Pattaya Betting its Future on Eventual Return of Chinese

[Manforallseasons]

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3104289/golden-week-ghost-town-thailands-pattaya-party-zone-struggles

[StevieWonders]

I wonder what the Chinese market will make of the latest Amazing Thailand clusterfuck around the new visa. According to this story the brave 300 Chinese who pre-paid for everything but whose flight was cancelled on the instructions of the Thai government won’t be getting a refund:

https://www.godsavethepoints.com/thailand-travel-tourist-stv-visa-program-fails/

[gerefan2]

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3104289/golden-week-ghost-town-thailands-pattaya-party-zone-struggles

That article refers to an extremely expensive restaurant (supposedly frequented by the Chinese). On trip advisor It get an average of a mere 3.5.*. On the first page alone most reviews are 1* or 2*. So much for the top class Chinese tourists, and restaurants. See here ...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g297916-d1830177-Reviews-Nam_Sing_Chinese_Restaurant-Chonburi_Chonburi_Province.html#REVIEWS

Arsenals favourite place gets 4* average with mostly 4* or 5* on the first page!! See here...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g293919-d10079276-Reviews-Deli_Diner-Pattaya_Chonburi_Province.html

You couldn’t make it up!!

[Dodger]

The Special Tourist Visa, which has now been scrapped (no surprise there), never had a chance in hell of getting off the ground. Neither did Thailand's promotion of the "Elite Visa" which was just another sham to get people donating $$$ to their cause.

When I referred to Thailand's promotion of the Elite Visa as being a scam a while back on another post, one member, who apparently holds an Elite Visa, sharply corrected me by saying he had the Elite Visa and had been approved to reenter Thailand in just a few days. I asked him a week later to let us know how his trip to Thailand went and have yet to hear back from him. My guess is that he never made it back. If I'm wrong, I will certainly stand corrected if he choses to respond.

The chances of Thailand allowing general tourists to enter Thailand before a vaccine is available are slim to none, and frankly, I think it's the later of the two. Anyone who books an expensive charter and prepays for lodging under these conditions should be willing to accept a financial loss.

Personally, I don't see the doors opening up to general tourists until at least the end of 2021, and when they do, we can expect to see tourists from China and other low-risk Asian countries stepping off the planes. How long the West will remain high-risk is of course anyone's guess.

The government has set up a special committee to manage the economy during this pandemic who have already earmarked real estate sales, EEC expansion, and manufacturing supply-chain improvements, as targets to offset the money being lost in tourism. Any and all promotions being pushed by TAT to entice tourists at this juncture should simply be ignored by the general public in my opinion.

[goji]

The government has set up a special committee to manage the economy during this pandemic who have already earmarked real estate sales, EEC expansion, and manufacturing supply-chain improvements, as targets to offset the money being lost in tourism.
I believe tourism was accounting for about 20% of Thai GDP.
To offset that with expansion of the remainder of the economy will need something like a 25% increase.
Most manufacturers will have been optimizing their supply chains and operations for decades, which is the only way to survive in such a competitive field. So getting a meaningful chunk of that 25% here just isn't going to happen.
EEC expansion will be tricky at a time of global economic contraction.
As for real estate sales, who are they going to sell this real estate to ? Obviously it has to be wealthy Thais, since no foreigner is going to buy real estate that he cannot visit. As for the wealthy Thais, well presumably they didn't get wealthy by purchasing real estate at high prices, but they might just be tempted if a government is selling it off very cheaply at distressed prices. Hardly sustainable.

[Marc K]

I don't see the doors opening up to general tourists until at least the end of 2021, and when they do, we can expect to see tourists from China and other low-risk Asian countries stepping off the planes.

When are we going to finally accept the fact that Westerners are no longer the sought-after wallets we once were. Now its those from Greater China who are in demand. We are just going to have to come to terms with that reality. If we do have to wait until late-2021 or beyond, most of us will have found other ways to entertain ourselves outside of LOS. Thailand might have been a particularly appealing playground but hey, guys, that playground will no longer exist anyway. Sad, but true.

For a few years already, I had felt slightly out of place at Jupiter or Dreamboys or at BBB because there were few to no falangs there. Sitting around with a bunch of giggling middle-aged Chinese housewives and more slightly embarrassed Singaporean boys on their cellphones was not really such a great thrill anyway. Was it?

[Armando]

When are we going to finally accept the fact that Westerners are no longer the sought-after wallets we once were. Now its those from Greater China who are in demand. We are just going to have to come to terms with that reality.
This subject has been discussed in several threads but never I think so concisely. There are some posters and I assume lots of others who continue to dream that the Sunee Plaza and other gay areas of yesteryear will return to the vibrancy we all enjoyed and looked forward to around 15 years ago will miraculously reappear. They won't. Like everywhere, there will still be sex available. But the overt in-your-face gay sex that used to be what we looked forward to in Thailand is not going to return.