A night market at Soi Ram Butri in Bangkok before the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture: 123RF/SOMBATPKT

 

by PRIM CHUWIRUCH

 

In downtown Bangkok’s Patpong area, most evenings are quiet. Before the pandemic, it was one of the world’s most notorious red-light districts, attracting foreign tourists to its many bars, nightclubs and massage parlours. With the tourism industry decimated by two years of Covid-19, most of the street’s businesses are locked, with “Closed” signs in the windows. At the area’s night bazaar — for decades the place to buy Red Bull T-shirts, Thai boxing pants and fake Rolex watches — the vendors are gone.

 

Thailand wants to get them back. Tourism accounted for one-fifth of the country’s GDP before the pandemic, with almost 40- million foreign tourists generating more than $60bn in 2019. In early February, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha’s government began allowing vaccinated travellers to enter quarantine-free.

 

Like many countries that are now treating Covid-19 as endemic, Thailand is eager to jump-start its tourism industry. But visitors expecting bustling restaurants, bars and markets may be in for a shock, because many of the small businesses that played major roles in Thailand’s tourism ecosystem closed during the lockdowns and haven’t reopened. 

 

Full story: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bloomberg/businessweek/2022-02-23-empty-streets-and-strict-regulations-deter-tourists-from-visiting-thailand/

 

-- © Copyright Bloomberg 2022-02-23

 

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If there is one group of people I have no sympathy for it is Patpong Night Bazaar vendors.

5 minutes ago, mokwit said:

If there is one group of people I have no sympathy for it is Patpong Night Bazaar vendors.

Be nice to them, they'll be nice to you.

 

It is not quarantine free you muppets!

This is not news. News would be that they have reinvented themselves with an honest livelihood, which is what Buddhism requires anyway.

34 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand wants to get them back.

Unfortunately - no they don't.

They are purposefully keeping, "Thailand’s tourism ecosystem closed" and purposefully "haven’t reopened."

Bloomberg hasn't gotten the memo:  "Only rich, well-heel tourists and investors wanted.  All other foreign commoners will need to find more accepting and friendly countries to spend their tourism dollars.  Thailand doesn't want common foreigners any longer."

 

1 hour ago, mokwit said:

If there is one group of people I have no sympathy for it is Patpong Night Bazaar vendors.

Can you point to the place on a doll where these vendors hurt you?

1 hour ago, pedro01 said:

Be nice to them, they'll be nice to you.

 

Not true at all.

 

Many of them are aggressive characters. I have drunk in Patpong for over 30 years and it has ever been thus.

Just maybe, some people don't think it's too smart to be coming for a 2 week holiday long haul to a region which is only just starting it's omicron wave. Imagine that.

Nana plaza (Sukumvit 4) is dead...

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand wants to get them back.

Thailand might want them back, but this illegal government doesn't.

2 hours ago, In the jungle said:

It is not quarantine free you muppets!

I don't know why Thailand continue to mislead tourists that it is quarantine free when it's actually 1 to 2 days of quarantine and an expensive Covid insurance.

Too bad , so sad.

Quote

Empty streets and strict regulations deter tourists from visiting Thailand

The plan has worked then. 

Come on , you all know , there aren't a lot of tourists now . Supply and demand is the rule . You think everything is trying to stay open for 2y while there are no costumers ? When more tourists arrive , more places will restart opening . Won't all be the same , and especially in the start will get periods when there is overdemand or oversupply , but everything will be returning like before as more people come .

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand wants...

 

Thailand is eager...

"You keep using those words, I do not think they mean what you think they mean."

 

Sure, some want those things, but not all.

34 minutes ago, cheapcanuck said:

Nana plaza (Sukumvit 4) is dead...

Very sad for the local businesses 

Anyone who thinks up something complicated like that, shouldn't be surprised if, apart from all the visa bureaucracy, only a few tourists come. I also don't know why the Thai bureaucracy loves to make simple processes complicated and each process is connected to a plethora of paper copies. Not every tourist wants to deal with their complicated paper procurement wars for days.

 

Starting from the simplest model: Buy a flight ticket, valid passport, off to the plane, arrival in Thailand, each additional paper is a hurdle.

 

- apply for a visa,

- Proof of return ticket

- Passport photos

- Book hotel accommodation and pay in advance

- Book and pay for PCT tests in advance

- Get the right insurance and pay in advance.

- Obtain vaccination certificates

- Book and pay for a taxi transfer in advance

- Download Morchana

- Complete TM 6

- Complete TM 8

- format all documents correctly.

- use correct email

- Print out all documents and Thaipass

- Get a Thai SIM card

- Make a TM 30 report

 

I wonder if it couldn't be more complicated.

Jesus Wept!  It is a very active pandemic with nearly 6M deaths worldwide (1M in the US alone) and well over 12,000 deaths every single day.  Commercial interests are pressuring governments to call this an 'endemic' problem, like catching the flu every year or getting hayfever in the spring.  This is not true.  Hospitals (where there are any) are overflowing and people are dying from other preventable diseases because of this.  AND nobody wants to wear a mask <deleted>.  It doesn't 'feel nice'.  Big Pharma and others are making billions and billions off of this, they would like to see it go on forever.

1 hour ago, EricTh said:

I don't know why Thailand continue to mislead tourists that it is quarantine free when it's actually 1 to 2 days of quarantine and an expensive Covid insurance.

... and a minimum 100K THB forced hospital stay if PCR positive.

35 minutes ago, tomacht8 said:

Anyone who thinks up something complicated like that, shouldn't be surprised if, apart from all the visa bureaucracy, only a few tourists come. I also don't know why the Thai bureaucracy loves to make simple processes complicated and each process is connected to a plethora of paper copies. Not every tourist wants to deal with their complicated paper procurement wars for days.

 

Starting from the simplest model: Buy a flight ticket, valid passport, off to the plane, arrival in Thailand, each additional paper is a hurdle.

 

- apply for a visa,

- Proof of return ticket

- Passport photos

- Book hotel accommodation and pay in advance

- Book and pay for PCT tests in advance

- Get the right insurance and pay in advance.

- Obtain vaccination certificates

- Book and pay for a taxi transfer in advance

- Download Morchana

- Complete TM 6

- Complete TM 8

- format all documents correctly.

- use correct email

- Print out all documents and Thaipass

- Get a Thai SIM card

- Make a TM 30 report

 

I wonder if it couldn't be more complicated.

Can't we just go back to the way things were, say, ten years ago, in 2012?

1 hour ago, EricTh said:

I don't know why Thailand continue to mislead tourists that it is quarantine free when it's actually 1 to 2 days of quarantine and an expensive Covid insurance.

And an even more expensive 'hospitel' when you pick Covid up locally and the insurance won't pay because you're asymptomatic because you got jabbed and boostered.

1 hour ago, EricTh said:

I don't know why Thailand continue to mislead tourists that it is quarantine free when it's actually 1 to 2 days of quarantine and an expensive Covid insurance.

And on top of that, if you are found positive then you (and anyone else travelling with you) are shafted.

 

You have to be pretty desperate to visit a country with a high Covid rate. Just for the sake of drinking cheap booze and cheap fun.  

41 minutes ago, notrub said:

Jesus Wept!  It is a very active pandemic with nearly 6M deaths worldwide (1M in the US alone) and well over 12,000 deaths every single day.  Commercial interests are pressuring governments to call this an 'endemic' problem, like catching the flu every year or getting hayfever in the spring.  This is not true.  Hospitals (where there are any) are overflowing and people are dying from other preventable diseases because of this.  AND nobody wants to wear a mask <deleted>.  It doesn't 'feel nice'.  Big Pharma and others are making billions and billions off of this, they would like to see it go on forever.

let it go man, it's over.

11 minutes ago, swm59nj said:

You have to be pretty desperate to visit a country with a high Covid rate. Just for the sake of drinking cheap booze and cheap fun.  

Especially when it's not particularly cheap.

 

Or fun.

30 minutes ago, John Drake said:

Can't we just go back to the way things were, say, ten years ago, in 2012?

2010 was peak for me.

 

- Best exchange rate: 48.0046 THB per EUR on 11 Jan 2010.

- Average exchange rate in 2010: 42.0936 THB per EUR.

 

(And back then bar fines were sub 300 THB, short time was 500 THB, long time was 1000 THB, no pressure to buy them lady drinks). 

 

1 hour ago, cheapcanuck said:

Nana plaza (Sukumvit 4) is dead...

Dead as a dodo indeed.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

In downtown Bangkok’s Patpong area, most evenings are quiet.

DEAD.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

With the tourism industry decimated by two years of Covid-19, most of the street’s businesses are locked, with “Closed” signs in the windows.

DEAD.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

At the area’s night bazaar — for decades the place to buy Red Bull T-shirts, Thai boxing pants and fake Rolex watches — the vendors are gone.

DEAD.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand wants to get them back.

DEAD.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Like many countries that are now treating Covid-19 as endemic, Thailand is eager to jump-start its tourism industry.

DEAD.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

many of the small businesses that played major roles in Thailand’s tourism ecosystem closed during the lockdowns and haven’t reopened. 

And DEAD.

 

Thank you China!

4 hours ago, webfact said:

for decades the place to buy Red Bull T-shirts, Thai boxing pants and fake Rolex watches — the vendors are gone.

 

Thailand wants to get them back.

Stuck in a rut is an understatement.