PBTA chief calls for jet ski ban

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

What do UFO's and honest jet ski operators have in common? You hear about them all the time but nobody ever sees one.

[onemorechang]

"All the people who are moaning about them are Expats.

Thailand does not want Expats, cant you all see that.

Thailand wants the 2 week tourist who goes home with empty pockets and a big smile."

If Pattaya would not have the thousands of expats living in and around the city would not give constantly jobs to other thousands of people and not only in high season.....

So this country need foreigners as many of them pay for the kids from thai couples the husband run away and dont pay any stetang, the foreigners are the ones who stand behind the huge construction site as thais cant manage this, thais can nearly manage nothing and thats the problem of this country!

So welcome the foreigners..........you need them and their money!

I totally agree.

But they could not careless about you in pattaya.

[Just1Voice]

Keep the jet Ski, its part of the holiday for some tourists.

Regulate it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it can be done, city hall has the power to do this.

BTW , I don't like them, but im not a tourist.

All the people who are moaning about them are Expats.

Thailand does not want Expats, cant you all see that.

Thailand wants the 2 week tourist who goes home with empty pockets and a big smile.

Long live the jet Ski.

All the people who are moaning about them are Expats.

Yeah, because the only people who rent the damn things are Expats and tourists.

[Bangkok Barry]

There is a very simple solution, but in Thailand nothing can ever be simple and so the situation continues. What happened to the demand that all owners carry insurance to cover any damage? Then the problem is solved. No insurance, no licence to operate. No excuses. How simple is that.

[alphaflight]

Good!

[cookee68]

This is just another one of those hot air talks, nothing will happen, and nothing will change, it looks good to the world. that's about it. Ban them all they are a pain

[Just1Voice]

There is a very simple solution, but in Thailand nothing can ever be simple and so the situation continues. What happened to the demand that all owners carry insurance to cover any damage? Then the problem is solved. No insurance, no licence to operate. No excuses. How simple is that.

They can't carry insurance on them due to the simple fact that Thai law makes jet skis ILLEGAL!

[konying]

Why?

Why not make new regulations that they all must have insurance?

In case of accident or damage, customer pays excess and case closed.

Those who decide to scam the system will have their insurance refused, ie no longer able to operate or her charged higher premiums and be forced out

[The Deerhunter]

"they need to both self-police their ranks and turn in to authorities those engaged in criminal activity, he said"

Oh my Oh my,,, this will never end

It gets complicated. Will the crooks will "turn-in" the few honest ones (that's if there are any honest ones) to get rid of the unfair competition, If no-one turns anyone in, does that mean they are all crooks? Lets hope it does end soon.

An idea to reduce the main causes of corruption & bad PR in the fair city of Pattaya. Seeing the Indians like jet skis so much, (and I also believe ladyboys too), why not take any lady boy with more than one complaint/arrest to her/his name, and send jet ski & rider to "ride to India." Give them a full tank of gas to get them well on their way, and BINGO! Two birds with one stone! Add a police escort, that would make three birds!!! 25 (Yee-Ha!)

[The Deerhunter]

I've rented Jet Skis loads of times here.

One guy in Phuket once pointed to some 'damage' but I just smiles, shook my head and walked off.

The 'self policing' thing is a farce. What about 'police' policing?

According to previous posts on this site, Some members of "Pattaya's Finest" also are proprietors of Jet ski rental businesses. I have no personal intel on this but if the business is to be policed, a clause should be that no owner or shareholder,partner, persons with a financial interest etc is allowed to be an employee of any government, security or official capacity. Of course that might make being a jetski operator and also the mayor of Pattaya at any time in the remote future mutually exclusive.

[Thaidream]

Yipee Kai Yai- and you know the rest....

[onemorechang]

Keep the jet Ski, its part of the holiday for some tourists.

Regulate it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it can be done, city hall has the power to do this.

BTW , I don't like them, but im not a tourist.

All the people who are moaning about them are Expats.

Thailand does not want Expats, cant you all see that.

Thailand wants the 2 week tourist who goes home with empty pockets and a big smile.

Long live the jet Ski.

All the people who are moaning about them are Expats.

Yeah, because the only people who rent the damn things are Expats and tourists.

Do expats rent jet skis ?

[balo]

So, where is the only honest vendor ?

Jomtien , never heard about a scam there and I have observed a lot of happy tourists renting jet skis.

[balo]

At least they are discussing it, it's a start.

[saakura]

I hope other goverments/embassies will follow up and join the indians. Just two or three more countries enough to tighten the screws on these scamsters.

[DD13]

The bad publicity affects tourism........which in turn affects hotel bookings.......so maybe hotels should post notices advising their customers to "steer well clear" of hiring jet skis......and the travel companies should play their part in protecting their customers

Sadly this saga will run and run

[cracker1]

Could Pattaya Mail please ask the local authority's what Law allows the use of Jet Ski's in their city ?

[gigman]

If he did not anything to punish those who guilty of scamming tourists then he is also guilty.

Best to shut down this noisy business.

[LarryLEB]

Every week, I go for brunch to a restaurant on Pattaya Beach Road about 250 meters from Walking Street. I have a clear view of the jetski operators (the first on that beach when you come from Walking Street). 2 or 3 times out of 10, I see the police and the operators with two or three hapless tourists. I've seen the tourists taken away by the police several times in the past few months.

One of the waitresses tells me that this happens several times EVERY DAY!

[ableguy]

This scam is a big money spinner and will never go away until the BIB reform, which is a bit like saying not a snow flake in hells chance, this is Thailand we all love it but find it hard to accept all the scams, all comments on these people are a wate of space, just like this post.

[spidermike007]

But honest vendors can no longer sit idly by and let the scams continue, Sinchai said. If honest vendors don’t want city hall to ban jet skis, they need to both self-police their ranks and turn in to authorities those engaged in criminal activity, he said.

For now, Pattaya must again repair the damage done by scam artists, Sinchai said. The first step is to write a letter to the government of India, which recently wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express its concerns about repeated ripoffs of Indian tourists.

Sinchai said earlier the issue with India was so serious that Pattaya runs the risk of being boycotted by one of its largest tourist markets.

Once the letter has been sent, the city must again bring in every jet ski vendor operating in Pattaya and broker an agreement to cooperatively end the extortion and intimidation. If the agreement is broken, then city hall should simply ban them all, Sinchai said.

This so really something. How to even react to this? It is a bit like Little P. saying the way to solve the mystery of the Bangkok bombing is for the suspects to turn themselves in. What genius. Why didn't anyone else think of that? Why don't all investigators use that technique?

Honestly, this is a very weak response. He probably knows the police are not only in on it, many are probably owners of the jet skis. He wants other jet ski owners to solve the problem? Really?

[dontoearth]

Excellent idea! The self-policing. I am sure it will work out fine. And much better than having the pesky burden of licenses properly displayed at rental and regularly inspected vendors. Vendors that could be suspended after tourist complaints and banned completely after a few incidents. Wouldn't want to do that! Why not also let the pick pocket lady boys self-police? OH and another good idea is just to close the beach and leave it full of litter one day a week. After all people spending a couple of grand for a beach vacation just get bored with the beach and enjoy it just being closed. Yeah. People from Sweden, Norway and Finland and Germany don't want to use the beach everyday on their 2 week vacation they spent a months salary on at all. I been going to Pattya since the 80's. Been going! Just stopped years ago. And it seems 10,000's of tourist have figured out they don't want to visit it either. And these problems have been going on for years. You can watch the jet ski scam on youtube. And they have all been solved by press conferences promising to really shape things up shortly.And appealing to everyone to behave better or else! I guess the self-policing is a nod to the fact they know the police are in on the scams? Maybe the indians will get some traction with their govt. putting pressure on. I hope so. Would be nice to be assured a clean beach open everyday and no noisy jet skis and unhappy tourist being drug in by the police.

[shawndoc]

The problem isn't jetskis. The problem is inability of the Thai police to do their jobs. We've already seen a ban on jetskis doesn't work, simply because the operators will ignore the ban, and the police will continue to look the other way.

[bartender100]

The problem isn't jetskis. The problem is inability of the Thai police to do their jobs. We've already seen a ban on jetskis doesn't work, simply because the operators will ignore the ban, and the police will continue to look the other way.

The police are doing their job, looking after the scammers for their superiors

[Friendly Stranger]

I hope other goverments/embassies will follow up and join the indians. Just two or three more countries enough to tighten the screws on these scamsters.

You're totally right, but I think this may be pretty low on many countries list.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Friendly Stranger

[Pattaya28]

And how long might this process take ?

Months ? Years ? Decades ?

[lvr181]

I've rented Jet Skis loads of times here.

One guy in Phuket once pointed to some 'damage' but I just smiles, shook my head and walked off.

The 'self policing' thing is a farce. What about 'police' policing?

Police policing is an oxymoron

[bristolgeoff]

could be a postive way of trying to fix and stop the scam

[jacko45k]

So Mr. Sinchai want to give them "one last chance" ... How many of those have they got ... ?

This guy is in it just as Police is Deep in it - It will never stop until people just stay away ...

8 posts up, (#11) it appears the one last chance has been used up.

Perhaps 3-4 officials watching on the Beach would reap more benefit than 5+ waffling at a table behind a bunch of flowers.

A team ready to 'swoop'...... jet-skis all confiscated, that particular group out of business, well at least out of pocket.

I think an announcement that any Police Officer, at any rank, who has any association or involvement with the business will be fired immediately might be an idea.

[catman20]

everybody should vote with there feet