New Pattaya Mayor

[Heng]

It should be obvious to anyone who ever leaves a beer bar long enough to observe the rest of Pattaya, that there are a large number of couples and families who come to this area as "normal" tourists; looking for an inexpensive way to access and experience a tropical resort environment. It should be equally obvious that it really would be possible to transition a large number of the sex venues to more typical "family attractions" for tourists.

I have observed that most of these couples and families are Russians who stay in cheap accomodation and spend very little money. This is because Pattaya is being marketed as a cheap package holiday destination in Russia. There's no way these Cheapie Vitalys could match the spending of the Brit, Yank and German guys who spend more in one night than a Russian family spends in a week. Also as soon as the Russians have discovered the nicer beach resorts like Koh Chang and Koh Samui they'll stop coming to Pattaya.

Well, you noticed wrong!

The Russians are now the big spenders here. A huge percentage of the high end rooms are occupied by Russians. They also shop like mad, especially for jewelry. Also some think the normal baht bus fare is 100 baht so I wouldn't be surprised with the huge boom in Russian language courses for Thais.

Yeah, was going to say the same. Although "big spenders" and "cheap" are relative terms. There might not be many buying up the 30-40 million Baht villas, but we've sold at least sixty+ 4-7 million Baht "smallish-medium" sized homes to Russians (and usually these are Russian nuclear families... not the typical expat and local mia falang). So not quite high rollers, but not folks who are counting their change to buy another beer either.

edit: I think a lot of folks might be thinking about the first Russians here and SOME of the ones that are still arriving as a minority to their well heeled cousins not arriving on cheap tour charter flights... now that stereotype would probably hold true.

Edited May 5, 2008 by Heng

[Theyreallrubbish]

You're not wondering at all. You've decided already to label me a sex tourist.

Since you also state opinions with a great deal of confidence and seem sure that they are more correct than mine I can only conclude that your experience of Pattaya and its nefarious activities is greater than mine. A hypocritical sex tourist? Perhaps its self-loathing that colours your opinions of Pattaya?

OK. Let my try to curtail this brewing flame war before it rages out of control. I do not know you; and I do not know what you have used as the basis for your opinions. What I am disagreeing with is your insistance that there is no possibilty of survival for Pattaya if the sex industry is significantly reduced, and/or relocated. That was the core of my response to you; and the part that I'd rather focus upon.

I apologize if the quip I threw in embarassed and/or angered you. That was not my intent.

I must also add that, having lived here for a bit over 2 years, I am EXTREMELY pessimistic as to the likelihood that this new mayor is either serious about, or capable of, making most of the changes in the list of Monty's OP. My post was entirely hypothetical. I do believe, very strongly, that Pattaya COULD be successfully converted to a genuine "family resort" city. However, doing so would require that all corruption be eliminated. That would, in turn, result in the development of an hones and effective police force. I believe that those two things are not likely to happen before the next ice age!

So, again, my discussion was not intended as a big cheer for "Crusader Ittipon". I was simply saying that Pattaya could be changed, if there were people in power who truly had the desire and the political power to do so. I do not believe that the sex industry MUST be the backbone of the city's economy. It is. And it will continue to be. But not because of the "buying power" of the sex tourists who support it. It will continue to be so because the people in power make their money from it; and there is no one who is capable of taking that power from them.

Ok. I react badly to anything I perceive as selfrighteousness so I apologise for the personal response.

I disagree that Pattaya could become a family resort on anything like the scale it is now. This view comes from looking at the pattern of economic development of resort and non resort areas that is linked to a part of my background in real estate investment.

While I'm often wrong, (the scale of buying in Phuket of $1 million plus villas has consistently taken me by surprise) the current facilities, environment, infrastructure, crime and other aspects of developing a family friendly resort are simply woeful and for the foreseeable future only the adventurous minority of families will consider Pattaya.

Another aspect to consider is that Pattaya has built a great deal of brand awareness and changing brand perception is one of the hardest things to do (20% of Americans still believe AT&T is their local phone supplier even though it hasn't been in that business for nearly 40 years). If the government leveled Pattaya tomorrow and rebuilt it as a copy of Disneyworld it would be decades before the majority of foreign families would be aware of the change or perceive Pattaya as a family friendly place.

The danger for Pattaya that I see is that government will for short term political reasons make the night life businesses less profitable and easy to run leading to a reduction in investment in these businesses and a run down of that subsector of the city's economy. They will do this before they have put in place the necessary things that could make it a genuine family resort, so that by the time they've realised the city's economy is shrinking they'll no longer have the resources available to conduct the transformation and the city will enter into a slow decline into irrelevance. Its a lot easier to squeeze a business sector than to build one up. If it was easy to build a major resort city, everyone with a beach would do it as the economic rewards are so huge.

Transforming Pattaya into a destination for anything other than a tiny minority of families who are willing to be adventurous is a huge task. Let's face it, Pattaya is a small dirty town with a small dirty beach and the worst reputation in the world.

Las Vegas managed to transform itself from a male orientated destination to a family destination, but it started being clean, with great infrastructure and safe and well managed with huge resources.

I personally believe that Pattaya has built enormous brand equity that no other place on earth has and it would economically spiteful to throw that away merely because of a personal distaste towards the customers it attracts, particularly in a country that is still poor.

[Heng]

I'd imagine that Khun Ittiphon is well aware that most of Pattaya's income flows in from Bangkok and not from foreign tourists. Take all of the BKK license plates (ever wonder why you see them everywhere 24-7-365?... it's not because people like to drive to Bangkok to buy their cars) from town and THEN you'd have an economic meltdown.

... needless to say, the icing from the whole tourist scene is some rather tasty icing on the cake (especially in terms of rental revenue)

Edited May 5, 2008 by Heng

[edwardandtubs]

That's nonsense. Why would any Russian with any money choose Pattaya over Phuket? I mostly see them shopping in markets and supermarkets for the cheapest stuff they can get their hands on. As for baht buses I often see them chartering one and then arguing with the driver over the fare once they've already finished the journey.

You will have to ask the Russians about that. They prefer Pattaya over Phuket, obviously. So do I.

http://www.gluckman.com/Russians.html

While Russians fall head over heels for Thailand, Thais are growing rather fond of their Slavic visitors in return. "These are good tourists," says TAT's Sethapan. "Our research shows they spend a lot of money, much more than other tourists. They are big spenders, buying watches and clothes, 1,000 items at a time." He adds: "For us, it's a little bit like finding gold."

1000 watches at a time. I'm sure the fake Rolex peddlers are making a packet. These are Thailand's quality tourists?

Of course the TAT research wouldn't pick up the money paid to bars and bar girls but it contributes to the economy nonetheless.

Edited May 5, 2008 by edwardandtubs

[patsfangr]

Ok. I react badly to anything I perceive as selfrighteousness so I apologise for the personal response.

I disagree that Pattaya could become a family resort on anything like the scale it is now. This view comes from looking at the pattern of economic development of resort and non resort areas that is linked to a part of my background in real estate investment.

While I'm often wrong, (the scale of buying in Phuket of $1 million plus villas has consistently taken me by surprise) the current facilities, environment, infrastructure, crime and other aspects of developing a family friendly resort are simply woeful and for the foreseeable future only the adventurous minority of families will consider Pattaya.

Another aspect to consider is that Pattaya has built a great deal of brand awareness and changing brand perception is one of the hardest things to do (20% of Americans still believe AT&T is their local phone supplier even though it hasn't been in that business for nearly 40 years). If the government leveled Pattaya tomorrow and rebuilt it as a copy of Disneyworld it would be decades before the majority of foreign families would be aware of the change or perceive Pattaya as a family friendly place.

The danger for Pattaya that I see is that government will for short term political reasons make the night life businesses less profitable and easy to run leading to a reduction in investment in these businesses and a run down of that subsector of the city's economy. They will do this before they have put in place the necessary things that could make it a genuine family resort, so that by the time they've realised the city's economy is shrinking they'll no longer have the resources available to conduct the transformation and the city will enter into a slow decline into irrelevance. Its a lot easier to squeeze a business sector than to build one up. If it was easy to build a major resort city, everyone with a beach would do it as the economic rewards are so huge.

Transforming Pattaya into a destination for anything other than a tiny minority of families who are willing to be adventurous is a huge task. Let's face it, Pattaya is a small dirty town with a small dirty beach and the worst reputation in the world.

Las Vegas managed to transform itself from a male orientated destination to a family destination, but it started being clean, with great infrastructure and safe and well managed with huge resources.

I personally believe that Pattaya has built enormous brand equity that no other place on earth has and it would economically spiteful to throw that away merely because of a personal distaste towards the customers it attracts, particularly in a country that is still poor.

Now we've got a decent dialogue going. Glad we caught it in time!

Your points are all valid, and certainly point to one possible sequence of events. Likewise, the point regarding traffic from Bangkok that was made by 'Heng' in the post that followed yours is a genuine factor in the Pattaya economy.

However, I still believe that the only impenatrable barriers preventing a successful "rebirth" of Pattaya are the all pervasive corruption, and "evil powers" that make their money from it. The infrastructure could be fixed, if honest and qualified providers were given the contracts to do so. Crime could be cleaned up much more easily in Pattaya than, for example, in a US city, where "criminal rights" get in the way, if honest and qualified police forces were created to do so. Once these things were done, the opportunity for legitimate businesses of all kinds would be much more attractive, and much more available. In that environment, I believe that all of the marketing hurdles you noted could be overcome.

These things could be done. But the conversion would truly have to start from the top - and I don't mean the puppet mayor! That is the part of this that I consider impossible. That is the part that will, unfortunately, ensure that Pattaya remains the "small, dirty town, with a small, dirty beach, and the worst reputation in the world" that you described. Sad, but, IMO, incontrovertably true.

[patsfangr]

One day God was looking down at Pattay and saw all of the rascally

behavior that was going on. So he called one of his angels and

sent the angel to Earth for a time to see how bad the situation

was. When he returned, he told God; 'Yes, it is bad in Pattaya;

95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.'

God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% who were being

good, because He wanted to encourage them ... give them a little

something to help them keep going.

Do you know what the e-mail said?

< /P>

... OK, I was just wondering ...

I didn't get one either.

And I'm betting that Mayor Ittipon was also not on the email distribution list. Whaddaya think?

[Bagwain]

Ok. I react badly to anything I perceive as selfrighteousness so I apologise for the personal response.

I disagree that Pattaya could become a family resort on anything like the scale it is now. This view comes from looking at the pattern of economic development of resort and non resort areas that is linked to a part of my background in real estate investment.

While I'm often wrong, (the scale of buying in Phuket of $1 million plus villas has consistently taken me by surprise) the current facilities, environment, infrastructure, crime and other aspects of developing a family friendly resort are simply woeful and for the foreseeable future only the adventurous minority of families will consider Pattaya.

Another aspect to consider is that Pattaya has built a great deal of brand awareness and changing brand perception is one of the hardest things to do (20% of Americans still believe AT&T is their local phone supplier even though it hasn't been in that business for nearly 40 years). If the government leveled Pattaya tomorrow and rebuilt it as a copy of Disneyworld it would be decades before the majority of foreign families would be aware of the change or perceive Pattaya as a family friendly place.

The danger for Pattaya that I see is that government will for short term political reasons make the night life businesses less profitable and easy to run leading to a reduction in investment in these businesses and a run down of that subsector of the city's economy. They will do this before they have put in place the necessary things that could make it a genuine family resort, so that by the time they've realised the city's economy is shrinking they'll no longer have the resources available to conduct the transformation and the city will enter into a slow decline into irrelevance. Its a lot easier to squeeze a business sector than to build one up. If it was easy to build a major resort city, everyone with a beach would do it as the economic rewards are so huge.

Transforming Pattaya into a destination for anything other than a tiny minority of families who are willing to be adventurous is a huge task. Let's face it, Pattaya is a small dirty town with a small dirty beach and the worst reputation in the world.

Las Vegas managed to transform itself from a male orientated destination to a family destination, but it started being clean, with great infrastructure and safe and well managed with huge resources.

I personally believe that Pattaya has built enormous brand equity that no other place on earth has and it would economically spiteful to throw that away merely because of a personal distaste towards the customers it attracts, particularly in a country that is still poor.

Now we've got a decent dialogue going. Glad we caught it in time!

Your points are all valid, and certainly point to one possible sequence of events. Likewise, the point regarding traffic from Bangkok that was made by 'Heng' in the post that followed yours is a genuine factor in the Pattaya economy.

However, I still believe that the only impenatrable barriers preventing a successful "rebirth" of Pattaya are the all pervasive corruption, and "evil powers" that make their money from it. The infrastructure could be fixed, if honest and qualified providers were given the contracts to do so. Crime could be cleaned up much more easily in Pattaya than, for example, in a US city, where "criminal rights" get in the way, if honest and qualified police forces were created to do so. Once these things were done, the opportunity for legitimate businesses of all kinds would be much more attractive, and much more available. In that environment, I believe that all of the marketing hurdles you noted could be overcome.

These things could be done. But the conversion would truly have to start from the top - and I don't mean the puppet mayor! That is the part of this that I consider impossible. That is the part that will, unfortunately, ensure that Pattaya remains the "small, dirty town, with a small, dirty beach, and the worst reputation in the world" that you described. Sad, but, IMO, incontrovertably true.

So you have a TARDIS or you are from another dimension?

[monty]

I'd imagine that Khun Ittiphon is well aware that most of Pattaya's income flows in from Bangkok and not from foreign tourists. Take all of the BKK license plates (ever wonder why you see them everywhere 24-7-365?... it's not because people like to drive to Bangkok to buy their cars) from town and THEN you'd have an economic meltdown.

... needless to say, the icing from the whole tourist scene is some rather tasty icing on the cake (especially in terms of rental revenue)

Indeed lots of Bangkok folk around, collect the rents, and spend it any of the Thai oriented disco's

I'd rather say they extract money from Pattaya, not inject it.

Hey, even my car has Bangkok license plates

I personally think the problem is in the secondary economy.

We all know where the foreigners (most of them anyway) spend their funds, and a lot, if not most of that money gets again spent in Pattaya. Not in places frequented by foreigners, but we're talking beauty salons, laundries, Thai street side restaurants, all these little back street soi's with the little pubs/karaoke's, restaurants, mainly frequented by by Thai customers making their income directly or indirectly from the tourist trade.

Lots of the waitresses, business girls, their Thai boyfriends, motorcy taxi's, even the girls working in laundry where the service girls are their main customers.

The whole thing hangs together, and even one part in that chain goes down, the whole thing stands a pretty big chance to collapse.

I'm a firm believer that not the foreign tourists, nor the foreign expats will be hurt that much if things change, but the huge -imported- Thai population living indirectly of those tourist/expat dollars (or Euro's, whatever)... They don't have the option of moving to Cambodia, or the Philippines, or some Western home country to start again.

We already have a huge amount of crime here, mostly young Thai persons coming here, hopeful of trying to make a living, but quickly experiencing the competition is fierce.

I feel the system is already strained as it is, not much is needed to bring about mayhem!

They want to change something, they will have to work from the bottom up, take care of their own people first.

[basjke]

That's nonsense. Why would any Russian with any money choose Pattaya over Phuket? I mostly see them shopping in markets and supermarkets for the cheapest stuff they can get their hands on. As for baht buses I often see them chartering one and then arguing with the driver over the fare once they've already finished the journey.

You will have to ask the Russians about that. They prefer Pattaya over Phuket, obviously. So do I.

Yes they prefer pattaya because it is cheaper then phuket.Quality tourists?

http://www.gluckman.com/Russians.html

While Russians fall head over heels for Thailand, Thais are growing rather fond of their Slavic visitors in return. "These are good tourists," says TAT's Sethapan. "Our research shows they spend a lot of money, much more than other tourists. They are big spenders, buying watches and clothes, 1,000 items at a time." He adds: "For us, it's a little bit like finding gold."

Yeah they buy items with the thousands at lukdod shop.Quality tourists?

And why there are so many russians in thailand?Because taksins family has a big travel business in russia and TAT spends billions on promotion in russia.

[basjke]

One of the new policies to be implemented by Khun ittipon:

· the eradication of Pattaya's red-light venue – Walking Street

Source:

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.p...NEWS=0000005878

I think this guy must have secret death wishes.

[Heng]

I'd imagine that Khun Ittiphon is well aware that most of Pattaya's income flows in from Bangkok and not from foreign tourists. Take all of the BKK license plates (ever wonder why you see them everywhere 24-7-365?... it's not because people like to drive to Bangkok to buy their cars) from town and THEN you'd have an economic meltdown.

... needless to say, the icing from the whole tourist scene is some rather tasty icing on the cake (especially in terms of rental revenue)

Indeed lots of Bangkok folk around, collect the rents, and spend it any of the Thai oriented disco's

I'd rather say they extract money from Pattaya, not inject it.

Hey, even my car has Bangkok license plates

I personally think the problem is in the secondary economy.

We all know where the foreigners (most of them anyway) spend their funds, and a lot, if not most of that money gets again spent in Pattaya. Not in places frequented by foreigners, but we're talking beauty salons, laundries, Thai street side restaurants, all these little back street soi's with the little pubs/karaoke's, restaurants, mainly frequented by by Thai customers making their income directly or indirectly from the tourist trade.

Lots of the waitresses, business girls, their Thai boyfriends, motorcy taxi's, even the girls working in laundry where the service girls are their main customers.

The whole thing hangs together, and even one part in that chain goes down, the whole thing stands a pretty big chance to collapse.

I'm a firm believer that not the foreign tourists, nor the foreign expats will be hurt that much if things change, but the huge -imported- Thai population living indirectly of those tourist/expat dollars (or Euro's, whatever)... They don't have the option of moving to Cambodia, or the Philippines, or some Western home country to start again.

We already have a huge amount of crime here, mostly young Thai persons coming here, hopeful of trying to make a living, but quickly experiencing the competition is fierce.

I feel the system is already strained as it is, not much is needed to bring about mayhem!

They want to change something, they will have to work from the bottom up, take care of their own people first.

Yeah, I didn't mean to say anyone with a Bangkok license plate was some kind of investor in Pattaya. Although the "rent collectors" are typically the folks who are buying up property -and of course that's both residential and commercial- from local developers or building up and developing Pattaya themselves (we're doing both for example). It's usually not as simple as rolling into town, collecting rent, and rolling home. I've rolled back and forth so much that Pattaya is basically a second home for me, and my point was that IMO I have plenty of company. And as a second home, it becomes a place where a good portion of my income/revenue (export, import, rental income from Pattaya-Bangkok-Austin, interest income from abroad, etc.) gets "injected."

As for the red light fallout you are talking about, yeah, I agree that there will be some. But like the rest of the country, just because there isn't a designated red light district, or just because they try to re-brand the place, it doesn't mean all the red lights go out and everyone starts going to church and temple 5 nights a week. There will still be plenty of red to keep plenty of folks in the black.

[Kerryd]

One of the new policies to be implemented by Khun ittipon:

· the eradication of Pattaya's red-light venue – Walking Street

Source:

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.p...NEWS=0000005878

I think this guy must have secret death wishes.

I think this may be the Thai (political) way of letting certain establishments know that they are probably facing an increase in their licencing fees in the near future.

In fact, it appears the new mayor has more or less let a large number of various groups/businesses know that he is in charge and the doors are open for a variety of proposals (so long as they show up with the appropriate "tendering" fees).

I like the last line though:

"the encouragement of world-class entertainment"

I thought we already had that ? After all, people from around the world come to Pattaya to be "entertained" already !

[moo9]

I'd imagine that Khun Ittiphon is well aware that most of Pattaya's income flows in from Bangkok and not from foreign tourists. Take all of the BKK license plates (ever wonder why you see them everywhere 24-7-365?... it's not because people like to drive to Bangkok to buy their cars) from town and THEN you'd have an economic meltdown.

... needless to say, the icing from the whole tourist scene is some rather tasty icing on the cake (especially in terms of rental revenue)

You can chose where you register your car, so a BKK license plate says nothing!

[jonniebkk]

I wonder why the new mayor wouldn't take on some of the really pressing issues such as cleaning up the police force and mafia elements...

Kinda hard to do this when your own father was the main mafiaso figure in the Eastern Seaboard and was known as the "Godfather" of Chonburi until he had to flee the country because of murder charges

[Heng]

I'd imagine that Khun Ittiphon is well aware that most of Pattaya's income flows in from Bangkok and not from foreign tourists. Take all of the BKK license plates (ever wonder why you see them everywhere 24-7-365?... it's not because people like to drive to Bangkok to buy their cars) from town and THEN you'd have an economic meltdown.

... needless to say, the icing from the whole tourist scene is some rather tasty icing on the cake (especially in terms of rental revenue)

You can chose where you register your car, so a BKK license plate says nothing!

My point is, the people who run (often in conjunction with local Pattaya folks), develop, and invest on a truly significant scale in Pattaya are those from nearby Bangkok. You know, the folks who don't have their hands tied behind their backs by the local legal system. Of course, that's not to say that tourists and foreigners aren't investing a fair amount either. But it's really no contest.

[LCSulla]

Ittaphon's dad was /is the criminal goddfather of chonburi/pattaya.

he is currently onthe run , believed to be in Cambodia.

Article from Nation from April 2006 gives some background

Hunt begins for criminal mastermind Kamnan Poh

Police have launched a nationwide manhunt for notorious influential figure Somchai Kunplome, better known as Kamnan Poh.

Chon Buri Provincial Court yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Somchai, after he failed to appear to hear a Supreme Court verdict on corruption charges levelled against him.

The court has twice postponed reading the verdict, after defence lawyers claimed Somchai's health was failing.

On March 22 the director of a private hospital testified that Somchai was too ill to appear in court.

The case, in which Somchai is accused of master-minding corrupt land deals worth Bt93 million in Chon Buri, is more than a decade old. The lower courts found Somchai guilty as charged and sentenced him to five years and four months in jail.

That is the least of Somchai's trouble. Also before the Supreme Court are allegations that he masterminded a failed attempt on a rival's life.

The rival was eventually killed by another group of gunmen unconnected to Somchai.

The lower courts have passed guilty verdicts and if Somchai's appeal fails he could face 25 years in jail.

Provincial Police Region 2 Commissioner Lt-General Jong-rak Juthanon yesterday led more than 20 police officers in a sweep of Somchai's home in Chon Buri.

He was not there.

Jongrak said police in Nakhon Nayok, Chachoengsao, Prachin Buri, Sa Kaew, Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat were now involved in the manhunt.

Chon Buri police chief Maj-General Anan Charoenchasri said Somchai's wife claimed he had left the house a week ago but would not tell them where he had gone.

"We are now looking for leads as to his whereabouts," said Anan.

Police believe he may have fled to Cambodia. Unquote..........................................................

Aesop had it right

"We hang the petty thieves , but appoint the great ones to High office"

I am sure the mayor will a credit to his dad.

[sriracha john]

I wonder why the new mayor wouldn't take on some of the really pressing issues such as cleaning up the police force and mafia elements instead of just paying lip-service to the electorate?

Because his father IS the murderous mafia boss...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46331

Sinking Lower The Lowest, Pattaya City News Breaks Record

[sriracha john]

I wonder why the new mayor wouldn't take on some of the really pressing issues such as cleaning up the police force and mafia elements...

Kinda hard to do this when your own father was the main mafiaso figure in the Eastern Seaboard and was known as the "Godfather" of Chonburi until he had to flee the country because of murder charges conviction

*edited to reflect actual situation...as per linked thread above*

Edited May 6, 2008 by sriracha john

[Tammi]

Perhaps the Mayor is going to take my oft repeated advice and build a new sin city out in the boonies. It will have a high wall and regular bus services. The police will meet each bus as it returns to Pattaya and check for drunkedness, drugs, obnoxious Brits, prostitutes, weapons. We, well behaved, law abiding aliens and Thais will then enjoy the good facilities that are already being introduced to Pattaya, clean beaches and sea, tranqil parks, and all the other good infrastructure that I am sure the good mayor is envisioning for this area of high potential.

[monty]

My point is, the people who run (often in conjunction with local Pattaya folks), develop, and invest on a truly significant scale in Pattaya are those from nearby Bangkok. You know, the folks who don't have their hands tied behind their backs by the local legal system. Of course, that's not to say that tourists and foreigners aren't investing a fair amount either. But it's really no contest.

Definitely true, especially everything on the grander scale. But they do mainly invest in projects where their potential revenue/profit comes from foreigners! So in the end I still feel that they are aiming on extracting money out of Pattaya rather then keep it in Pattaya (not to say they don't spend a large chunk of their capital in the city, they definitely do!)

I'm thinking the SP village projects (Khun Saksit, who I thinks spent a large part of his life in Australia), Rattanakorn asset group (all the T.W. condo's and housing projects), and in the middle of Pattaya you can't fail to notice the Lengkee group (or family) taking over or building complete new blocks and sois.

However, taking a good look at their target market,I guess I'm not far off saying that it probably exists over 50% of foreigners, in the case of the Lengkee investments I would say they are firmly aimed at the medium low to medium high spending foreigner.

I'm positively sure the Lengkee family doesn't want to see much change happening in the nightlife scene as it exists currently. If you take a good look at the Lengkee owned properties, a large chunk is rented/leased directly to foreigners, while another large chunk is aimed at the secondary market created by those foreign business, i.e. low cost rooms for low wage earners, beauty salons, low cost Thai style restaurants etc...

The truly well of Thai investor owned part is not that big, and mainly consists of motorbike shops (Mityon group), law offices and travel agencies. Which, apart from the motorbike shops, are again firmly aimed at foreigners.

Me personally, I don't see Pattaya ever successfully transforming in a family oriented resort, and if it does it will be a very low cost resort atracting a customer base spending probably a lot less then the tourists we have now.

The infrastructure is not there, the proper accommodation is not there, we either have overpriced 5 star hotels (not aimed at budget travelers at 5000 Baht +/night) or we have sub 1000 Baht/night rooms of which most places are dumps. You can get lucky with newly opened places, but they tend to deteriorate so fast that they are only good value in the first 2 years of their existence!

Pattaya has a long long way to go...

[LKIBA]

One of the new policies to be implemented by Khun ittipon:

· environmental improvement

· the implementation of an effective water supply for the city and Kho Larn (Coral Island)

· a 12-year free education system

· low-cost housing for low income groups

· a new, improved traffic system

· a tramline transportation system

· flood prevention

· job opportunities to decrease poverty

· the eradication of Pattaya's red-light venue – Walking Street

· the establishment of a drug-observation and prevention centre

· the encouragement of ecotourism

· the construction of a sports centre

· the establishment of a tourism festival

· the encouragement of world-class entertainment

Source:

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.p...NEWS=0000005878

yer right and if my granny had balls she would b my

[innovator]

If they can't even manage to get the beach vendors to leave then how are they going to get all of the bar owners to leave?

[patsfangr]

As for the red light fallout you are talking about, yeah, I agree that there will be some. But like the rest of the country, just because there isn't a designated red light district, or just because they try to re-brand the place, it doesn't mean all the red lights go out and everyone starts going to church and temple 5 nights a week. There will still be plenty of red to keep plenty of folks in the black.

This ties to the point I was making, Heng. IMO, Pattaya could become an attractive "family resort" area by pushing all (or most) of the sex trade OUT of the area from the beach to 2nd Road. Just move it west a bit. It is the BEACH that has the most potential to attract family tourism. Clean it up, and it could become a desireable, very popular, inexpensive, "tropical resort" for "middle class" families.

Instead, we continue to see new businesses and "attractions" of various kinds being built AWAY from the beach. As someone said earlier, other than the potential of the beach, there's nothing special about the area to attract family tourism.

[patsfangr]

I wonder why the new mayor wouldn't take on some of the really pressing issues such as cleaning up the police force and mafia elements...

Kinda hard to do this when your own father was the main mafiaso figure in the Eastern Seaboard and was known as the "Godfather" of Chonburi until he had to flee the country because of murder charges

So, John, you are a believer in the old adage "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree", huh? I wish I could disagree. I do not.

[britmaveric]

Perhaps the Mayor is going to take my oft repeated advice and build a new sin city out in the boonies. It will have a high wall and regular bus services. The police will meet each bus as it returns to Pattaya and check for drunkedness, drugs, obnoxious Brits, prostitutes, weapons. We, well behaved, law abiding aliens and Thais will then enjoy the good facilities that are already being introduced to Pattaya, clean beaches and sea, tranqil parks, and all the other good infrastructure that I am sure the good mayor is envisioning for this area of high potential.

Still pushing that fantasy???

[sweetchariot]

This ties to the point I was making, Heng. IMO, Pattaya could become an attractive "family resort" area by pushing all (or most) of the sex trade OUT of the area from the beach to 2nd Road. Just move it west a bit. It is the BEACH that has the most potential to attract family tourism. Clean it up, and it could become a desireable, very popular, inexpensive, "tropical resort" for "middle class" families.

Instead, we continue to see new businesses and "attractions" of various kinds being built AWAY from the beach. As someone said earlier, other than the potential of the beach, there's nothing special about the area to attract family tourism.

Not too sure if this was a joke or not. Moving it west would put it in the sea! Maybe we could designate Kho Larn as a red light area?

[patsfangr]

This ties to the point I was making, Heng. IMO, Pattaya could become an attractive "family resort" area by pushing all (or most) of the sex trade OUT of the area from the beach to 2nd Road. Just move it west a bit. It is the BEACH that has the most potential to attract family tourism. Clean it up, and it could become a desireable, very popular, inexpensive, "tropical resort" for "middle class" families.

Instead, we continue to see new businesses and "attractions" of various kinds being built AWAY from the beach. As someone said earlier, other than the potential of the beach, there's nothing special about the area to attract family tourism.

Not too sure if this was a joke or not. Moving it west would put it in the sea! Maybe we could designate Kho Larn as a red light area?

LOL! Not a joke, just a misdirection. I meant EAST of the beach! What I'm saying is that the area from the beach to 2nd Road could be converted to a very attractive, "family oriented" resort; with the red light district moved EAST to run between 2nd and 3rd roads. As I said, the point is that the sex seekers don't need the beach. That is NOT the attraction they're after.

[britmaveric]

Seems it would be more practical to move the Family sorts to Jomtien.

[tropo]

For the last few years, they just seem to be steadily killing off the nightlife scene. Walking

street is one of the more civilized areas. Already you can't hardly go walking down the beach

after dark, there are so many ladymen around they literally approach you in the bathroom at

the shopping mall,and every other unwanted place, it's ridiculous. Maybe pandering to the

constituents that farangs and their evil ways are leading to the demise of the kingdom is popular,

while ignoring all the real, actual problems like youth drug use and related crime.but again,

they just seem to be cutting off their nose to spite their face, no vision whatsoever.

You must be an attractive target for ladyboys. I've never had one approach me in a bathroom at any shopping mall.

[moo9]

Seems it would be more practical to move the Family sorts to Jomtien.

:D

Well said.