Ferk, I'm jealous. Australia has reverted to being a penal colony, and I can't travel.
Ferk, I'm jealous. Australia has reverted to being a penal colony, and I can't travel.
this is also true by me, and i would think of most places in thailand at the moment.
and i fear it's only going to get worse in the months ahead.
more people are going to get laid off, businesses will shutter...and the inevitable social problems will follow.
recovery is a long way off.
^What happened once everywhere could open again without ridiculous restrictions is many places did reopen, but a lot of places didn't. An example of the latter category would be the large restaraunts, live theatres, and bars that catered pretty much exclusively to Chinese tour groups or well-heeled Asian visitors. Then after a few weeks, some of the places that did reopen closed again, while others adjusted their trading hours, pricing, staff levels, and in some cases their business model as well to more realistic levels once everyone got a grip on how big the remaining customer base was.
So to answer your question, I now believe it's sustainable at current levels but nobody will be making pre-Covid money and businesses will need to be prepared to downsize (or even close if they decide the effort doesn't reflect the turnover) until International arrivals start again.
With it's resident population & weekenders, Pattaya scrapes by. Seems like it's worse in Phuket.
^Similar situation here in PI, in the tourist areas. I follow a vlogger couple (Jumping Places) - they've been in El Nido (in Palawan island) the past 6 months. The girl has a Brazilian passport. Given the situation in Brazil now, they don't want to go back there, so they opted to wait it out in PI. In their latest vid, they showed that the McDonald's in El Nido had a sign that it was to remain closed for the next 6 months. They were surprised because only a few weeks before, they had a meal there. If McD folds, it's sure worse for small businesses. Also for the little people - boatmen, tour guides, hotel/ resort staff, etc. Difficult times, and it looks like PI won't be accepting foreign tourists until next year.
There already is, but the question is about balancing opening the country with potentially tens and hundreds of thousands of deaths - not to mention the cost to the health sector.
It isn't as easy as 'open up', as you can see by the US example. More infected than the population of NZ - 5 milion -
200.000 deaths due to C-19.
US World war I deaths 116.000
US Vietnam War deaths 58.000
Next up is the number of WWII deaths at 290.000
It's not a simple matter of economy vs lives
Last edited by panama hat; 15-09-2020 at 09:31 AM. Reason: edit sp.
This is a 1 in 50 years opportunity to pick up assets in the tourism sector as covid culls the weak. Some lucky cvnts are going to stumble in at the right time. I wont be one of them because i wont bother. Ive never been anywhere at the right time so why should i try
What you think of Phuket is quite irrelevant for the survival of its tourist business.
There are no international tourist arrivals, the only tourists are local tourists and most of them comes from Bangkok and surrounding areas, Phuket is too far away for most of them so they holiday on the eastern seaboard or in national parks.
If they go in the other direction then they seldom get further south than Hua Hin.
The recent five day songkran substitute holiday didn't do much for the tourist industry in Phuket or Koh Samui..
Agreed. The same misconception of many is that Phuket is Patong. The reality is that Phuket has a healthy resident expat population outwith the core tourist resort towns of Patong, Kata, Karon, Kamala etc. Certainly the places I use for dining are trading well, though some that cater for certain expat groups may struggle in the medium term (I'm thinking particularly of a Korean place where we'll be lunching with friends today. This place has a large Korean customer base, most of whom I guess are working in the tourist sector so their ability to remain here is obviously in doubt).
Phuket Town has many good restaurants particularly for Thai food, that are on a wholly different level to those found in the tourist towns. My own area of Chalong is largely unaffected, though near to me is an area largely devoted to Muy Thai/fitness where many of the peripheral businesses (sport clothing/food/laundries/pharmacies etc) are shuttered.
Those Thais previously working in the hospitality sector who've been made redundant largely seem to have relocated back to their home provinces.
Kata, Karon Aug 11-16
Restaurant row Karon, closed and boarded up.
Hilton Arcadia, closed.
Kata nightlife center at 5pm, closed.
Beach front hotel southern end of Karon
More closed restaurants beachfront Karon.
Its simply sad. Notice the lack of traffic and cars. This should be jammed its the main road to Kata from Karon beach,
Yeah listen to him he is the Thailand expert.
^He is if you need tips on how to turn English lessons into a free Big Mac
^ Kata, Karon. For some reason i thought that area was more developed than that. That's some fairly low overhead there.
Rawai (of which Nai Harn is part) and Chalong have significant resident expat populations, hence the popular venues doing OK. Other clusters of expats are scattered around the island, though in places like Bang Tao, although quite residential, tend to be holiday homes and hence very quiet.
Nai Harn beach is one of the best on the island. A fairly sheltered bay, at this time of year it's largely sheltered from the current westerly monsoon that in previous years caused so many drowning deaths on the west coast.
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