The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Loy Toy

Your right PP as the best bar in Pattaya IMO, TQ1 ia also not doing as well as when compared to previous years. Not bad and when compared to others but still feeling the pinch.

britmaveric

TQ1 is the best bar?

Things really have gotten bad.

Begbie

Slagging off good old Pattaya, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Texpat

I wouldn't suggest Pattaya/Jomtien/Chonburi to anyone over 30 -- highly undersexed and extremely desperate. In short, midgets, paraplegics, Brits, retards, geriatric dementia patients ... in brief, about 30 percent of TD posters.

Sounds about right.

britmaveric

^And I thought we were mates Tex?

Luckydog

Surprised? 4yrs ago you could get a return flight to UK for 450 quid. Now I hear it's 600!

Also I stayed in Nana Hotel BKK for 1200bht a night then. Now it's 1650!

Higher Prices here have knocked the bottom out of the market.

Not to mention the big increases in countries abroad.

People simply do not have the money to spend on Pattaya nowadays.

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Texpat

You've been adopted Brit.

Either that or your fine self is excluded.

Every rule has exceptions and all ....


Eight years ago, Nana gave a serious discount to US servicemen. I used it once. I really appreciated their generosity. So did the bitch who stole my 800 baht Timex.

Not really. But she did leave with the goddamn room key and I had to front a fiver for that. I'll take security and clean sheets over discounted rates any day.

30 percent drop? Don't look to the US for that change. I would guess the US comprises far less than 5 percent of all Thai tourists. They generally avoid people that are attracted to here.

jandajoy

That's the one I was loking for. "Plunge" "Dive" Balcony"

Pattaya, diving paradise. We've got more balconies than any one!!!

Why one earth would anyone pick Pattya, out of all the resort locations in the world, given the press it's had over the last couple of years.

If you're sitting in Aus, UK, USA, or where ever, planning you annual holiday, your honeymoon, your anniversary celebration, whatever, WHY, WHY, WHY would you pick Patters. Seriously. It's a just not up for that kind of market.

(include long list of adjectives describing typical Patters tourist.) is what Pattya has become. Sodom and Gommmorah.
Great there's a market for sleeze and shit but it's not going to be a "developing industry, they've already burnt that out.

Even the Russians are going else where.... ThankF

I really can't see the future of Pattya being all that er ... "rosy", "pink" WTF

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britmaveric

Russians are going elsewhere - please say its true.

El Gibbon

Finally an honest assessment of tourism in Thailand. The national board (TAT) is predicting an overall increase of tourists this year, 16 million, down from the initial assessment of 17 or 18 million. They are still hanging on to the 16 mm figure the last I heard.

They keep flogging Phuket but I'm willing to bet the same downturn is visible there. Any observations Happyman?

The Thai just won't believe the idea of a falling economy. Just look at their projected GDP numbers.

I've seen actual reports of tourism 'landings' in Thailand and they are very specific on ports of entry and destinations. As I recall - from a consulting assignment several years ago Pattaya was the leader by a very wide margin. Phuket was second followed by Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

Phuket is a bit of a problem since they heavily flog the product in China. Problem is Chinese tourists don't spend money... Ever see a bus load pull into a 7/11 and disgorge its passengers for dinner?... Yep, a cup of noodles and a bottle of water, have seen it dozens of times.

Nice to see that someone in the industry is willing to ring the warning bell.

E. G.

EDIT: If you think I'm 'spanking the monkey" take a look at the increasing numbers of bars and guesthouses for sale.... Hmmmmm

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sabang

There is a crackdown going on around here on these motosai gangs. Driving home 2 nights ago from Soi Khao Noi to Mabprachan area, I saw two police squads apprehending a group of kids on motosai's.

Last week, a local village bloke was sitting at the local Wat talking to some other blokes- a group of cops swooped, and piss tested them all. So, at least out here, something is being done- although for how long and how effective, who knows.


As for Pattaya, this speculation about the end of Pattaya as a tourist destination has been going on since the end of the VN war. It just continues reinventing itself. Two years ago, the tourist arrivals for Pattaya were an all time high.

Why is Pattaya so popular? I wouldn't have a clue frankly, different reasons for different people I assume. Personally, I reckon it is overrated as a tourist destination- although it's one of these places that many if not most tourists in Asia have to see, if only once, if only to slag off the place. But reading the Pattaya Mongers boards, you would think that they are the lifeblood of this place. They are not, they are just a segment of the market.

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Sir Burr

This drop coincides with the increased cost of oil and the world-wide economic down-turn. Nothing to do with crime rates.

El Gibbon

^ pretty much agree, plus the whole experience is becoming tired & overworked. I can recall in the late 90's the gogo thing was the rage. Couldn't get in a decent gogo they were packed.

Anyone seen a "packed" gogo recently? Not many around that consistently bang em in like the old days.

Today's society has become bored with the sex for hire thing when is is so freely available just about anywhere. Today's morals have changed to the point where 'sneaking' off to Thailand for some fresh flesh has lost its luster. No adrenalin rush now just a matter of taking care of bodily functions.. ho hum.


E.
G.

melvbot

That first post was slightly tongue in cheek, thats why I mentioned the credit crunch in a later post.

nidhogg

Relatively cheap (previously), glut of hotels to suit all price ranges, sea sun, beach - sounds good.

But look at the last few years for Thailand as a whole - drugs war, nightlife crackdown and early closing, Tsunami, tanks on the street, political unrest, SARS, brutal murders - I think Thailand is by and large just comming off the list of places to go - add the rising fuel costs, and better, cleaner, cheaper, safer palces nearer at home. Even for the whore mongers, the newly opened east europe has its attractions, girls, cheap booze.

Only real wonder is why people still come here at all.

robuzo

I don't wonder why people come here- new markets have opened up consisting of tourists who previously had neither the funds nor the freedom to travel, i.e., Eastern Europe and China, plus the valuation of the British pound and the high cost of drinking/chasing skirts in England and/or Europe have brought in a lot of the British crowd that normally wouldn't go further than Majorca or Greece.

What I don't understand is why people come back, not only to a place like Pattaya which has but one thing to offer, but even to Phuket or Chiang Mai. If it is beaches and diving you want Central America and even Florida are better than nearly anything Thailand has to offer, and insofar as eco-tourism (forest hiking, visiting exotic tribes) a badly environmentally-degraded Thailand has nothing to compare with the Americas in that department either.

So what does Thailand have? Fairly hospitable people overall (but still a hell of a lot of scammers), very good food, some good hotels and resorts that are not such great bargains anymore, and plenty of easily available sex. With the exception of the latter, none of these things are exclusive (or nearly so) to Thailand. Of course plenty of other countries have large sex industries, but Thailand is one of the few where such can be partaken in relative safety (even in Pattaya). The thing is, other than for single guys (which would include the convention business, of course), Thailand doesn't seem to have much going for it these days. Tourism is an interesting industry because it almost inevitably becomes a victim of its own success, and I think that in large part has happened here.

Airportwo

[quote=nidhogg;718963]It's close to Bangkok

Fabian

That's not true, even back then you got pestered by hawkers constantly. I remember my tactics to ignore them by reading newspaper did not work. It resulted in having three of them them standing around me until I told them to go away.

Butterfly

It was great when it was a sm