Entertainment tourism: Pattaya for Europeans is over - 30% down this year, official

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

... I asked about a 2011 Chianti they had on the list. I was told they were out of stock. I asked about a Barbaresco, at 2,600 baht. Again, out of stock. How about this Nebbiolo? Do you have the 2010, as stated on the list? No, we only have the 2015. OK, what is that wine like? Is it drinking well now? I do not know. Is there anyone here that is familiar with this wine list? No. Sorry sir. Wait a minute. You have 100s of bottles on this list, ranging from 1200 baht to 10,000 baht per bottle, and NOBODY who works here knows anything about the wine? Are you serious? We all just looked at each other, and got up and walked out. We realized the restaurant was a pretender. ...

What's that about a pretender? Where or earth did you think you were?

 

If you think there's any sort of fine dining in EmQuartier...

 

There's an auld Scottish saying that goes like, "Fur coat and nae drawers."

[Destiny1990]

Their plan was to get the higher spending farang visitors the result is 30% less visitors !!

 

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

I am not talking about wealthy tourists coming here because wine is cheaper. I am talking about wealthy tourists not avoiding Thailand, because a great bottle of wine is some of the most expensive in the world! That is a very big distinction. Wealthy travelers are very discriminating, and though they are willing to spend alot of money, they do not like throwing their money away. Buying fine wine in Thailand, is like throwing your money away. The duties are onerous and excessive.

With regard to rich people being canny with their cash, what's your take on Dyson buying the $54 million dollar flat in Singapore then?

[Thakkar]

“Entertainment” tourism

A case of using 13 letters where three would’ve sufficed.

[legend49]

5 hours ago, BestB said:

Indeed, do not know if to laugh or cry????

But note the blame: strength of the baht, alternatives elsewhere and the rise of Chinese and now Indian tourism has seen a marked shift on who is coming to Pattaya and what they are doing there. 

 

So why did they go to alternatives elsewhere that is what they should examine, not blame BOT mishandling of the baht that could be fixed in one day. Rise of Chinese tourism surely the fallback of this avalanche of Chinese is closer to the mark. The Chinese have found Vietnam and are other neighbors more courteous.

[Small Joke]

4 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

With regard to rich people being canny with their cash, what's your take on Dyson buying the $54 million dollar flat in Singapore then?

It would be absorbed by the company in some creative but legal loophole, Singapore takes good care of ultra rich expats, Jim Rogers, Dyson, that Kid with the internet fortune? Many more we'll never hear about...

 

Doubt very much if Dyson reached into his personal stash for his modest shanty.

[masuk]

5 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Pattaya has sunk as certainly as the Phoenix, but it is difficult to see it rising from the ashes.

High baht is one thing, but years and years of corrupt cops, fleecing taxis, violent assaults and thefts all put a damper on travelers enthusiasm, and nothing seems to ever happen to stem any of it. It is a pit they have dug for themselves.

Who wants to swim in the ocean, full of plastic waste, toilet waste?   The gunk floating in the water has obviously never been through a filter or a sewerage treatment works.

Don't blame the tourists for not wanting a return visit.

[JRG23]

5 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Pattaya as we know it does indeed seem to be dying. Aside from issues mentioned in the post above, is that Pattaya was popular with Europeans, Australians and Americans because it was the city of sin. Attempts to make it a clean family resort are doomed to failure given only a fool would swim in its filthy waters, and the strategy makes other places far more appealing.

Indeed, Pattays has only ever been good at one thing. And let's be honest it was the best at that thing. That thing should have been promoted instead of brushed under the carpet. 

[soalbundy]

4 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Sex tourism is not something the new generation is so keen on anywhere.

wait until there is a cure for aids

[Steve DaPilot]

Strong baht - really? Since when? The Baht-USD has hovered between 30-33 baht for the past 15+ years as my memory serves me. Is a 9-10% fluctuation really a meaningful way to explain reduced tourists from Europe - or anywhere?  Our own Euro/Sterline FX rates are the ones that are weakening against the USD !

[moto77]

Haha... how many predicted this day of reckoning would come? A lot of people here did, and there it is.

 

The cause of this is Thailand’s one size fits all immigration policy. They need repeat visitors, but they’ve made it harder to be a repeat visitor. Were these boarder runners really ever causing that many problems? No.

 

So they pushed them out and decided to focus on Chinese and Indian tourists. 

 

It’s obvious that Chinese tour groups were never going to provide the return visits that Pattaya needed to survive. They’re one and done.

 

And Indians are budget travelers for the most part, yet they’ve devoted the entire last 1/4 of walking street to “The Worlds Best Indian Clubs.” ???? Now no one else can bear to walk through there with the screeching din. 

 

Meanwhile the golden geese have found other nests. It’s funny to watch the implosion from afar (currently I’ve moved from Costa Rica to Japan). But do I feel sorry for you all that have to live in what this place has now become. Sad.

[Elfin]

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

and indulge in many activities they could do back home

Then why would you bother coming here then?

[jing jing]

I've been observing Pattaya's lamentable decline from its glory days as the world's undisputed number one destination for pure, unbridled hedonism; it once reigned supreme as an adult playground where being naughty was not just ok but actively encouraged, what you did and who you did it with was up to you, anything was possible for a (bargain) price, and when it came to vice, the authorities could be relied upon to look the other way.

 

Nothing that good can last forever, but some of us were blessed to be here during that brief period in time where all the stars were aligned and Pattaya was paradise for the party crowd.

 

The news got out: there was a place you could go to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh, where the women were impossibly sweet, beautiful, accommodating, plentiful, and available.  It was, to borrow a phrase, a non-stop erotic cabaret.

 

Yes, there were periodic "crackdowns," but they were only meant to remind everyone that a price must be paid if all this debauchery was allowed to continue, and for Buddha's sake, don't tell the rest of f-ed up world what we do here because it really makes the Thai authorities look bad in Western countries' eyes, and guess what happens then?  Thailand's "hiso" Establishment loses face bigtime, and hordes of pious Western Feminist and Religious NGOs descend upon Paradise and turn it into a shopping mall that doesn't sell counterfeit luxury brands or cheap pirated DVDs.

 

I remember all the things that were openly being displayed for sale at booths along Beach Road, some of which would make Lucifer himself blush.  It wasn't pretty, but that's what freedom looks like.  If you didn't like it, nobody was forcing you to partake, but some people just have a need to demonstrate their moral superiority and it is their mission in life to eliminate all things which don't conform to their idea of what is socially acceptable.

 

The slow descent into oblivion of the City of Fallen Angels, right here in our once-idyllic Land of Vertical Smiles, was inevitable.  Westernization, greed, loss of Thai Establishment face, the rise of the internet as a source of everything from news to sex partners, have all had a part in the ruin of this place.

 

Don't get me wrong; the sweetest, cutest, most accommodating women in the world are still here if you know where to look, but many of those hypnotic smiles are fading fast.  Pattaya may still be the destination of choice for most of us discriminating hedonists and world-class sex addicts, but for how much longer is anyone's guess.  All I can tell you is that the fallen angel who shared my bed last night put a huge smile on my face, and I'll file that memory in a special place with all the others that only Pattaya can deliver.

 

 

 

 

[manhood]

These festivals are great to have but sure not to attrack western people to fly into Thailand/Pattaya.  Its great for local tourists and a bonus for those who are in Pattaya anyway for holidays.

As the messed up sitùation stays it wont bring back western tourists. But believe is helpful.

[Small Joke]

19 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

wait until there is a cure for aids

You need read more and write less.

[Benmart]

5 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Pattaya has sunk as certainly as the Phoenix, but it is difficult to see it rising from the ashes.

High baht is one thing, but years and years of corrupt cops, fleecing taxis, violent assaults and thefts all put a damper on travelers enthusiasm, and nothing seems to ever happen to stem any of it. It is a pit they have dug for themselves.

So right. Corruption is the keystone that enables so many other related problems grow. It is a multi-headed snake that has elevated itself to great heights.

[reargunnerph3]

The end of your fun holiday starts from the moment you arrive when immigration treat you like a criminal, demand to see a return ticket and Bt20,000 cash or interrogate you to find out why you have been to Thailand 3 times in a year, the taxi driver rips you off, the police stop you for a cash fine for something you haven't done, you get mugged by a ladyboy, the entertainment venues are closing down because Pattaya is a family friendly city, the water at the beach is more dangerous than the roads. But don't worry the rich Indians are coming! Rich Indians don't come to Pattaya they go to first world countries.

[NightSky]

I believe the rulers are striving for, i.e...

 

- to clean up Thailand's image

- to attract only wealthier tourists (higher quality, fewer numbers)

- to increase the overall wealth of Thais

- to increase tax collection and reporting

 

The problem is how they are addressing these issues will only lead to the rich Thais getting richer and the poor getting poorer etc.

 

[Stoker58]

RIP The goose that laid the golden eggs.

Bargirl-European marriages will become a thing of the past.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Prostitution is legal and regulated in Turkey. Women have to register and do STD tests.

 

 

Whoremongering is dead tho, young people and most tourists in general don't care about that stuff.

Young people were NEVER a significant part of the Thai bar scene- they have no problem getting all the free sex they want, apparently. It's always been older guys that don't want to have to wake up next to someone looks like granny in the morning.

Most tourists to Thailand have also never been involved in the bar scene. 

"Whoremongering" is not dead by a long shot, it's just gone cyber.

[thaibeachlovers]

8 minutes ago, NightSky said:

- to clean up Thailand's image

- to attract only wealthier tourists (higher quality, fewer numbers)

except they have NO IDEA how to achieve that. The place is too corrupt to achieve that. No matter how much money they throw at projects not enough will be spent on the project for it to succeed. The Swampy airport is a good example of how much money disappears, and how they usually end up with a lemon.

Unwillingness to consult foreign experts also does not help them.

[robert888d]

Everything is deteriorating in Thailand except the high value Baht.Thus tourists are going elsewhere.

[natway09]

The Europeans overlooked most of the lack of infrastructure because like Bali they came 

for the fun & frolicking & gave the locals a hard time in a nice if they had been overcharged.

To change the place into a (quality family resort) the Government are going to have too change their attitude very quickly , open the purse strings & reinvest in BASIC infrastructure 

not Trains & planes but effective sewerage plants, good water catchment areas, clean things up, stop the touts & the police to do their job

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, natway09 said:

The Europeans overlooked most of the lack of infrastructure because like Bali they came 

for the fun & frolicking & gave the locals a hard time in a nice if they had been overcharged.

To change the place into a (quality family resort) the Government are going to have too change their attitude very quickly , open the purse strings & reinvest in BASIC infrastructure 

not Trains & planes but effective sewerage plants, good water catchment areas, clean things up, stop the touts & the police to do their job

To do that you'd have to get rid of almost all officials, and I can't see that happening.

There has always been corruption, but it went into overdrive when Thaksin was PM and never really went back to normal. The roads where I used to live fell apart because the people that made them put so little cement into the concrete that there was no strength in it.

[elliss]

6 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Sex tourism is not something the new generation is so keen on anywhere.

 

       Smart phones ,   is the new something , for the new generation.

       The  art of conversation , social interaction ah ,  those were the days..

 

[jmccarty]

That is a big deal and trying very much to face reality.  I know some people that still plan to come to Pattaya as tourists, even a family I know likes to visit for 2 to 3 days once a year.  Since Terminal 21 opened, they spend less time in Central Fesitval Mall.  Some people like to go shopping on holiday, others don't.  When I'm in UAE in the Northern winter months, I see rooftops of hotels packed with European tourists sun bathing.   They appear to be just there to get warm and a tan!  If that's the case, the allure of Old Siam that is now going or gone, may be reason to just go shopping or sun bathing somewhere else between home and Thailand.

[sahibji]

6 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Pattaya has sunk as certainly as the Phoenix, but it is difficult to see it rising from the ashes.

High baht is one thing, but years and years of corrupt cops, fleecing taxis, violent assaults and thefts all put a damper on travelers enthusiasm, and nothing seems to ever happen to stem any of it. It is a pit they have dug for themselves.

ThreeEyeRaven you have nailed it.it is not the strong baht - it is the vicious attacks by gangs of thais on individuals that is a huge factor- cheap behaviour at the bars also keeps families away.if pattaya were so good destination hordes of malaysians and singaporeans would rush to that place.

 

[lapamita]

ohhh all are wrong , the strong thb and so on...

 

That the Thaigoverment is wrong ,,,,,never...they destroy pattaya ,in a  manner never seen beforre.

this was fun city ...people comming for fun, and not for ugly beaches and expensive 5 star hotels...... shity crackdowns, police everywhere like in a police state, crack down on fun..no beer or cigarette on beach,crackdown oo condos,  maybe next crackdown on our arshes,,...what ever the list is  sooooooooo long.....

 

that every resident like me, was bringing over the last 30 years ,every year new people  to thailand, they not thinking.

 

last week closing of cherys restaurant, is a sign of the going down of pattaya. one of the last excellent buffets we had in fun city.

 

fun city was having the best infrastructure outside europe ,for eu-us  citizens......it goes slowly.....

 

good luck ,pattaya   hahah recover..with what??? dirty and rubish beaches and closed bars??ß

 

yes maybe indians thinking its clean, bcs they come from a more dirt country

 

by the way greetings from nosi be....... this  year 4 week incl 2 friends they normaly come to thailand before.......

 

party time on clean beaches ..big beer  (0.6ltr)in a disco....  50 thb  , chicks for 600thb, and a drunk drive on a motor for our uniformed friends 100 thb...no crackdonon beach, beer or cigarette..and free clean beaches and unpoluted air.

[miamiman123]

In all honesty this is a world wide issue now with mo money to spend! 

[ThomasThBKK]

1 minute ago, miamiman123 said:

In all honesty this is a world wide issue now with mo money to spend! 

No it's not, tourism is growing year by year: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-09/europe-s-top-vacation-sites-need-options-to-fight-overcrowding