Where Thailand could help their tourist attendance is to have more destination/attraction spots.  Like Asiatique in Bangkok, but more of a daytime destination attraction place and larger.  

If Hua Hin or even Pattaya had a place like that was on the water, walking friendly, had a few rides. restaurants, maybe an aquarium, etc, more people might come to spend the day.  

 

15 hours ago, fforest1 said:

 

People seem to always have money for alcohol drugs and hookers..

But can be pretty cheap when it comes to transportation...

 

Well yeah they think in terms of how many bar fines a round trip ferry ticket would cost. The other thing is they also realize there Aren't as many bar girls in HH and can't justify the trip.

Someone just did a trip report on another forum with pics and the ferry was 15% full....And that's with a discounted ticket which I understand ends this month.

Just sayin

The solution might be dual pricing to make it affordable for more Thais. I know that would be unpopular with non-Thais, but Thai logic may well prevail.

27 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Someone just did a trip report on another forum with pics and the ferry was 15% full.

 

I knew it !  They need to reduce the fares asap or it will be no business within a year . 

 

1 hour ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Someone just did a trip report on another forum with pics and the ferry was 15% full....And that's with a discounted ticket which I understand ends this month.

Just sayin

I did query earlier whether the 50% full was based on the registered capacity of around 360 or on the reduced capacity of 150?

56 minutes ago, tompelli said:

I did query earlier whether the 50% full was based on the registered capacity of around 360 or on the reduced capacity of 150?

 

85% of the boat was empty.

 

I hope this answers your question.

 

Mind you, I only have those poster's pictures as a reference. I don't live in Pattaya and have no idea if it's like this every day.

The guy who posted the photos on the other forum was me, but as I also don't live in Pattaya, I have no idea if the lack of passengers is the norm.  

 

I hope for the sake of this business that it was an 'off' day when I travelled, and that the ferry is usually much more busy.

 

I caught the ferry to Hua Hin last Thursday. Business Class was 90% full, Economy was about 10%.

On my return journey to Pattaya on Monday Business Class was full and Economy was about 75%.

i was down that way by bali hai yesterday and did an accurate count of the number boarding although who sat in economy or business i couldn't say but tuesdays total departing pattaya at the new time of 10.00 hrs was 76 souls. almost all of them falangs

i was down that way by bali hai yesterday and did an accurate count of the number boarding although who sat in economy or business i couldn't say but tuesdays total departing pattaya at the new time of 10.00 hrs was 76 souls. almost all of them falangs

So no Thais ?

3 hours ago, balo said:

 

So no Thais ?

 

2 or 3 telacs in tow with falangs but otherwise almost zero thai's. i counted them in as they go through the security check door.

3 hours ago, balo said:

 

So no Thais ?

 

For a Thai family of 4-5-6-7  it would cost them a tidy sum of money 

to use this ferry....

Until they lower the price to some thing reasonable like 5-600 baht...

I think there will mostly only be pale faces and maybe a few Chinese riding this thing... 

I went to check the price last week as I'm off to Hua hin.

The rumored 1000baht is no more, back to 1250

Office was empty just a hostess doing her best to pressure me into buying the ticket "now"

2 hours ago, Ijustcashier said:

I went to check the price last week as I'm off to Hua hin.

The rumored 1000baht is no more, back to 1250

Office was empty just a hostess doing her best to pressure me into buying the ticket "now"

i spoke to 1 falang passenger on tuesday and he said he paid a special songkran fare of 1125 bht

So who bankrolled the startup operation?  Was it done using investor's money or some venture capitalist's money?  If the operation goes bust, who loses money?  Who owns the darn thing or company?  Was it goverment subsidized?  Who did the cost analysis?

2 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

So who bankrolled the startup operation?  Was it done using investor's money or some venture capitalist's money?  If the operation goes bust, who loses money?  Who owns the darn thing or company?  Was it goverment subsidized?  Who did the cost analysis?

 

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/973465-pattaya-hua-hin-ferry-50-60-full-in-first-month/?do=findComment&comment=11715613

 

Quote

 

Quote

What is not clear is who owns the Hua Hin ferry? and why?

 

No, it's all clear to anyone who reads. Government owned, privately operated. You may contact Marine Department director-general Sorasak Saensombat for questions related to the goverment's part. And you may contact the operator, Royal Passenger Liner, at their offices at the Pattaya Automatic Parking, 2nd floor, Bali Hai Pier in Pattaya or Khao Takiab Pier, the main pier in the centre of Hua Hin. Good 'nuff for you? That help?

 

Nor is the reason difficult to understand: to make money while incidentally offering a service some may enjoy or find useful. Officially, The Pattaya-Hua Hin ferry service is part of the Thai government’s East-West Ferry Project that attempts to link resorts and towns on facing coastlines of the Gulf Thailand. Now is a link better than no link? Well, probably.

 

Market research and cost analysis can't be done by Thais but only by the TVF Central Planning Bureau. The Bureau determines the feasibility of a new service/product and the "fair" price, which is usually under 100 baht. However, the Bureau only goes by "what's needed." Nothing has been needed in the last 20 years, so the ferry would never have been approved.

 

The TVF Central Planning Bureau has ruled that the ferry tickets

have been way overpriced sense day #1....lol

 

What happened with ferry? Anyone took a trip recently? how's the capacity?

On 3/14/2017 at 11:51 AM, wpcoe said:

I'm assuming that "OAP" in the OP means "Old Age Person"?  If so, what do they consider "old"?

Over 65