Businessmen blame baht:
https://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattay ... aht-258746
Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
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Undaunted
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
Along with the venues noted in the article that have closed due to the lack of farang tourists, several formerly popular restaurants have also closed due to hardly any customers. One of my favorite restaurants, Cherry's, recently closed for that reason. I remember when you needed a booking to get a table at all. But for at least the past year when we would go to eat there, there were very few customers. Sometimes we were the only ones.
I think things are going to get worse before they get better. Even if the baht dramatically weakens today, by the time customer numbers rise it will be too late for some of the other venues that have already been hanging on by a thread for months.
I also believe other reasons Pattaya is in trouble include the terrible condition of the local beaches, the polluted seawater, the crime along Beach Road, and this ridiculous prudish effort to change the Pattaya paradigm in the attempt to make it a "family" oriented resort city.
If any additional businesses are forced to close, I hope the first ones to go will be the shops that rent motorbikes to the Sunee Plaza area motorbike maniacs. That, at least, would be a silver lining on the cloud.
I think things are going to get worse before they get better. Even if the baht dramatically weakens today, by the time customer numbers rise it will be too late for some of the other venues that have already been hanging on by a thread for months.
I also believe other reasons Pattaya is in trouble include the terrible condition of the local beaches, the polluted seawater, the crime along Beach Road, and this ridiculous prudish effort to change the Pattaya paradigm in the attempt to make it a "family" oriented resort city.
If any additional businesses are forced to close, I hope the first ones to go will be the shops that rent motorbikes to the Sunee Plaza area motorbike maniacs. That, at least, would be a silver lining on the cloud.
Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
Flamingo Hotel in soi day/night just turned the lights off after decades of operation and posted a "closed" sign on the front window. According to the girl at the front desk who's been there for many years, she was working her last day after being terminated.
Exchange rate still at 30.4.
After decades of poor city planning, lack of maintenance of the infrastructure and money meant to upgrade the infrastructure marked as "missing in action," Pattaya has pretty much completed the process of "Imploding". It's already one of the most dangerous cities to drive, walking down the busted up sidewalks isn't much safer, swimming at the beach is like jumping in a bowl of Campbell's vegetable soup, and to GB's point, this brilliant plan to change to image of Pattaya to a family oriented vacation mecca is blowing up in their faces.
The one-and-only commodity that Pattaya ever had to offer over other top tourist destinations was "the exotic". SEX was always the primary magnet and Pattaya was always seen as a place where one could go to live out his/hers sexual fantasies. It wasn't the beaches, it wasn't the food, It wasn't the golden temples, and it wasn't the exchange rate. It was simply the SEX. Once that's erased, as they're in the process of doing that now, all that's left is an overcrowded and polluted ghetto.
Businesses are closing their doors because the customers who were spending the money that Pattaya was built on are finding better ways to spend their money. At least that's the way I see it.
Exchange rate still at 30.4.
After decades of poor city planning, lack of maintenance of the infrastructure and money meant to upgrade the infrastructure marked as "missing in action," Pattaya has pretty much completed the process of "Imploding". It's already one of the most dangerous cities to drive, walking down the busted up sidewalks isn't much safer, swimming at the beach is like jumping in a bowl of Campbell's vegetable soup, and to GB's point, this brilliant plan to change to image of Pattaya to a family oriented vacation mecca is blowing up in their faces.
The one-and-only commodity that Pattaya ever had to offer over other top tourist destinations was "the exotic". SEX was always the primary magnet and Pattaya was always seen as a place where one could go to live out his/hers sexual fantasies. It wasn't the beaches, it wasn't the food, It wasn't the golden temples, and it wasn't the exchange rate. It was simply the SEX. Once that's erased, as they're in the process of doing that now, all that's left is an overcrowded and polluted ghetto.
Businesses are closing their doors because the customers who were spending the money that Pattaya was built on are finding better ways to spend their money. At least that's the way I see it.
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fountainhall
Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
I don't know Pattaya well enough to comment on Dodger's various points, apart from two. My first visit back around 35 years ago was for two reasons - beach and sex. Sex was easy enough to come by in Bangkok but there is no beach and I love beaches. I found both. Then I realised that Pattaya is not as cheap as I had thought. When I factored in the cost of travel to and from, hotel overnight charges and restaurant/coffee shop meals, the sex part was just not worth the trip. I had already discovered Phuket (before the package tourists but also before budget fares) and would soon discover Samui, Krabi, Hua Hin and Khao Lak where the beaches are far better and the sea far clearer and cleaner. As the quality of Pattaya's beach declined, I saw no point and for probably 15 years never visited.
After a few visits in the first decade of the new century, I did return with friends from Australia. Even with poor water quality, spending the afternoon with a beer or two, having a massage and watching all the boys strutting back and forth in their skimpy beach attire, playing volleyball or just having fun in the water was still a reason for going until most of that seemed to stop some years ago. I'd far rather spend a few days in Khao Lak where the beach is large, clean and stretches as far as the eye can see with few others in sight. I no longer need to find company as my bf will try to get time off work to join me.
Beach at Khao Lak the week after Easter in 2014 with hotels full of European tourists!
I'm not as into bars as I used to be and Bangkok's offerings suit me fine. I admit I used to think its bar scene was dying. But it now has a new lease on life with a new Asian clientele. I realise some find Pattaya still has attractions for them, but as a family destination I fail to understand what it offers. Its primary raison d'être surely has to be the beach. Unless and until it improves the quality of the sea water, I cannot understand why anyone would consider it a beach destination now.
After a few visits in the first decade of the new century, I did return with friends from Australia. Even with poor water quality, spending the afternoon with a beer or two, having a massage and watching all the boys strutting back and forth in their skimpy beach attire, playing volleyball or just having fun in the water was still a reason for going until most of that seemed to stop some years ago. I'd far rather spend a few days in Khao Lak where the beach is large, clean and stretches as far as the eye can see with few others in sight. I no longer need to find company as my bf will try to get time off work to join me.
Beach at Khao Lak the week after Easter in 2014 with hotels full of European tourists!
I'm not as into bars as I used to be and Bangkok's offerings suit me fine. I admit I used to think its bar scene was dying. But it now has a new lease on life with a new Asian clientele. I realise some find Pattaya still has attractions for them, but as a family destination I fail to understand what it offers. Its primary raison d'être surely has to be the beach. Unless and until it improves the quality of the sea water, I cannot understand why anyone would consider it a beach destination now.
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Undaunted
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Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
Smoking Joes and Steak & Co. also set to sell and close.
"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
Unfortunately that is also the way the tourists see it. Why does everybody except the powers-that-be see that? Too much loss of face to admit their genius plans not only are not working, but totally backfiring on them? Meanwhile, far too many businesses are not merely suffering. They are closing.
Which one(s) will be next?
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Jun
Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
Last time I looked, Thailand had healthy economic growth and a balance of trade surplus. Something the US and UK do not have.
Things are not going too badly.
Things are not going too badly.
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Undaunted
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Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
What possibly can the property developers in Pattaya be thinking? They are sitting with a huge inventory of unsold units and keep building more at an outstanding rate. With exchange rates declining who will be the buyers? The Chinese that visit Pattaya are not the answer.
"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya Suffering From Strong Baht
That has been on my "I Don't Get It" list for quite some time. So many of the existing condos are close to unoccupied and yet they keep building more. Why? I don't understand what's in it for the developers.