Pattaya ready to open to foreign tourists on Oct 1: Mayor

[webfact]

file photo

 

Pattaya's mayor insisted that his resort was ready to welcome foreign tourists from October 1st.

 

After a meeting with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the tourism minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan, Sontaya Kumplome said Pattaya was ready to take their place in the Phase 2 reopening alongside four other areas.

 

However, in reports elsewhere in the Thai media - including comments from the TAT chief Yutthasak Suphasorn - it looks like the strongarm mayor will not get his way when the CCSA decide Pattaya's fate today.

 

Still Sontaya said that his "Move On" plan was not going to be "Move On Later On".

 

He insisted October 1st was going to happen along the lines of Phuket Sandbox maintaining uniformity in all of Thailand's reopening. 

 

He insisted a key stumbling block - 70% vaccination target - had been met. 

 

ASEAN NOW notes that Sontaya and his family are used to getting their own way. 

 

But on this occasion it looks like once again the CCSA - Thailand's main Covid authority - will slap down the mayor for another month, despite his protestations of readiness, when their small committee meets today (Wednesday).

 

Stay tuned for the latest round of conflicting news and remember that it is the all mighty Centre for Covid Situation Administration that has the final say. 

 

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[Peterw42]

Yes, I am "ready" to hook up with a supermodel and learn mandarin on Oct 1st.

Me and the mayor are both "glass half full" sort of people.

[WEBBYB808]

I guess some bar owners, "had it on good authority," like some said and thought before, they will open soon.  No way is it going to happen.   There are other variables  no one talks about, such as even if open there are not enough hospital beds for people who come and may need due to unforeseen issues, other than covid.  Hotels are not ready, only some have sent in maintenance  crews to start preparing the pipes, airconditner,  cleaning  up from the pest, and cats that have been livkng in these empty buildings  etc... the people may want and desire just out of need, but is this really a culture that plans or implements any action for a future needs?  No its a live in the moment society.

[HeijoshinCool]

.

 

D@mn....

 

Torched my place a week too soon I guess.

[mikebell]

But every one has to be home by 9pm.  Can't see many flocking to Pattaya for a long weekend of early nights ... oh!

[ezzra]

Nothing but a hot air from the wishful mayor, not so easy to just declare a place "open" willy nilly as a lot of preparations should be in place well before and not just one week or so...

[fangless]

18 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

Me and the mayor are both "glass half full" sort of people.

Yes you both maybe, but half full of what?

[smedly]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

After a meeting with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the tourism minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan, Sontaya Kumplome said Pattaya was ready to take their place in the Phase 2 reopening alongside four other areas.

so bars and nightclubs open and curfew finished - right ????????????

 

 

yeah right

[smedly]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

He insisted a key stumbling block - 70% vaccination target - had been met. 

really ?

 

is that 2x jabs or 1

[Walker88]

To paraphrase the former POTUS Bill Clinton, "it depends on what the meaning of 'open' is".

 

Open to visit, perhaps. Open to do what? Walk on the beach, maybe......shop at Central Festival until 8PM, eat an early dinner theoretically without any potent beverage, watch Netflix in the hotel before bedtime.

 

Then there might be dozens of tour buses with flag-waving leaders ushering throngs of Chinese through a closed-down, shuttered-up Walking Street. Not even worth using the pixels in their phones.

 

Long haul travelers, unless they are suffering from a hormonal rage that is driving them uncontrollably to engage in the biological imperative, are unlikely to make the 15-25 hour journey just to stay mostly locked in a hotel room in a city dark almost before last prayer or cannon.

 

I'll go out on a limb and guess that even if Santaya gets what he wants, the difference between today and after opening in hotel occupancy rates won't even qualify as a rounding error. Second decimal place maybe.

 

 

[thaitom]

18 minutes ago, smedly said:

so bars and nightclubs open and curfew finished - right ????????????

 

 

yeah right

Yes, all the girls have been called back ,they are on the way.  All the businesses that closed down were given money to re-open.   

[mickyr55]

Pattaya OPEN till 8pm then all shops and restaurants closed.

9pm all roads and beaches closed, bars?? forget about them they never open. 

If you have spent the last 5 years in prison maybe you would think this is a holiday, dream on Mr Mayor ???? ???? 

[smedly]

25 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

To paraphrase the former POTUS Bill Clinton, "it depends on what the meaning of 'open' is".

 

Open to visit, perhaps. Open to do what? Walk on the beach, maybe......shop at Central Festival until 8PM, eat an early dinner theoretically without any potent beverage, watch Netflix in the hotel before bedtime.

 

Then there might be dozens of tour buses with flag-waving leaders ushering throngs of Chinese through a closed-down, shuttered-up Walking Street. Not even worth using the pixels in their phones.

 

Long haul travelers, unless they are suffering from a hormonal rage that is driving them uncontrollably to engage in the biological imperative, are unlikely to make the 15-25 hour journey just to stay mostly locked in a hotel room in a city dark almost before last prayer or cannon.

 

I'll go out on a limb and guess that even if Santaya gets what he wants, the difference between today and after opening in hotel occupancy rates won't even qualify as a rounding error. Second decimal place maybe.

 

 

great post

[bang saen guy]

Aren't restaurants closing again on 1 Oct to anyone without a vaccine passport and a handful of govt paperwork?

[jacko45k]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Nothing but a hot air from the wishful mayor, not so easy to just declare a place "open" willy nilly as a lot of preparations should be in place well before and not just one week or so...

I took a stroll in town recently..... to get the place 'up and running' will require more cranking than an old Model-T that has been idle in the swamp for a decade.....

[hotandsticky]

30 minutes ago, bang saen guy said:

Aren't restaurants closing again on 1 Oct to anyone without a vaccine passport and a handful of govt paperwork?

 

 

Personally, I doubt that - and in any event it won't be enforced.  IMO the September relaxation will continue.

[EVENKEEL]

I for one hopes it opens up as a Sandbox alternative. Lots of expats coming back to thailand would rather do the 14 days in Patts than Phuket.

[jacko45k]

16 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Personally, I doubt that - and in any event it won't be enforced.  IMO the September relaxation will continue.

Agreed.... I expect restaurants to have restrictions lifted or eased soon, likely the curfew timings eased too, or cancelled altogether. 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by jacko45k

[skorp13]

Define open! Foreigners are already coming in via ASQ and there is plenty of inter-provincial travel. Now they just need to give those wanting to travel a reason other than shuttered businesses

[Jeffr2]

34 minutes ago, skorp13 said:

Define open! Foreigners are already coming in via ASQ and there is plenty of inter-provincial travel. Now they just need to give those wanting to travel a reason other than shuttered businesses

There's a lot of us who want to return, but only when the ridiculous quarantine rules are relaxed.

[Jeffr2]

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/reopening-of-bangkok-4-other-provinces-likely-delayed-to-november-1/

[ukrules]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Still Sontaya said that his "Move On" plan was not going to be "Move On Later On".

Dream on, nothing's opening any time soon.

[chalawaan]

Don't these guys ever get tired of catching foot in mouth disease?

 

No Mr. mayor, it mayor may not.

 

My money is on "not" or would be, if betting wasn't illegal -in the City mostly kept alive by illegal prostitution.

[BostonRob2]

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

Nothing but a hot air from the wishful mayor, not so easy to just declare a place "open" willy nilly as a lot of preparations should be in place well before and not just one week or so...

Willy Nilly.....sounds like the name of a bar in Pattaya.

[crazykopite]

8 days to go and Pattaya will be a rockin and a rollin I don’t think so 

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Pattaya's mayor insisted that his resort was ready to welcome foreign tourists from October 1st.

Fake news....

[RichardColeman]

In my opinion very little foreigners will come. Those that needed to return to family etc and happy use ASQ have already come back, and the extreme rich will always do as they wish - but there are not enough of them. I'd return tomorrow if I was just flashing my vaccine card as would many others I talk to. 

 

Personally I think Thailand should host a hot air balloon festival, they'd always have enough resource !

 

 

[kinyara]

He would say that wouldn't he, safe in the knowledge that he can blame the CCSA when it doesn't. A convenient scapegoat that they are all using as they deliberately string the tourist dependent business sector and the public along with the carrot of a possible high season re-opening date they know won't happen. It's all about false promises keeping the lid on the building pressure while kicking the can of an effective re-opening past this high season.

[Iforbach]

I live here @ to b honest sum places look like a?warzone ..ready to open ..mmmm...

[chalawaan]

55555 It took just seven hours for this bold prediction to join the graveyard of false dawns in the delta era! The November date announcement has just hit the forums. By friday it will be December, by October it will be a grand opening in January, and the wheels on the ambulance go round and round.

 

Chok dee skirt chasers!