How can Patong reinvent itself?

[paahlman]

21 hours ago, Tofer said:

First of all its her... not him..

 

She go to chiang mai...

 

Sincerely

 

Chris

21 hours ago, Tofer said:

 

 

Please ask your friend where I can get 'condo tours' from. Tourists just love that!

I can't find them all now they've built on mountains behind mountains behind other mountains. 

 

The concept of quality over quantity springs to mind...

 

Please also ask him where he holidays with his family?

 

[Old Croc]

16 hours ago, anotheruser said:

A moratorium any any new developments on Phuket needed to happen yesterday. I just can't see a very bright future for the island in terms of atmosphere and the environment with out this. 

 

People who are saying it isn't that bad and there are still out of the way places won't be saying that in 10 years. So take the energy they are putting into destroying the island and completely redo Patong beach instead. 

 

I wasn't joking about bulldozing the place. Some of Nanai road could stay in place to house workers. This area could also house the night club beer bar gogo bar zone. There is no need for those to be on prime real estate next to the beach. 

 

Everything below the hill to Karoen and the way to Kamala and the entry from the big hill would have to go. 

 

Make the entire beach road and square that includes Bangla and I forget the other streets but it is a square pedestrian only.  Make the center a park and dig the beach road up completely leaving only foot and bicycle paths and trees. 

 

Let a handful of higher end properties operate on each edge of the new park and make them maintain the park as part of their operating license. Before anybody cries about it being only for the rich, the park is open to anybody. 

 

Jets skis motor boats and all other motors are banned on the beach and near waters. Chairs are provided free of charge for everybody by the hotels licensed to operate in or near the green zone. Each chair is equipped with an electronic button to summon a vendor from a handful of stations nearby to summon a beer or food should they want one.

 

Vendors would not be allowed to walk the beach and pester people but would be allowed to come out when somebody pushes the button. 

 

I would also take the opportunity to rename the city itself. Not sure my idea would make anybody enough money. It would be easy as pie to make the area nice again but it would be hard to make it nice and feed the greed that thrives there. 

 

The list of things to improve Patong goes on and on but none of it will ever happen.

 

I forgot to add once they do all of this repeat the same thing in Pattaya.

So, nothing small or practical then?

Just bulldoze an entire city and rebuild to your specs.

 

[Old Croc]

How about introducing some free, motorised tourist trams circling the city (no rails). They could even be stylized to resemble the cattle trucks so many find endearing here. A London style, open double decker bus could do the same job. Of course someone with authority and ethics would have to give all the TTs their marching orders from the beach road. 

A cable car linking Patong to a viewpoint on radar hill would be very popular with families. (Another from Karon to Big Budda would make even more sense).

The time is ripe for someone to again try to establish a bus service linking the west coast beaches.

Things appear to be finally happening with public transport in the Province, now is the time to push the crims out.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Old Croc

[NamKangMan]

12 hours ago, Old Croc said:

How about introducing some free, motorised tourist trams circling the city (no rails). They could even be stylized to resemble the cattle trucks so many find endearing here. A London style, open double decker bus could do the same job. Of course someone with authority and ethics would have to give all the TTs their marching orders from the beach road. 

A cable car linking Patong to a viewpoint on radar hill would be very popular with families. (Another from Karon to Big Budda would make even more sense).

The time is ripe for someone to again try to establish a bus service linking the west coast beaches.

Things appear to be finally happening with public transport in the Province, now is the time to push the crims out.

 

"Things appear to be finally happening with public transport in the Province" - what is "finally happening?"  It's just more of the same.

[NamKangMan]

On 01/06/2017 at 10:06 AM, paahlman said:

Patong Richard...

 

As a friend of tourism minister in bangkok I know something...

 

First of all they will build the cables underground starting in two years....

 

They have already done that in Phuket town on two sois....

 

Number two..... Thailand is in 1950... Either accept that or at least live with it...

 

Sincerely

 

Chris

 

"They have already done that in Phuket town on two sois...." - that's called progress. 

 

"Number two..... Thailand is in 1950." - that's called regress. 

[Destiny1990]

Why in Patong chairs food and umbrellas etc are somewhat Restricted while for all the thai seafood beach restaurants behind the Phuket Zoo this no problem whatsoever?

[anotheruser]

17 hours ago, Old Croc said:

So, nothing small or practical then?

Just bulldoze an entire city and rebuild to your specs.

 

Well make sure older retirees are kept outside. But yes essentially bull doze it.

[madmax2]

Last of the big spenders posting, who is going to finance the purchasing and redeveloping land that will have no income once done, that's not including the compensation of the businesses for the loss of income and future profits 

[Argus Tuft]

On 6/1/2017 at 6:36 AM, paahlman said:

Patong Richard...

 

As a friend of tourism minister in bangkok I know something...

 

First of all they will build the cables underground starting in two years....

 

They have already done that in Phuket town on two sois....

 

Number two..... Thailand is in 1950... Either accept that or at least live with it...

 

Sincerely

 

Chris

If you know something...

 

Then you will know that the Tourism Minister (Minister for Sports and Tourism) is Khun Kobkarn Wattanavrang

 

First - she doesn't have anything to do with getting cables underground

 

Number two - I think she would take offence to you saying Thailand is in 1950.

 

Either accept that or at least live with it 

[NamKangMan]

8 hours ago, Argus Tuft said:

If you know something...

 

Then you will know that the Tourism Minister (Minister for Sports and Tourism) is Khun Kobkarn Wattanavrang

 

First - she doesn't have anything to do with getting cables underground

 

Number two - I think she would take offence to you saying Thailand is in 1950.

 

Either accept that or at least live with it 

 

"I think she would take offence to you saying Thailand is in 1950." - most Thai's "take offense" to ANY criticism that is all things Thai. Loss of face and all. 

 

Offense to such criticism doesn't mean the criticism isn't true and correct.

 

Not to mention, the good Minister is part of the minority Thai elite who profits from keeping the majority Thai population in the 1950's.

[bbi1]

On 2017-5-31 at 10:21 PM, sekmet said:

What would Patong need to do to become a world class destination?

Patong & "world class destination" - that's an oxymoron!

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.   

[KarenBravo]

How can Patong reinvent itself?

This question presumes that "Patong" is a unified entity that can think.

It isn't and it won't.

[NamKangMan]

On 08/06/2017 at 1:36 AM, KarenBravo said:

How can Patong reinvent itself?

This question presumes that "Patong" is a unified entity that can think.

It isn't and it won't.

 

But it is owned and administered by a privileged few, is it not? 

 

Such "few" appear resistant to change, despite their resistance changing the tourist demographics here.

 

How long can their resistance continue, before they start to bleed baht from their traditional bread and butter money earners?

Edited June 9, 2017 by NamKangMan

[xylophone]

On 6/9/2017 at 9:44 PM, NamKangMan said:

 

But it is owned and administered by a privileged few, is it not? 

 

Such "few" appear resistant to change, despite their resistance changing the tourist demographics here.

 

How long can their resistance continue, before they start to bleed baht from their traditional bread and butter money earners?

I did post in another thread that Patong missed the opportunity to be another Puerto Banus or Juan les Pins as it had everything going for it, but corruption took hold and the people in power and the people who pull all the strings are involved.

 

As madmitch has said in another post, popular holiday areas in Spain have been "redeveloped" back from the almost cesspits that they became, with some degree of success by all accounts.

 

All the time the money flows into the coffers here then the powers that be here don't really care what happens provided that money flow continues, however as stated above by NKM if that starts to hurt then they may be forced to do something. However I doubt very much that the spending of vast sums of money to improve the place will occur, more likely more ways to elicit tea-money or similar.

 

The only way for Patong to reinvent itself is for the corrupt to be moved out and the government or whomsoever to take the helicopter view of the place now and what they want for the future, and redesign it.

 

It has been done elsewhere, but here...............

[xylophone]

On 6/1/2017 at 4:02 PM, anotheruser said:

The entire place is a lesson in what not to do. It would be easier and cheaper to demolish the entire place and start from scratch than attempt patch the rotten mess back together.

In a roundabout way, perhaps that's what is happening (in some places)!!!!!!

 

Buildings which haven't been here too many years are already being torn down as was the white elephant of a multi-floored foodcourt/shopping centre almost next to the new Tiger complex. Rumours abound as to what that is going to become.

 

Out in Bangla last night for the first time in two months and noticed that some bars/buildings had been demolished next to resurrected Tiger, so the bulldozers are working their magic in that area, but to what end? And just a few metres up from that the recently opened and lavishly fitted out Tao was closed (waiting for the bulldozers?).

 

The building which housed "Seduction" and "Higher" is still empty and there doesn't appear to have been much work done on resurrecting that, so what of its future?

 

Soi Crocodile was bulldozed and has never been replaced................ and so on.

 

Speaking of rumours, many of them focus on the building of a new shopping mall somewhere in the areas that I have mentioned, but who knows with this place.

 

People were out last night, although not in great numbers, enjoying what Bangla has to offer and I think that has always been a part of Patong's attraction however judging from the diverse demographic mix last night, more than just bars are needed to keep the tourists interest alive.

 

If one were to revamp that area and upgrade the beaches, allow beach chairs and umbrellas, restrict/ban jetskis and put plans in place to "upscale the amenities and market it accordingly" then it would be a start, however if that doesn't happen it will become what it has already started to become and that is a place for cheap Chinese tourists and bogans of many nationalities.

[sekmet]

Yes, the soi next to ressurected Tiger has been torn down. My understanding was Simon of the caberet held the master lease and then sold it to parties unknown. There was at least one successful long running bar that was given about two days to clear out.

 

That makes two or more demolished empty sois. I suspect at some point perhaps all the go go s will be pushed out to side sois like sansabai, kepsub or even Nana. Maybe Bangkok money or Tiger is buying up leases for a massive coordinated project. Of course both Bangla Tigers are completely empty beyond the Street side bars. On the upside, the gritty ten baht bathroom is now located at the back of ressurected Tiger; all of the toilets work, but it is the same toilet lady.

 

As a side note, I have found it incredibly easy to cross Rat-u-tit at all hours of the day and night.

[LivinginKata]

When I walked down to Patong Immigration last Monday I was surprised to see that the Patong Garden Resort (ex Mayor Pian) had been demolished and a new structure in build.

[Tofer]

On 31 May 2017 at 7:21 PM, sekmet said:

ALL of Phuket is overpriced, overdeveloped, congested, polluted and mafia controlled.

The Pier Road area of Chalong is nice.


Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk
 

Is that the end of the pier where you catch a boat to get the hell out of there.

[sekmet]

15 hours ago, Tofer said:

Is that the end of the pier where you catch a boat to get the hell out of there.

Yes, but you will probably end up at Phi Phi, which is worse.

In Chalong you can get a decent AC room for 400B, beer for 50B, a sizeable breakfast with real espresso for 150B  and no tuk tuks.

[Tofer]

3 hours ago, sekmet said:

Yes, but you will probably end up at Phi Phi, which is worse.

In Chalong you can get a decent AC room for 400B, beer for 50B, a sizeable breakfast with real espresso for 150B  and no tuk tuks.

I agree it has a lot of facilities I sometimes yearn for, but it's still Phuket unfortunately, and 37 years on from my first visit there it's now unpalatable.

 

I caught that ferry and bypassed Phi Phi for Koh Lanta - it may be a bit too quiet here for some but still an undeveloped / unspoilt / unpolluted paradise. Maybe I can get rich as well when prices escalate with the inevitable changes to come... TIT

Edited June 24, 2017 by Tofer
P.s. That's if I've not kicked the bucket by then! Happy days or serious compensation, either way suits me.

[NamKangMan]

On 22/06/2017 at 3:39 PM, xylophone said:

I did post in another thread that Patong missed the opportunity to be another Puerto Banus or Juan les Pins as it had everything going for it, but corruption took hold and the people in power and the people who pull all the strings are involved.

 

As madmitch has said in another post, popular holiday areas in Spain have been "redeveloped" back from the almost cesspits that they became, with some degree of success by all accounts.

 

All the time the money flows into the coffers here then the powers that be here don't really care what happens provided that money flow continues, however as stated above by NKM if that starts to hurt then they may be forced to do something. However I doubt very much that the spending of vast sums of money to improve the place will occur, more likely more ways to elicit tea-money or similar.

 

The only way for Patong to reinvent itself is for the corrupt to be moved out and the government or whomsoever to take the helicopter view of the place now and what they want for the future, and redesign it.

 

It has been done elsewhere, but here...............

 

"It has been done elsewhere, but here..............." - I have often said, "This generation of Phuket Thai's will have to explain to the next generation how they f**ked it all up." 

 

Phuket will probably be a case study for Thai university students, studying tourism, in the future.

 

Phuket reminds me of the Nokia company. 

 

Nokia had such a large portion of the mobile phone market, they thought they could never lose it. 

 

Mainly, Nokia didn't invest in research and development, and encourage new ideas and innovation. 

 

That lead to Nokia offering phones that the high end market no longer desired. They wanted the newer smart phones, which was a higher quality product. 

 

Eventually, that left Nokia selling their cheap talk and text phones to people in developing countries, so, not as much money to be made in that. 

 

All of this saw Nokia's market share decline, rapidly.  Basically, management of the company were asleep at the wheel.

 

 

Similarly, Phuket had a big part of the western tourism market, particularly in South East Asia.  This market was lucrative, basically, high end. 

 

Phuket failed to invest in infrastructure and failed to address its many "issues." 

 

Phuket is now a holiday the high end western market no longer desires.  Like the old talk and text Nokia phone, a Phuket holiday is no long a quality product.

 

So, like the Nokia company, Phuket now sells itself to tourists from developing countries.   Eg.  Chinese, Indians, Russians. 

 

As a result, Phuket continues to lose market share of the western tourist market, and money.

 

Where Phuket differs to Nokia, is it is corruption that has caused Phuket's decline, rather than corporate mismanagement. 

[SiamBeast]

I manage a resort in Phuket and we are mainly getting Chinese (& Hong Kong) and Russians. Western tourists are very scarce, and it's due to the decline of Phuket because of corruption, mismanagement, and sex trade. The above analogy with Nokia is right. How about:

 

- Removing at least half of the tuk tuks

- Being tough on jet ski scams and motorbike scams

- Forbidding sellers from walking on the beach, instead put stalls in place

- Bulldozing part of Bangla and putting more family-oriented venues in place

- Putting a moratorium in place for the purchase of new vehicles, to stop congestion

[xylophone]

50 minutes ago, SiamBeast said:

I manage a resort in Phuket and we are mainly getting Chinese (& Hong Kong) and Russians. Western tourists are very scarce, and it's due to the decline of Phuket because of corruption, mismanagement, and sex trade. The above analogy with Nokia is right. How about:

 

- Removing at least half of the tuk tuks

- Being tough on jet ski scams and motorbike scams

- Forbidding sellers from walking on the beach, instead put stalls in place

- Bulldozing part of Bangla and putting more family-oriented venues in place

- Putting a moratorium in place for the purchase of new vehicles, to stop congestion

Great info from someone in the tourism business and in its way it supports those things which some have been saying on similar threads.......

[steelepulse]

2 hours ago, SiamBeast said:

I manage a resort in Phuket and we are mainly getting Chinese (& Hong Kong) and Russians. Western tourists are very scarce, and it's due to the decline of Phuket because of corruption, mismanagement, and sex trade. The above analogy with Nokia is right. How about:

 

- Removing at least half of the tuk tuks

- Being tough on jet ski scams and motorbike scams

- Forbidding sellers from walking on the beach, instead put stalls in place

- Bulldozing part of Bangla and putting more family-oriented venues in place

- Putting a moratorium in place for the purchase of new vehicles, to stop congestion

If there wasn't so much money in it for the powers that be, these suggestions would probably already have happened.  As it is now, everyone wants to get their snout in the trough and tourism be damned as the snouts just figure more tourists will be getting off the next planes so there's more cash coming their way.  The future? Who cares about the future is what the powers that be are thinking as they are dreaming up the next boondoggle of a fountain, circle or sign.

[NamKangMan]

On 29/06/2017 at 11:29 PM, steelepulse said:

If there wasn't so much money in it for the powers that be, these suggestions would probably already have happened.  As it is now, everyone wants to get their snout in the trough and tourism be damned as the snouts just figure more tourists will be getting off the next planes so there's more cash coming their way.  The future? Who cares about the future is what the powers that be are thinking as they are dreaming up the next boondoggle of a fountain, circle or sign.

 

"If there wasn't so much money in it for the powers that be, these suggestions would probably already have happened." -  I agree, but the amazing thing is, these powers that be have presided over such a rapid change of tourist demographic here, which has caused business closures, vacant commercial premises, and even a stagnant housing market, yet, they continue to DO NOTHING.

 

Are they blind????  There will be no trough to put their snouts into in the future. 

 

 

 

 

 

[xylophone]

11 hours ago, NamKangMan said:

 

"If there wasn't so much money in it for the powers that be, these suggestions would probably already have happened." -  I agree, but the amazing thing is, these powers that be have presided over such a rapid change of tourist demographic here, which has caused business closures, vacant commercial premises, and even a stagnant housing market, yet, they continue to DO NOTHING.

 

Are they blind????  There will be no trough to put their snouts into in the future. 

 

 

 

 

 

Since when have the powerful people here ever thought about "the future"?

 

It's all about the now for them and all the time they can find new ways to squeeze money out of the place, then they don't care. And all the time there are more farangs and Thais believing they can rent a place and make a profit, then find that they have to forego the rent and key money because the business has failed, then the money keeps flowing into the coffers.........

[NamKangMan]

6 hours ago, xylophone said:

Since when have the powerful people here ever thought about "the future"?

 

It's all about the now for them and all the time they can find new ways to squeeze money out of the place, then they don't care. And all the time there are more farangs and Thais believing they can rent a place and make a profit, then find that they have to forego the rent and key money because the business has failed, then the money keeps flowing into the coffers.........

 

I understand XP, but what can we put this short term thinking down to?

 

Lack of education?

 

Poor business practice?

 

Greed?

 

Incompetence?

 

Criminality? 

 

Over leveraged landlords?

 

Envy?

 

Competitiveness?

 

"Face?"

 

 

They are destroying the place.   

[schlog]

22 minutes ago, NamKangMan said:

 

I understand XP, but what can we put this short term thinking down to?

 

Lack of education?

 

Poor business practice?

 

Greed?

 

Incompetence?

 

Criminality? 

 

Over leveraged landlords?

 

Envy?

 

Competitiveness?

 

"Face?"

 

 

They are destroying the place.   

It is arrogance mixed with scorn.

[NamKangMan]

31 minutes ago, schlog said:

It is arrogance mixed with scorn.

 

You could be right, schlog.

 

It might be as simple for them as, "Because I can."