Hi ..As the title says what is your best guess when  Pattaya will be re-opening  and why ?

I will start :-   Pattaya will not be re-open FOR international tourist this year and to be honest will struggle to open in the first quarter of 2022.

 

Why  :-   the massive increase and upward trend of Covid infection (all variants) and the sad increase of the daily  death count.  and also the failure of there abysmal nationwide vaccination program  roll out .  

 

I can see rolling shutdowns happening for atleast another 12 months.. I reckon 2nd quarter 2023.

Yes agreed, and i think it will be late 2022 before it gets back to anything like normal.

sandboxes can be reasonable easy done on island with airports, but experimenting with a largish city like pattaya and close to 12mln metropolis, is just too risky even to think off.

in face of the looming 4th wave, not a chance for opening in October. They have thought that one jab would be sufficient to protect, now it's talk about 3 vaccinations - and that is an impossible task for thailand, will take over 1 year

this time next year. 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Joinaman said:

how many actually care ?

 

The many thousands of Thais who depend upon it for their livelihoods - you know, things like food and keeping a roof over their head.  Happy now?

I think it will be late 2022 before Pattaya / Thailand opens up to (vaccinated) visitors. I imagine that by then everyone who will want to be vaccinated (both in Thailand and in Europe / North America / Aus + NZ) will have been vaccinated already and that by then, most countries (possibly Aus + NZ aside) will have made the decision to learn to live with Covid.

 

Another 18 months to wait to get back to Pattaya.....geez, that seems like a lifetime to wait!

 

It won’t ever fully reopen and recover

Hi everyone.  New (ish) to this forum, but lived in Thailand for a number of years, just outside the City of Pattaya.  My uninformed take is that it will never return to what it was pre covid. Yes, some things will re open, some bars and some of the ex shop owners will re appear, but by no means all.  Some of the ladies presently plying their trade online will continue to do so and not return to the old bar scene, or indeed the FL way of making a living, online is too easy for them. Number of restaurants will be half what it was and investment in new hotels and condos wills stop for many years.  From my selfish point of view, that makes it a much better prospect for the future and as nicer place to live.  As I say, largely uninformed, apart from talking to some locals about how they see it.  

2 minutes ago, sucit said:

It won’t ever fully reopen and recover

i have lived in Hua Hin for seven years and all the really great new businesses that came along in that time, especially ones that were catering to farangs have been wiped out. 

 

even Bluport mall with a Gourmet Market is struggling with half their floors being closed since the first lockdown. 

 

so i am thinking at least least 5 years before enough tourists return to justify rebuilding.  

 

They are already talking booster shots for variants in the US.  Here only what 4 million vaccinated?  By the time more are vaccinated other variants will show up.

I hate to think but,  it all seems an indefinite revolving door to no where.

September 2021

7 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

They are already talking booster shots for variants in the US.  Here only what 4 million vaccinated?  By the time more are vaccinated other variants will show up.

I hate to think but,  it all seems an indefinite revolving door to no where.

I wonder how many 'booster shots' people will need in the coming years before they ( and their bodies) say enough already? 

The government only has itself to blame for the mess it's in now. Back in February/March they could have imposed similar restrictions nationwide to those that worked a year ago, but for whatever reason they just weren't paying attention or taking things seriously and so they allowed the Great Songkran Travel Disaster to happen, and the rest, as they say, is history. They also seem to have been asleep on the job when it came to securing adequate vaccine supplies, but that's a common theme in many, if not most, East Asian countries. The problem has been compounded here by the usual corruption and embezzlement, but a friend told me that something similar is happening in the Philippines, so again Thailand is not unique in its problems. And, of course, Pattaya probably has the most corrupt and inept management of any large city in the country, which won't surprise anybody who's been here for long enough and is aware of the background story. The problem is, though, that all these powerful crooks only care about one thing, and it's not the health and well-being of the general public, so if they see a personal monetary advantage to reopening Pattaya as planned in two months time I suspect that they're just going to go ahead and do it, regardless of who's had a vaccine or how many might fall ill or die as a result. The only thing that will stop their plans is if the virus gets completely out of control in Pattaya, but would that be any better for us unvaccinated expats than reopening as planned?

At the current rate of the VAX rollout (2 doses) my best estimate is that everyone in country will be fully vaccinated within two years from now.

 

So normality shall resume immediately after the last man or woman has had their shot.

Do you live in this as you say dump Joinaman ?

5 minutes ago, Pravda said:

September 2021

Keep up with the forum people.  Pattaya Mayor already gave the answer 2 days ago...end of speculation. 

Might as well close this thread now

????

Peace

 

by the way, anyone living in Pattaya who has never been to Hua Hin before covid, it is just like how Pattaya is now. 

1 hour ago, Joinaman said:

how many actually care ?

how many of the millions of Thais even bother to go to this dump ?

 

The place gets rammed on the weekends with Bangkok plated cars so I reckon a few come visit this "dump".

Just now, Ralf001 said:

The place gets rammed on the weekends with Bangkok plated cars so I reckon a few come visit this "dump".

Pattaya businesses are presumably grateful for domestic tourism.  It will be interesting to see if the new restrictions put a stop to it.

10 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

by the way, anyone living in Pattaya who has never been to Hua Hin before covid, it is just like how Pattaya is now. 

Bit less “talent” there though, no?  

3 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Pattaya businesses are presumably grateful for domestic tourism.  It will be interesting to see if the new restrictions put a stop to it.

With the added restrictions to Bangkok I can only see more and more of them coming here..... and bringing their restrictions with them.

 

In my little village there would be 20 houses that have been empty for months and months... Over the past week the for rent/sales signs have been coming down with a BKK plated car parked in the driveway.

Late 2022, I hope. We don't want foreign tourists coming this year, especially this type. 

9 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

In my little village there would be 20 houses that have been empty for months and months... Over the past week the for rent/sales signs have been coming down with a BKK plated car parked in the driveway.

By how much do you think house prices have fallen? I'd like to buy one soon. 

1 minute ago, Neeranam said:

By how much do you think house prices have fallen? I'd like to buy one soon. 

I doubt they have been sold, either rented out or the BKK owner has moved in.

52 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

by the way, anyone living in Pattaya who has never been to Hua Hin before covid, it is just like how Pattaya is now. 

I can confirm that

I think that Pattaya will be special again and that it will be opened partially in September (as announced by the mayor) and even more in October. Perhaps they make sandboxes in the Walking Street, Soi 6, Soi Buakhao and some beach zones or even the complete Pattaya City area to attract enough quality tourists. These quality tourists focus on the main attractions here in Pattaya and should be extremely happy especially if the entertainment venues following the Covid restrictions to the utmost (as seen before when they were allowed to operate despite Covid) will be opened too. 

 

I do not think the issue is 'when will Pattaya open to foreign tourists' the issue will be 'when will Pattaya open to normal, with unvaccinated and un-insured and un-COE' tourists.

 

People will always drift back under the harsh conditions to Pattaya. But Pattaya will continue to decline under the drip feed of those willing to to do the hoops to get there.

 

The main issue will be new variants. thailand is proving it cannot handle the delta and the health system has collapsed. Unless they invest money in health care and not military hardware, the next variant will cripple their tourism economy again with resultant knock on effects.

 

 

 

 

Pattaya will bounce back bigger than before Covid. There is too much money already invested and being invested here for it to be allowed to fail.

I believe there is a game of brinkmanship ongoing between the Government and the wealthiest of business owners in Thailand about who is going to cough up for the purchase of vaccines. The Government says it is running out of money.

An interesting article in the Business section of yesterday's BP which reported that 38 out of the top 50 wealthiest Thais have become richer in the last 15 months, some by double digit %. We are talking Dollar multi-billionaires at the top of the list, which only includes the ordinary mortals, BTW. Most of the usual suspects are raking it in, one notable exception being King Power who are down to their last $2 Billion.

4 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

The place gets rammed on the weekends with Bangkok plated cars so I reckon a few come visit this "dump".

Thanks, but I'm sure even you know that Bangkok is NOT Thailand, as much as you seem to think it is