Quite Frankly ...at the end of the day ...... Who cares??????

Pattaya will always be there , as will many other destinations for Tourists in Asia.

Price & Convenience are the Governing Factors to all Tourism & Pattaya has a niche there & will always have its fair share IMO

On starting this discussion ,the general idea was ,what was the attraction to Pattaya? we seem to have digressed (is that how you spell it?) and are now disscusing othe ports of call

I still believe that Pataya has much to offer ,but the powers that be seem intent on f------ing it up. also i notice that at weekends more and more Thai day trippers are coming than ever ,that is judging by the traffic on sukhumvit.

Bali is more popular than Thailand for a number of reasons.

Firstly and probably most importantly is price.

Girl I know just went to Bali for a week from Perth and the total cost of airfares and one weeks accommodation was 580 AUD.

Thailand can't match that.

Malaysia is also very cheap and another guy i know from Perth got a ticket for a 150AUD return with Air Asia.

Phuket is still popular with West Australians but is a little more pricey than Bali and Malaysia.

Bali has a very strong presence in Australia as it was the first package tourist destination back in the 70s so it has strong brand name and it is also very close from Perth only 4.5 hours roughly.

Pattaya is either not known at all by many Aussies or fairly or unfairly it is known as a sex tourist destination.

Agree with both the previous poster Thaimate & Tolley.

1. A bit of digression , but to answer the question there has to be comparisons

2. Pattaya is definately seen as a sex tour destination

As a matter of interest I just googled up 4 different sites for "Cheap Thai Holiday"

First was BANGKOK close second PHUKET next was KRABI then KOH Samui followed by Chiang MAI & the costs were between 2 - 4 times Bali & Malaysia.

Pattaya was mentioned in the small print on 2 sites as per this "some trips include a side exploration of Pattaya Wildlife Parks & some Shopping" ???!!!

The original question is What keeps it (Pattaya) going ?? it has a share of an Asian tourist destination visits as per its costs & what is on offer & don't forget the BP Hospital has over 110,000 Beauty Surgery Tourists per annum. (That's 2,100 + a week.) so that is a fair contribution into the economy as well.

If the figures from Visa extensions / renewals was not counted I think the actual Visitor figures would go way , way down. But it has an attraction & a fair population of ex-pats & that is also a big contribution to keeping it going.

Bali is more popular than Thailand for a number of reasons.

Firstly and probably most importantly is price.

Girl I know just went to Bali for a week from Perth and the total cost of airfares and one weeks accommodation was 580 AUD.

Thailand can't match that.

Malaysia is also very cheap and another guy i know from Perth got a ticket for a 150AUD return with Air Asia.

Phuket is still popular with West Australians but is a little more pricey than Bali and Malaysia.

Bali has a very strong presence in Australia as it was the first package tourist destination back in the 70s so it has strong brand name and it is also very close from Perth only 4.5 hours roughly.

Pattaya is either not known at all by many Aussies or fairly or unfairly it is known as a sex tourist destination.

It is not easy getting good data on tourism.........but the UN just published this:

http://www.unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/baromet..._en_excerpt.pdf

In it you will find a short list of countries that did well in 2008 and Indonesia was one of them..........so was Macau.......and Panama and Uruguay. Interesting because of the discussion about Bali which no doubt is a big draw, especially when people are getting tired of Thailand's BS.

Macau is popular, no doubt, because of gambling............and it is easy to cross the border to China and also visit Hong Kong.

Panama and Uruguay are becoming popular alternatives for expats to retire to.........alternatives to Thailand, that is. I wonder how many potential expats with money have taken their money to Panama and Uruguay because of the idiotic immigration laws in Thailand.

Which reminds me, a Thai friend of mine just showed me his passport with his 180 day stamp to visit and stay in the UK as a TOURIST. I think Thailand is the only place in the world that is trying to make criminals out of tourists (crazy policy).

Look out for those perpetual tourists........ooooooohhhhhhhh..........very bad people!