Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

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Gaybutton
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Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

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Pattaya City Mayor and City Hall to help entertainment operators, provide support with landlord disputes during Covid19 closures

By Adam Judd

Thursday, 30 April 2020

The Pattaya City Mayor spoke with The Pattaya News and associated press this afternoon following a meeting at City Hall about measures being taken during the Covid19 Coronavirus crisis to help hundreds of entertainment venue operators in Pattaya whose businesses have been force closed due to the situation.

The Pattaya City Mayor Sonthaya Khunpluem told The Pattaya News this afternoon “Chonburi has now been designated as a white zone, after previously bring a red zone for Covid19 as there have been no new cases for almost 14 days.”

“For now, however, based on the National control measures of Covid-19 entertainment venues in Pattaya are not allowed to open regardless of the improved situation and it may be several weeks before this can happen. We are well aware that Pattaya has a larger number of closed venues than the rest of the country, with hundreds, (some reports say thousands) of venues currently ordered closed across the city. They have been closed since March 18.”

The Mayor stated that during a recent survey it was found that about half of the landlords in the city, 50 percent, were refusing to give discounts on rent or even speak to their tenants which the city leadership finds unacceptable during this time of crisis when everyone should be working together. Additionally, several businesses have closed entirely and he says this is not good for the city nor it’s nightlife and tourism industry known across the world.

The Mayor said that city leaders know that this situation will not be magically resolved when venues can open as international flights are still banned and it will take months for tourists to begin to be able to return, which is the majority of the customer base for the cities entertainment industry of bars, lounges, nightclubs, Gogos, tourist attractions and other entertainment venues. Therefore, the city will be taking the best actions they can to help ensure business owners during this crisis are not being wrongly removed from their premises when they cannot open for business. The Mayor admitted, however, that they were unsure how much exactly they could do to assist.

The city said the Mayor will be acting as a Goodwill ambassador between business owners and landlords in cases of disputes and to help reach acceptable resolutions for both parties when disputes take place.

The Mayor and City Hall has asked that all entertainment venue owners who have disputes with their landlords to contact city hall at 1337, the city hall contact center. They will be informed of the next meeting around this matter. They will need to bring all relevant business documents, including their current lease and any rental contracts to City Hall for review.

The Mayor said that if help is not provided to the entertainment industry in Pattaya it could see many people lose their livelihoods and many Thai people lose their jobs and City Hall would work to prevent that.

City hall is also looking into alcohol tax issues for business owners, as well as addressing land and sign tax issues.

Finally, City Hall is gathering ideas from all entertainment business owners on how they could open their business safely with physical distancing guidelines and strong hygiene rules. They would like all interested business owners to speak with City Hall to help put together lists of guidelines that will be sent to the National level of government to help reopen the city. All ideas are welcome.

Some ideas brought up are medical screening zones at nightlife areas such as walking street and Soi 6, temperature checks at all venues, limiting numbers of clients who enter, staff wearing masks, etc.

Another meeting is scheduled at 2PM Saturday at Hollywood in Pattaya for concerned business owners.

https://thepattayanews.com/2020/04/30/p ... -closures/
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Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

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GB's OPINION:

It is certainly no secret that much of Pattaya's economy depends on the tourist industry and the entertainment venues are a major part of it. Along with wondering when the entertainment venues will be allowed to reopen, I am also wondering what the social distancing requirements will be.

In order to bring the entertainment venues back to life, especially since according to the article it will be a long time before the return of a truly appreciable major influx of tourists, I am hoping the powers-that-be wake up and realize the worst thing they can do is continue standing in the way as they had before. I hope they let Pattaya be the way it used to be and allow essentially "anything goes" behind closed doors, including relaxation of nudity rules, short time rooms within the bars, no restrictions on opening and closing hours, shirtless touts outside the gay bars and bikini clad girl touts on Walking Street and other girlie go-go bar areas. I also hope they allow foreign bar workers instead of forcing them to run and hide during police raids. And I would very much like police raids to take place only when there is true probable cause to suspect drugs and/or underage staff.

Speaking for myself, I am still very much in favor of rigidly enforcing rules about underage bar staff, but I see no reason why the minimum age still has to be 18. I think in these days and times it is reasonable for the minimum age to be 17, and perhaps even 16. I would be opposed to any younger than that and I would be a bit leery about 16, although I don't see 16 as necessarily out of the question. I do think 17 is perfectly reasonable. That is my opinion.

And like it or not, it is unrealistic to totally forbid prostitution. I don't believe anyone, including the powers-that-be, is unaware that no matter what the laws are, prostitution is going to continue to be rampant. Instead of legally forbidding it, I'd like to see them regulate it, perhaps in a manner similar to the way it is done in Amsterdam. Personally I would feel much safer with a prostitute if he is carrying some sort of medical certificate showing the last time he was officially tested for any STDs and the results were negative.

I think it is ridiculous to continue to allow prudes, NGOs, religious fanatics, and foreign pressure to control the goings on in adult entertainment areas. I don't see many of them having influence over regulated prostitution in other parts of the world - and that includes the USA - Nevada. Why should it be any different in Thailand? And I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me what is so terrible about adults enjoying consensual sex and adult entertainment venues - provided the entire staff works there willingly.

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stkyricesf

Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

Post by stkyricesf »

GB's OPINION is as usual a well thought out. I just hope it can be implemented sooner rather than later. I'd really like to come back to Thailand as soon as possible.
Jun

Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

Post by Jun »

I pretty much agree with most of that GB wrote & it's fairly obviously an opinion, without needing that spelling out.

Regarding the age of bar staff, I much prefer it if they are all above the age of consent, as that simplifies matters for the client. Technically, I suppose there is also the issue that the legal minimum drinking age is 20, but that's not the customers problem.

The NGOs should certainly naff off, as the last thing we need is any religious types interfering in what others do. Those people need to sort their own morals out first, before they presume to advise others.

Also, when workers from Cambodia etc are permitted to work legally on construction sites, why should they not be permitted to work in bars ? Thailand has an ageing population and it would make sense to encourage modest levels of immigration from neighbouring Buddhist countries. Either temporary immigration, or permanent immigration with measures to ensure they are properly integrated.

[The above was mostly opinion or assumptions based on observation. Assuming my sources are reliable, the legal minimum drinking age is fact. Describing Thailand as ageing is based on the median age being 65 out of 230 countries, source Wiki/CIA. So that is an opinion, with some factual support].
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Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

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Pattaya City Entertainment venue owners meet to discuss suggestions for Covid19 safety measures for potential reopening

By Adam Judd

Sunday, 3 May 2020

At 5:00 PM yesterday at the Hollywood Disco located in Central Pattaya over twenty local bar and entertainment venue owners of some of the cities largest establishments such as Ibar, Hollywood and others met to give ideas around safety measures to be suggested to the local, provincial and national government’s to help allow venues to hopefully reopen in the near future.

They also discussed measures to be taken around landlords who refused to adjust or discount rent during the current mandatory period of closure due to the threat of the Covid-19 Coronavirus. Several items, like delays on sign taxes and certain license fees, were also discussed to be temporarily waived or postponed to help business owners.

The meeting was also attended by several city hall and Pattaya Police station representatives who will also help pass on suggestions and develop guidelines.

Entertainment venues remain closed until further announcements from the national government, however, the CCSA, or Covid19 Coronavirus Situation Administration, is beginning to gather ideas on how entertainment venues could be safely opened. They are not only getting ideas from business owners but also looking at countries like South Korea and parts of China who have already reopened their nightlife industries.

Ms. Ampon Kaewsang from the Pattaya Police Station said a group will be put together of the major business owners in the area to help support each other and future meetings will be scheduled in which they would like as many local nightlife and bar owners as possible to attend to help reach some consensus on Pattaya specific ideas for reopening venues. These ideas will be forwarded to the National Government.

Some of the ideas mentioned are mandatory mask wearing in all entertainment venues, limiting numbers of patrons, spacing out tables in nightclubs to allow more space, temperature checks at every venue, sanitizer at every table, bar staff wearing gloves and face shields who handle money and drinks, limiting parties and promotions or special events for the initial opening, creating health checkpoints for major entertainment areas like walking street, requiring IDs and passports of all guests and keeping a log for potential contact tracing if a case of Covid-19 is found and other various suggestions.

It is important to note at this point none of these suggestions are official and will require further meetings and discussion. Additionally, no entertainment venues of any size can open until the CCSA approves, which is not expected to be for several more weeks.

https://thepattayanews.com/2020/05/03/p ... reopening/
ISAC69

Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

Post by ISAC69 »

The current minimum age for workers in bars is 20 y.o. which seems to me ridiculous when a 18 years old doesn't consider a minor anymore, I tend to agree with GB that 16 or 17 years old workers can be permitted to work if they wish to in bars and nobody is forcing them to do so but it's not practical the last thing Pattaya needs at the moment is international scandal of allowing under age workers in the sex industry.
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Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

Post by Gaybutton »

ISAC69 wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 12:03 pm The current minimum age for workers in bars is 20 y.o.
Actually the minimum age for bar workers in Thailand is 18.
ISAC69

Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

Post by ISAC69 »

I checked with the boys they told me the minimum age to work as gogo boy is 20 at all bars.
Jun

Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

Post by Jun »

Google tells me the minimum legal drinking age in Thailand in 20. Like many other countries, I expect a good proportion of the population have broken that law.

Obviously, that's not the same as the minimum legal age to work in a bar, but it would be slightly irrational for the two to differ.

Legally, or not, I've still encountered 18 year olds working in bars in recent years.
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Re: Pattaya's entertainment venue crisis

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Jun wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 9:46 pm it would be slightly irrational for the two to differ.
And yet that's the way it is.
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