Patong is dead.

[Fullstop]

Patong is dead

Time to raise the prices.

[Seligne2]

The Russians are broke. As are the Americans, the Brits, the Chinese, and most everyone else. (Except for the Nordic nations).

and yet Britain is the strongest economy in Europe, manufacturing and service industries picked up even more in January, house prices soaring etc and according to recent studies. Inflation 0.5% domestic growth 2.6%.. we're doing okay! Can't say the same for the other countries unfortunately but the UK is moving along

11.5 m Britons are jobless. 2.5 m of them actively seek employment. Many of those in work are part-timers who would gladly work longer hours. Both the manufacturing and construction sectors are still more than 10% below their 2008 peaks. The housing market is hot due to off-shore money and low interest rates, as low a 1.5%. A classic bubble is inflating. The "strength" of the economy is a delusion and the people know this.

What decade are you living in? At this moment there are 1.97 million unemployed which equates to 5.8%, the lowest since 2008. Construction is the highest in 10 years mate, you're talking nonsense

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2618649/Housebuilders-enjoy-busiest-period-recession-sector-experiences-slowdown.html

I am sure you will discount this...it's from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/feb/04/another-economic-crash-is-coming-how-did-this-happen-video

[lumply]

The Russians are broke. As are the Americans, the Brits, the Chinese, and most everyone else. (Except for the Nordic nations).

One is not broke....yet which is why a couple of weeks there in a 5* hotel is already booked for April. In the meantime it's a 'slumb' job (NOT) in a the luxury pad in another part of the world where the sun always shines. Happy days.

[outboard]

The Russians are broke. As are the Americans, the Brits, the Chinese, and most everyone else. (Except for the Nordic nations).

Norwegian Krone has lost 20+% against the Baht.

Why is the baht so strong?

what is the world coming to?

Gold and Foreign cash reserves.

A Norwegian friend was discussing this yesterday about his Krone isnt going as far as last year and has to cut back eating out. It's down 24%

He showed me some graphs of the year to date currency slide.

Australian dollar is down 27% since last year against the baht.

Euro is even worse at 29%

Russian ruble has nearly halved.

We found it amazing that the USD hasn't moved really at all in the last year which is very odd.

Thailand needs to weaken their baht or it will just get worse for tourism and exports which the country relies on.

Australian dollar is not down 25% ,

exports are generally settled in US$ and as it has not moved it will not make a difference weakening the Baht

Russian rubble is having a hard time and that probably is having an effect

as for the rest of your post it displays your normal lack of research

[Somtamnication]

Patong is overpriced with dirty sea water like Pattaya and a bunch off Brits trying to sell you time share.

I know! I have never seen Russians and Aussies selling them!

[moojar]

Pag, you cycle to Khao Lak. I am truly impressed. How long does that take.

Glass half full...

[moojar]

I cycled up to Khao Lak today,

You're a nutter........

... glass half empty.

[hansgruber]

Anyone who thinks this high season is as busy as last year are clearly not walking around and seeing it in ground level.

Go ask your local restaurant, bar or whatever. I'm hearing the same thing. Doing half the trade of last season.

[moojar]

The Russians are broke. As are the Americans, the Brits, the Chinese, and most everyone else. (Except for the Nordic nations).

Murican and I aint broke

Me too. The US is the bright spot in the world financial recovery. But the thing is that Americans are not a large percentage of tourists to Thailand in any case. About 10%.

And why do you suppose that US nationals are only 10% of tourists here (or whatever the low number really is)? Americans virtually created the Thai tourist industry as a result of the Vietnam War. Now Americans are unemployed, underemployed, or, if employed, get pitiful vacation time.

Yeah, I read an article recently about the decline of real wages in the USA over the last decade or so. All that offshoring of jobs and bringing in cheap well-qualified workers on their temporary visas has just decimated the middle class.

I don't expect hiso Mericans go to Phuket, and the loso cannot afford it.

edit: spelling

Edited February 5, 2015 by moojar

[MJP]

The Russians are broke. As are the Americans, the Brits, the Chinese, and most everyone else. (Except for the Nordic nations).

Brits?...I’m not skint and neither are many of the quality Brit tourists I know that visit Lalaland. No Sir, I think there are many and varied reasons why folk are not going there...kop some of NKM’s sermons for the unfortunate low-down. Arh, the good old days...

Not skint, but wary. UK is on the up a bit but people are much more conservative regards discretionary spending. Hopefully a nation of savers once more.

[starkey_rich]

Anyone who thinks this high season is as busy as last year are clearly not walking around and seeing it in ground level.

Go ask your local restaurant, bar or whatever. I'm hearing the same thing. Doing half the trade of last season.

It's not just Pootong.It's all over.

My place over on the east coast Thailand is 50% down also.

I don't think it just the economy to blame .

It's an amalgamation of things.

People are over Thailand and it's persistent rip offs and scams.

Being charged 10 times the price of a Thai to visit a park is just one of them.

The visa charges and the hoops you have to jump through just to get a tourist visa, unless you are Chinese or Russian that is.

The list is endless but the head in sand Thai will never get it.

I have many friends who have stopped coming over the in last two years and many expat friends who have left or are leaving.

Let's face it .They do not like us and do not really want us here.

[hansgruber]

Anyone who thinks this high season is as busy as last year are clearly not walking around and seeing it in ground level.

Go ask your local restaurant, bar or whatever. I'm hearing the same thing. Doing half the trade of last season.

It's not just Pootong.It's all over.

My place over on the east coast Thailand is 50% down also.

I don't think it just the economy to blame .

It's an amalgamation of things.

People are over Thailand and it's persistent rip offs and scams.

Being charged 10 times the price of a Thai to visit a park is just one of them.

The visa charges and the hoops you have to jump through just to get a tourist visa, unless you are Chinese or Russian that is.

The list is endless but the head in sand Thai will never get it.

I have many friends who have stopped coming over the in last two years and many expat friends who have left or are leaving.

Let's face it .They do not like us and do not really want us here.

I wasnt talking about Patong with this post, just the original.

Kata, Chalong and Rawai have places I frequent a few times a week and they all say the same thing.

Chinese don't dine out like westerners and if they do, they skimp on everything.

I'll give you an example.

Italian restaurant I go to said they get groups of Chinese but they share 1 pizza between 6 people and don't buy a single drink. They ask for a glass of water or drink their own out of their bag.

So a table of 6 hang around using the wifi for 2 hours spend 250 baht on a pizza.

It's dead and it's only going to get worse.

[Bogan Koori]

Anyone who thinks this high season is as busy as last year are clearly not walking around and seeing it in ground level.

Go ask your local restaurant, bar or whatever. I'm hearing the same thing. Doing half the trade of last season.

It's not just Pootong.It's all over.

My place over on the east coast Thailand is 50% down also.

I don't think it just the economy to blame .

It's an amalgamation of things.

People are over Thailand and it's persistent rip offs and scams.

Being charged 10 times the price of a Thai to visit a park is just one of them.

The visa charges and the hoops you have to jump through just to get a tourist visa, unless you are Chinese or Russian that is.

The list is endless but the head in sand Thai will never get it.

I have many friends who have stopped coming over the in last two years and many expat friends who have left or are leaving.

Let's face it .They do not like us and do not really want us here.

I wasnt talking about Patong with this post, just the original.

Kata, Chalong and Rawai have places I frequent a few times a week and they all say the same thing.

Chinese don't dine out like westerners and if they do, they skimp on everything.

I'll give you an example.

Italian restaurant I go to said they get groups of Chinese but they share 1 pizza between 6 people and don't buy a single drink. They ask for a glass of water or drink their own out of their bag.

So a table of 6 hang around using the wifi for 2 hours spend 250 baht on a pizza.

It's dead and it's only going to get worse.

The chinese put backpackers to shame with regards to cheapness and odd smells

[hansgruber]

The chinese put backpackers to shame with regards to cheapness and odd smells

Renowned toilet blockers too. They will flush anything. Even the hotel room hair dryer.

Mostly they flush dirty underwear because they don't want anyone to see the stains and are embarrassed and tight to get them cleaned.

Weird bunch for sure.

[camsouth]

i total agree i have been going to patong and phuket for 2 seasons now. then i moved to chiang mai wow what a differance, it all about priceing . taxies are cheeper along with every thing . and more to do, it is busy here with travelers, why so much more to offer. weather is good. a bit cool at night but good all day and warm so ya i think the whole island is over priced .but they bring that on them selfes . its called greed. if you want the beach here bbk is an 500 miles away i,24 hrs by air. here great food resturants ect , i mean really 700 bah to patong from air port lol 200 bh for taxies lol you can go any where here for 60 bh for 2 on a red box or 120 for a tuk tuk. and all the ripoffs there. ill trade a good place to live any day over a beach and last time i was there in sept and the beach was so dirty water so bad who would want to go in i saw lots of people not wanting to. and the jet skie guys the beaches are dirty with tons of trash broken bits of would dirty streets so much stuff floating in the water you could feel it hit your legs . so why go there ?? drinks and every thing so high iyts all a ripp of .

The Russians are broke. As are the Americans, the Brits, the Chinese, and most everyone else. (Except for the Nordic nations).

Brits?...I’m not skint and neither are many of the quality Brit tourists I know that visit Lalaland. No Sir, I think there are many and varied reasons why folk are not going there...kop some of NKM’s sermons for the unfortunate low-down. Arh, the good old days...

"I think there are many and varied reasons why folk are not going there" - it's not tsunamis, bird flu, swine flu, terrorist threats, military coups, volcano eruption, exchange rates, visa laws etc etc.

Phuket no longer offers a value for money holiday, when compared to its competitors.

People are still holidaying, just not to Phuket, any more.

[elgenon]

The Russians are broke. As are the Americans, the Brits, the Chinese, and most everyone else. (Except for the Nordic nations).

This Yank sure isn't broke. Same with my friends. All my properties are worth more than ever. My other investments are up. My friends are the same. Unemployment is low. The stock market has more than doubled, Manufacturing is up. Oil is way down. We are the largest producer of gas in the world and, by some measures, also of oil. Wages are starting to rise. If you don't know the facts don't speak. It's an easy thing to remember.

The Chinese sure the heck aren't broke. Still the biggest market in the world and getting bigger. Uninformed people say their is economy is slowing. Let me say this s l o w l y so you can understand. The rate of growth has slowed because they are transitioning to a consumer economy. The economy hasn't slowed. Big difference in case you are unaware..

The Russians may be hurting but they are proud as heck their man is waging war to regain the empire.

The Americans, Brits and Chinese are the only countries that did QE and are benefiting from that. Japan and the rest of Europe is finally waking up to that fact.

People who say things as fact just because they want them to be fact need to take a time out in the corner.

[Expat1]

The reasons why no one goes to Patpong any longer is the same reason it has been for the last 20 over years...the horrible, nasty Night Street Market that slithered it's way in so long back and refuses to leave or die. It has sucked the life out of the street. If one were to remove the night market it would rejuvenate the same or at least similar to Soi Cowboy. A fresh influx of cash would come for certain to build it up. For those younger of you that are not aware 25 plus years ago the positions were reversed, Patpong was the place to go and Cowboy the poor cousin. However, when the market moved in the clientele moved out, simple as that.

[KarenBravo]

PATONG.........not Patpong. This is the Phuket sub-forum.

Though, I agree with your analysis of that street in Bangkok.

[hansgruber]

One good plus is that central is having a sale in just about every shop. Things I was eyeing off a few months ago are much more sensibly priced.

The 84 inch LG 4k Tv is 250k for cash. I can't resist.

Same tv was over a million last year.

[DLock]

I was in Phuket last weekend for business.

It's not that Phuket felt quiet, it's that the options for tourists is growing way faster than tourist numbers. The amount of construction of new hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, shops, massage, markets and 7/11's is astounding....and still they build.

Too me, it felt very busy on the street and what I observed driving around. Traffic was bad, parking impossible, tourists everywhere.

I have no idea what the growth rate of these businesses are, but it sure looks like they are outstripping the tourist growth numbers, meaning more businesses sharing fewer customers each.

Tourists just have way too many options, and I guess the smart will survive.

Disclamier : I could be totally wrong. I lived there 7 years and the numbers of tourists now seem huge to me compared to when I was there.

[LivinginKata]

<snip>

I have no idea what the growth rate of these businesses are, but it sure looks like they are outstripping the tourist growth numbers, meaning more businesses sharing fewer customers each.

Excellent assessment. I've been saying much the same for many years. The cake is not really getting bigger and eveyone is getting a much smaller slice of that cake every year. Just not enough tourist growth to support the ever growing buildins and businesses.

[hansgruber]

<snip>

I have no idea what the growth rate of these businesses are, but it sure looks like they are outstripping the tourist growth numbers, meaning more businesses sharing fewer customers each.

Excellent assessment. I've been saying much the same for many years. The cake is not really getting bigger and eveyone is getting a much smaller slice of that cake every year. Just not enough tourist growth to support the ever growing buildins and businesses.

That's why Thaina Rd in Kata died.

It's a shell of its former self.

[KarenBravo]

It's been dead a long time and it was never really busy in the first place.

If any place has suffered from the change to family tourism, it's Kata Centre.

Edited February 6, 2015 by KarenBravo

[hansgruber]

It's been dead a long time and it was never really busy in the first place.

If any place has suffered from the change to family tourism, it's Kata Centre.

It used to be very busy 10 years ago. Shops commanded huge key money because nothing else was in the area. Now I can count 15 vacant shops for rent. 10 years ago before kata centre was there it was jungle all the way up to Rico steak house.

Just had a row of bars where opposite the start of club med. That's it.

Over development killed Thaina Rd.

Going back even further when red rose bar and that zone existed.

Edited February 6, 2015 by hansgruber

[GiantFan]

The chinese put backpackers to shame with regards to cheapness and odd smells

Renowned toilet blockers too. They will flush anything. Even the hotel room hair dryer.

Mostly they flush dirty underwear because they don't want anyone to see the stains and are embarrassed and tight to get them cleaned.

Weird bunch for sure.

I don't disagree, but I am now living in China and nobody flushes. It is all dropped into a small rubbish bin next to the bowl.

I think it is gross, so I flush it still. No bum washers within a thousand miles.

Depending on the laundry cost (I know, Phuket is cheaper than other places) it may be more economical to throw out and buy new. I did that in Hong Kong when I was staying for a couple of weeks in a hotel.

[simon43]

I have no idea what the growth rate of these businesses are, but it sure looks like they are outstripping the tourist growth numbers, meaning more businesses sharing fewer customers each.

Agree also. Here in north Phuket, everyonew seems to be building a condo block or hotel. It's gone crazy and most of the condos will stay empty and rhe hotels will simply be sharing the same customer base.

The only solution for small hotels like mine is to trade on good reputation and service.

That probably means that I have to start being nice to French customers

[NamKangMan]

I have no idea what the growth rate of these businesses are, but it sure looks like they are outstripping the tourist growth numbers, meaning more businesses sharing fewer customers each.

Agree also. Here in north Phuket, everyonew seems to be building a condo block or hotel. It's gone crazy and most of the condos will stay empty and rhe hotels will simply be sharing the same customer base.

The only solution for small hotels like mine is to trade on good reputation and service.

That probably means that I have to start being nice to French customers

"and rhe hotels will simply be sharing the same customer base." - and that's a shrinking "customer base."

"

The only solution for small hotels like mine is to trade on good reputation and service." - or, target a niche market, which will become more difficult in the future, as well.

[Bogan Koori]

Phuket airport added a new terminal few years back and it seems that it's still expanding. For me that sounds that there are more flights to and from Phuket.

Some time ago I send an query to flightradar24 to ask if it would be possible to extract data from their database, how many flights and how large planes are landing to Phuket, but I never got an reply back from them. That data would not have revealed how full the flights are, but it would have given an independent indication if there has been increase or decrease of pax capacity.

A bit off topic but I am noticing a lot more of my friends that live up near Udon are using Phuket as a transit point instead of staying in Bangkok because the flights work out to be closer together.

Also others are getting direct flights to Phuket and onto Bangkok.. staying the night instead of transiting in Singapore or KL. The proximity of cheap hotels 5 mins away from PIA make it a much more attractive way to get home.

Other friends that live in Koh Lanta are using Phuket instead of Krabi. I can see Phuket being much more of a stop over point to the rest of Thailand as the airport expands.

[elgenon]

The reasons why no one goes to Patpong any longer is the same reason it has been for the last 20 over years...the horrible, nasty Night Street Market that slithered it's way in so long back and refuses to leave or die. It has sucked the life out of the street. If one were to remove the night market it would rejuvenate the same or at least similar to Soi Cowboy. A fresh influx of cash would come for certain to build it up. For those younger of you that are not aware 25 plus years ago the positions were reversed, Patpong was the place to go and Cowboy the poor cousin. However, when the market moved in the clientele moved out, simple as that.

And you KNOW this is the reason how? It flourished for quite a few years w the market. May I read your source material? Thanks!

[madmitch]

It's been dead a long time and it was never really busy in the first place.

If any place has suffered from the change to family tourism, it's Kata Centre.

It used to be very busy 10 years ago. Shops commanded huge key money because nothing else was in the area. Now I can count 15 vacant shops for rent. 10 years ago before kata centre was there it was jungle all the way up to Rico steak house.

Just had a row of bars where opposite the start of club med. That's it.

Over development killed Thaina Rd.

Going back even further when red rose bar and that zone existed.

But now the key money demanded is even higher than when the street was busy and successful. Usual Thai business logic. And when a business does well the landlords increase the rent to try to make up some of the overall loss of income and so the existing tenants pull out as well (Happened with Dukes).

The only successful business on Thaina Road now appears to be Doctor Chusak!