‘Golden week’ ghost town: Thailand’s Pattaya party zone struggles with no Chinese tourists

[webfact]

‘Golden week’ ghost town: Thailand’s Pattaya party zone struggles with no Chinese tourists

Vijitra Duangdee

 

A man runs along the beach in Pattaya in Thailand’s Chonburi province. The resort city is reeling from a lack of tourists due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Photo: Xinhua

 

• Last year Thailand was second only to Japan in attracting the most Chinese golden week visitors, but coronavirus restrictions kept them away this year
• Pattaya has empty streets, closed bars, for sale signs, and its famous transgender cabaret is shut – but it is still pinning its future on Chinese cash

 

During “golden week” last year, the cash flowed at Nam Sing Bird’s Nest Restaurant in Pattaya as flush Chinese tourists  packed into the Thai party town for the big spending holiday period. 

 

But this year the restaurant – which sells bird’s nest and shark fin soups for up to US$60 a bowl – has not yet had a single customer, as the racy resort city faces its toughest times in memory with mainland Chinese visitors staying at home due to travel restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus.

 

“We made 300,000 baht (US$9,500) a day during the last golden week,” said a staff member who gave her name as Joy. “Now we haven’t had a single Chinese customer … even the ones that live here.”

 

Full story: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3104289/golden-week-ghost-town-thailands-pattaya-party-zone-struggles

 

-- © Copyright South China Morning Post 2020-10-08

 

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[steven100]

same ...same... but different. We've heard this probably 20 times over the past month i guess,  time to change the record. 

RIP  pattaya.

[watso63]

Just like an old person waiting for God remembering the good times????

[grumbleweed]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

the restaurant – which sells bird’s nest and shark fin soups

Can't hear the sharks complaining

[talahtnut]

Buckets of bat soup going cheap.

[Puchaiyank]

Pattaya needs to reinvent itself...make the sex trade a secondary income...

 

Find something else to employ your people. 

[Worldplus]

And my heart bleeds for them...

 

????????????

[GeorgeCross]

just told the wife we are going to do a stop over in Pattaya this year on our annual family visit pilgrimage.

 

normally we avoid it like the plague but this year it's stop #1 on our 'doom porn' tour!

 

 

 

[ChipButty]

17 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

Find something else to employ your people. 

Such as?

[GeorgeCross]

2 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Such as?

jaysus - the other 99.99% in thailand worked out how to feed themselves without selling their bodies i'm sure they can find someone to give them a few ideas

 

 

[ThailandRyan]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

“Now we haven’t had a single Chinese customer … even the ones that live here.”

Maybe it is because even the Chinese who are here are also getting low on funds, and then really the 2,000 baht for a bowl of soup could feed the family for a single week.  Many people do not have money to just burn, and with uncertain economic times ahead many are either fattening there wallets with the extra they may have or using it to assist others who are in need.  Guess the people whose lives depend on tourism do not understand why someone who would normally be a big spender is not spending now if they are here.  To understand the big picture they just need to look inward at there own situation and it might make them realize that Thailand is not the hub of the universe and people do not flock to there restaurant for an over priced bowl of soup. 

[jacko45k]

52 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

Pattaya needs to reinvent itself...make the sex trade a secondary income...

 

Find something else to employ your people. 

What has that got to do with the absence of the Chinese during Golden Week?

[sweatalot]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Golden week’ ghost town: Thailand’s Pattaya party zone struggles

Golden week?  Chinese?

Don't forget Pattaya had the golden year - many years when Farang used to come

and the downfall started with the plan to make it a "family resort" - Covid only gave the death blow

Edited October 8, 2020 by sweatalot

[Geoffggi]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

‘Golden week’ ghost town: Thailand’s Pattaya party zone struggles with no Chinese tourists

False news, the only places missing the Chinese are big restaurants like Nam Sing Bird’s Nest Restaurant in Pattaya where they are ferried and who mainly cater to the Chinese and their bad manners. The majority of the local shops & bars never see them. 

[eeworldwide]

Like Sodom and Gomorrah - we watch Pattaya fall.

[mikebell]

2 hours ago, talahtnut said:

Buckets of bat soup going cheap.

WOO HOO!

[fulhamster]

1 hour ago, sweatalot said:

Don't forget Pattaya had the golden year - many years when Farang used to come

and the downfall started with the plan to make it a "family resort" - Covid only gave the death blow

Pattaya was struggling well before Covid.

Mainly caused by the strength of the baht, which remains strong despite everything that has happened here.

Whenever tourists are allowed back, they will baulk at the costs.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“We made 300,000 baht (US$9,500) a day during the last golden week,” said a staff member who gave her name as Joy. “Now we haven’t had a single Chinese customer … even the ones that live here.”

Considering you sell "bird nest soup" & shark-fin soup" that's not something i'd boast about.

In fact I think it's appalling... IMHO

[BigStar]

6 hours ago, steven100 said:

same ...same... but different. We've heard this probably 20 times over the past month i guess,  time to change the record. 

RIP  pattaya.

Well, no. There's something very different here. What's shocking is how our expert TVF analysts in the Thai Tourism Sector haven't reacted with outrage at this deluded nonsense. How can all these businesses be so blind?

 

TAT: TVF, which has all the numbers, has always held that Chinese tourism brings in no money whatsoever to Thailand. That is an absolute, a given, a part of the catechism since forever. Chinese come in on the zero baht tours that were banned in 2016, spend nothing, and spend only in Chinese-owned businesses (not Thai-Chinese owned) that ship all the money back to China. They get off buses, march up and down Walking St, and get back on their buses.

 

So we need for our ace Economists to fan out and explain the truth to all these businesses caught in some sort of crazy alternative reality where TAT: TVF is full of bigoted cr.a.p and Chinese did, in fact, spend widely throughout Pattaya in hotels, restos, malls, and countless other businesses. They need to be enlightened that there never was any Chinese money going into their coffers. They just imagined it all! 

 

[Stargeezr]

I thought the Pattaya was once a fishing village, so how are the fisher men doing?

  Was coconut farming, and pine apple farming also done in the past?

Maybe agriculture could be the new future.

Geezer

[Nout]

For us who live here its great without the Chinese. The clubs on WS were full most nights till 6am.

[Benmart]

4 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Such as?

The Thai people must figure that one out.

[bert bloggs]

4 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

jaysus - the other 99.99% in thailand worked out how to feed themselves without selling their bodies i'm sure they can find someone to give them a few ideas

 

 

Most of Pattaya relied on ordinary tourists ,and even the sex tourists spent money in shops ,so ok the sex workers are not getting any cash ,but the vast majority of people that did benifit were ,restaurants ,malls ,shops etc etc,now there are no tourists, anyone in the tourist industry has left so they are not spending in the shops ,so they are also closing down and they are a far larger proportion than the small no of bar girls who by the way also spent their money in all those restaurants and shops.

[khunPer]

I've heard rumors that Pattaya might be able borrow 150 Chinese snowbirds from Phuket until the 25th this month...????

[petermik]

12 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

Pattaya needs to reinvent itself...make the sex trade a secondary income...

 

Find something else to employ your people. 

No sex trade in Pattaya...it,s a "world class family beach resort" and no prostitution in Thailand...

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

No sex trade in Pattaya...it,s a "world class family beach resort" and no prostitution in Thailand...

You really need some new material petey.....

[DrTuner]

Not missing a single one of them.

[CGW]

2 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

I thought the Pattaya was once a fishing village, so how are the fisher men doing?

About the same! it's the multitudes that have moved to Pattaya from areas that have no work that aren't doing so well! 

Edited October 8, 2020 by CGW

[Burma Bill]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

ghost town: Thailand’s Pattaya party zone

Having announced the building of a new monorail system, maybe this should be considered:-

 

[Flying Saucage]

From the full artivel in the SCMP:

 

"Mandarin language adverts offer huge discounts for property rentals and purchases."

 

“ 'Chinese investment in real estate and business continues to pour in – especially into the EEC,' said deputy mayor Ronakij."

 

"Pattaya property agents are starting to report an increase in sales as pent up demand in China finds an outlet in the city’s deflated property market, which has less red tape and the promise of higher returns than in the mainland."

 

" 'The prices in Pattaya have gone down as low as 50 per cent,' said Chinese agent Anne"

 

So, the big plan of Xi and his Thai puppets is working quite well, it seems.