cable TV

 

Sophon spoke to three different kinds of businesspeople who all had similar stories and who all were affected by the complete lack of foreign tourists in Pattaya. 

 

Oot Kaesuwan said he had been in the bar beer business for 20 years and owned three.

 

All his businesses were shut. He was lucky that landlords were not taking rent but others were not so lucky. He said the government had provided some help to him but he was most concerned for his staff who had no income for their families. 

 

Wirasak Chayeng owns a souvenir shop in the once thriving Walking Street area. He said that most of the people there had just shut as they couldn't meet overheads. Some landlords were helping but not all. 

 

Picture: Sophon Cable TV

 

He said he was playing a waiting game but accepted that if there was not an improvement in three months it was "every man for himself". 

 

He urged the tourism authorities to promote Pattaya with festivals and events to draw in domestic tourists on Fridays to Sundays. 

 

But he predicted that by year end even those traders with financial resources to stay open would be gone. 

 

Picture: Sophon Cable TV

 

Premrudee Sae-kow the owner of a seafood restaurant said that attempts to diversify with some sales of food out front of her establishment and provide 100-200 baht for her staff had failed. 

 

There were just no customers.

 

She said she had no idea what to do next and predicted that even big businesses would be deserting Pattaya soon leaving it completely deserted. 

 

Source: Sophon Cable TV

 

 

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[RandolphGB]

There are lots in Pattaya, including many bar owners on certain Sois, who deserve this. Others less so.  

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, RandolphGB said:

There are lots in Pattaya, including many bar owners on certain Sois, who deserve this. Others less so.  

A bit harsh.....

It is all sad really.... but I share your lack of sympathy for the property owners who will not give businesses a break on exorbitant rents.

[Oldie]

If I look at the many open air bars - they are just very simple and cheap constructions. If they go bust not much investment is lost. It is a different story for hotels and shopping malls for instance. Here also the banks might suffer. 

[chrisandsu]

A lot of people’s life savings are going up in smoke . It’s almost like the banks are waiting to take property and goods and will only be too happy to reset everybody to zero so they can come back to the banks and get even more debt to start up again. None of this makes any sense !

[BritManToo]

8 minutes ago, chrisandsu said:

A lot of people’s life savings are going up in smoke . It’s almost like the banks are waiting to take property and goods and will only be too happy to reset everybody to zero so they can come back to the banks and get even more debt to start up again. None of this makes any sense !

Most people with loans don't own anything for the banks to take.

IMHO Banks are just as likely to fail as any other business.

I really don't expect tourism to be profitable again in the near (5-10 years) future.

Lock-downs and border closures look like lasting for the rest of my life.

 

I'm really not optimistic for any miracle vaccine to solve the world's problems.

And as far as I can see, most governments seem to be enjoying their new found powers of oppression.

[chrisandsu]

11 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Most people with loans don't own anything for the banks to take.

IMHO Banks are just as likely to fail as any other business.

I really don't expect tourism to be profitable again in the near (5-10 years) future.

Lock-downs and border closures look like lasting for the rest of my life.

 

I'm really not optimistic for any miracle vaccine to solve the world's problems.

And as far as I can see, most governments seem to be enjoying their new found powers of oppression.

Indentured servitude is on its way . You are most likely right that banks are going to fail but I’m sure there are some financial institutes that are going to prosper . I said it 6 months ago that the fall out will kill more people then the actual virus . I get no pleasure in being right 

[Scooby and Puppy]

I wonder if the golf courses will lower their green fees?  Does anyone know? Compared to Korat area, Pattaya golf is expensive even for average courses.. 

As for bars, clubs etc., I feel sorry for the workers, for sure, but i don't miss the scams they try on tourists when everything is rosy. Because there was always another mug to rip off coming along. But now there isn't. 
I believe westerners won't return in such large numbers when it starts to recover. It's just too expensive compared to up and coming rivals like  Vietnam, Cambodia, even Philippines.

 

 

[sweatalot]

It's a tragedy. I still wonder if the situation wouldn't be better without all that covid restrictions.

And don't come with a calculated terrible number of deaths withoud comparing to the normal number of deaths in the same time. What's better in the bigger picture: a short time rise of deaths or a future without small business and middle class - everybody dependant on big brothers?

Mankind has survived the plague and cholera. They would also survive covid 19

[bkk6060]

4 minutes ago, Scooby and Puppy said:

I wonder if the golf courses will lower their green fees?

They are 1/2 of normal at the courses I play In Pattaya.

A few offering senior rates that did not before.

Burapha for example is 1250 b GF, caddie, cart.

[Scooby and Puppy]

To Pattaya farangs...

Are the Malls, like Mike Mall, still up and running? Or is it a complete ghost town?

We like to pop down for 4 or 5 days now and again from Korat city for a little break. But haven't been down there since January. Is it still worth a 4 hour drive down, or not?

I always read about the doom and gloom, but is it completely wiped out?

Asking for a friend...????????.

[bkk6060]

7 minutes ago, Scooby and Puppy said:

To Pattaya farangs...

Are the Malls, like Mike Mall, still up and running?

Yes they are open although not busy.

Enough massage shops and restaurants to enjoy.

If a person does not like the typical crowds, traffic and people then come.

[utalkin2me]

32 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Most people with loans don't own anything for the banks to take.

IMHO Banks are just as likely to fail as any other business.

I really don't expect tourism to be profitable again in the near (5-10 years) future.

Lock-downs and border closures look like lasting for the rest of my life.

 

I'm really not optimistic for any miracle vaccine to solve the world's problems.

And as far as I can see, most governments seem to be enjoying their new found powers of oppression.

This is going to be the problem worldwide in the future. In Thailand government regulation is not so bad, just an envelope to someone. In other countries it is already difficult to operate with government regulations under normal circumstances. It is going to get so much worse. Can anyone imagine opening a restaurant in the near future for example? Goverment is getting so much more involved (bigger) everywhere, and we will all suffer via higher prices and worse services as a result, unfortunately. 

[Walker88]

If I was the Economics or Finance Minister of Thailand I would have trouble sleeping at night.

 

In my mind would be graphs of the rise in debt---corporate and household---over the last ten years, bank exposure, and the likelihood that asset prices (otherwise known as collateral for all those bank loans) are under pressure.

 

In Bangkok one can see billboards advertising 50% price cuts on under-construction condos by major developers. Not good. Real estate prices are set on the margin, which means prices are set by the weakest hands, which is to say those with the most leverage. Those with less leverage (if these aren't unicorns) are still going to feel it, because real estate is a wasting asset. Even if one is debt free, there are still property taxes and maintenance costs, so a building with no tenant or one in arrears still has a cash outflow.

 

Leveraged owners with no tenants (businesses gone bust) will be turning the keys over to banks, and banks are not going to want to own a huge portfolio of real estate. They will want to sell it.

 

The govt had introduced debt amnesty, but that has expired. The debt didn't go away, of course, but borrowers were allowed to skip payments and banks did not have to account for the lack of incoming debt servicing. Yesterday an official said it might be time to put this debt moratorium back on, which is to say, "Let's kick the can down the road again, because there is no other way to deal with it".

 

I have seen some commentary that 'this isn't as bad as 1997'. I question that, as it is not only an entirely different problem, it is also worldwide, not just regional like 1997. Yes, there are likely to be bargains galore in property, but timing will be critical. Buying something down 50% looks good until its price is down 75%.

 

Thailand does have a decent pile of foreign reserves. I suspect it is going to have to go to that well, and soon, if it insists on maintaining the same level of vigilance against the virus by keeping the borders closed. Absent some return to normalcy, the banking system's capital cushion is going to be under pressure in the next few months as more businesses fail and leveraged borrowers---even homeowners who put zero down on that new car---feel the pain of economic decline. Banks are increasingly likely to need some sort of bailout. Accounting rules can be changed, by mathematics is the Sword of Damocles that cannot be denied.

 

This article is about Pattaya, because the pain hits it first and hardest owing to its dependence on foreign tourism. The wider Thai economy is hardly any more immune to Covid-driven decline. Some truly difficult decisions are coming.

[Oldie]

35 minutes ago, Scooby and Puppy said:

To Pattaya farangs...

Are the Malls, like Mike Mall, still up and running? Or is it a complete ghost town?

We like to pop down for 4 or 5 days now and again from Korat city for a little break. But haven't been down there since January. Is it still worth a 4 hour drive down, or not?

I always read about the doom and gloom, but is it completely wiped out?

Asking for a friend...????????.

The malls are still open. You also can sit on the beach. Is there anything else that motivates you to come here? 

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, chrisandsu said:

Indentured servitude is on its way . You are most likely right that banks are going to fail but I’m sure there are some financial institutes that are going to prosper . I said it 6 months ago that the fall out will kill more people then the actual virus . I get no pleasure in being right 

And when employment does start to return ( when )? tax rates will be on every gov's minds. Got to get back all that money we spent on you somehow.

[bert bloggs]

44 minutes ago, Scooby and Puppy said:

To Pattaya farangs...

Are the Malls, like Mike Mall, still up and running? Or is it a complete ghost town?

We like to pop down for 4 or 5 days now and again from Korat city for a little break. But haven't been down there since January. Is it still worth a 4 hour drive down, or not?

I always read about the doom and gloom, but is it completely wiped out?

Asking for a friend...????????.

The wife and i went into Mike Mall for the first time in ages last Friday ,i think we were the only two in there (apart from staff) the malls are open and this weekend it was busy ,but  honestly Pattaya is so quiet ,so sorry for the workers who have lost their jobs ,but for us residents its nice not to have masses of traffic ,luckily our son runs an import /export company and they are busy ,

[chrisandsu]

47 minutes ago, overherebc said:

And when employment does start to return ( when )? tax rates will be on every gov's minds. Got to get back all that money we spent on you somehow.

If things carry on down this path  there is no unemployment in full scale war ! The world is starting to scare me at the moment to be perfectly honest .

[Rimmer]

Troll post removed

[overherebc]

5 minutes ago, chrisandsu said:

If things carry on down this path  there is no unemployment in full scale war ! The world is starting to scare me at the moment to be perfectly honest .

People don't believe me when I say the reason I never had or wanted kids, ex was of the same mind, because I really didn't want to bring kids into this world and I'm talking about 40+ years ago. The mess this world is in now has, for me anyway, proved I'm right.

Over populated, over polluted and heading for deep doo-doo in a hand cart. All countries in the same cart.

[JusticeGB]

I know quite a few people who own their buildings with a restaurant downstairs who just live upstairs because there are not enough customers to make it worth their while to open the restaurant. Greedy landlords are not giving rebates on rent so soon rented premises will be closed for good. It will take years for Pattaya to recover. Pattaya will need to diversify away from just relying on tourism or it will die.

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, bert bloggs said:

The wife and i went into Mike Mall for the first time in ages last Friday ,i think we were the only two in there (apart from staff) the malls are open and this weekend it was busy ,but  honestly Pattaya is so quiet ,so sorry for the workers who have lost their jobs ,but for us residents its nice not to have masses of traffic ,luckily our son runs an import /export company and they are busy ,

Big-CX was quite busy, and loads of traffic on the roads. Too many shopping places in Pattaya now.

[petermik]

9 hours ago, Oldie said:

The malls are still open. You also can sit on the beach. Is there anything else that motivates you to come here? 

Some very good dentist,s here also.............

[Timwin]

Restaurant business is cruel and the margins are usually quite thin. Even 5-10 percent drop in traffic per month could mean closure in normal times and now we are talking about 80-90 percent down. Thais just do have the buying power and prefer home cooked meals or street food anyway.

[sahibji]

recovery will be gradual as it is dependent on tourism and hence on the virus situation in the guest countries. every country is opening up with maximum caution to minimise the spread of the second wave. 

[sahibji]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

Some very good dentist,s here also.............

dentists are the last people you want to go to ( unless critical ) in this uncertain environment and related potential of infection.

[Xonax]

5 hours ago, Oldie said:

If I look at the many open air bars - they are just very simple and cheap constructions. If they go bust not much investment is lost. It is a different story for hotels and shopping malls for instance. Here also the banks might suffer. 

In Pattaya, even a simple shack has a huge million Baht pricetag, if it has proven to be able to generate money from foreign tourists. The real problem for Pattaya is, that the domestic tourists are not intested in Beer bars, Go-go bars, pubs, massage parlors, spas, discos - you name it. And I certainly don´t feel sorry for the large investors, who have invested in hundreds of condos, in order to illegaly rent them out on airbnb.

[Huckenfell]

4 hours ago, chrisandsu said:

A lot of people’s life savings are going up in smoke . It’s almost like the banks are waiting to take property and goods and will only be too happy to reset everybody to zero so they can come back to the banks and get even more debt to start up again. None of this makes any sense !

So in your wisdom, what do you suggest should be done.

[yellowboat]

90day extendable visas = ???? 

Or watch Vietnam pass you by. 

[Kaopad999]

Tourism as we once knew it was already on the decline before this Covid situation. So, even if it bounces back to some sort of "normality", it still won't be enough to bring it back to how it used to be.

Sadly, the majority of these businesses were already set to fail, but the current situation has just sped up the process. 
Thailand has been undergoing a massive change for the past 4-5 years and will continue to do so, with or without Covid.