Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
According to several recent news releases (as sketchy as they always are) Pattaya is going to try to attract Thai tourists during this high season - because the reopening of Pattaya to foreigners is being delayed.
According to the PattayaOne article below they plan to host firework displays, food festivals, etc., as a means of attracting Thai visitors. It doesn't sound like it's going to work to me...(there I go being pessimistic again). Maybe if they throw in a buffalo race and a couple of pie eating contests they may stand a chance. In any event, the reopening is being pushed to November or beyond for the logical reasons. I'm not even going to bother mentioning what those reasons are again. A nine year old would understand this.
Good luck to Pattaya. I wish the City the best in its endeavors. If they have a buffalo race I just may go myself.
https://pattayaone.news/thai-tourist...s-for-pattaya/
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
There's tons of Thai tourists who visit Pattaya. They don't hang out at the go-go bars, but they definitely go to Pattaya for holiday.
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
Interesting. You may be right but where do you think they stay? eat? shop? hang-out? do they go on the same tourist outings as foreign tourists? do they use the beaches ? Are they families? couples? singles?
I ask because your post surprises me Have you any idea where they may be when I'm in Pattaya?
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
The anti-farang Thais love to pretend that domestic tourism is far more important than foreign tourism. Someone recently trumpeted that 75% of tourism in Hua Hin is domestic..
..well, maybe - if you count the hi-so brigade from Bangkok who come down to their beach houses and condos each weekend - everything they need in the back of the car, so many don't even go shopping let alone patronise restaurants and bars.
The amount of spending per capita by domestic tourists is minuscule compared to overseas visitors - even foreign backpackers, who they sometimes call 'bird shit' tourists - spend far more than the domestic crowd.
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
1 Replacing 39 million foreign tourists per annum with poorer locals just doesn't work. They can probably get a few local tourists if 1500 baht rooms are discounted down to 500 baht, but it doesn't pay the bills.
2 Considering the farang have to be vaccinated with a proper vaccine, tested before departure and then tested again shortly after arrival, I would have thought the local tourists would be a far higher risk.
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Old git
The amount of spending per capita by domestic tourists is minuscule compared to overseas visitors - even foreign backpackers, who they sometimes call 'bird shit' tourists - spend far more than the domestic crowd.
I'm with you.
We get those hi-so Bangkokians coming down to the shores in Bang Saray on the weekends, but, as you stated, most of them bring their own food and drink, and seem to be spending very little money in the town itself. They also seem to like the budget hotels where they can cram 3 families in one room. Some budget-conscious visitors actually prefer sleeping in the backs of their pickup trucks.
I honestly think that Pattaya has run out of ideas. They know they can't attract too many foreigners with these quarantines in place, and they're simply between a rock and a hard place. You can't blame them for trying.
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
Surely they are defeating the whole object?
The delay in allowing tested falang tourists who are CERTIFIED COVID FREE has been caused by the lack of vaccine so that the required 70% of locals have not been injected.
By encouraging Thai tourists, from all over, surely the required 70% is even further away?
Then when we eventually arrive we will be at further risk.
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gerefan2
Surely they are defeating the whole object?
The delay in allowing tested falang tourists who are CERTIFIED COVID FREE has been caused by the lack of vaccine so that the required 70% of locals have not been injected.
By encouraging Thai tourists, from all over, surely the required 70% is even further away?
Then when we eventually arrive we will be at further risk.
That 70% figure.. hmm..
I suppose if you can convince the Thai public that 70% vaccination will make it safe to venture back into the sunlight, the inevitability that most will get an actual infection to some degree before the bug returns to the shadows is, perhaps, easier to handle.
And would the full reopening of tourism actually make that much difference? With Covid working its way through the population anyway, and most tourists 'post-Covid' either vaccinated or previously infected; and the great majority of those Thais they socialise with being of an age that rarely suffers bad outcomes from infection, is there really anything of substance to fear now?
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dodger
We get those hi-so Bangkokians coming down to the shores in Bang Saray on the weekends, but, as you stated, most of them bring their own food and drink, and seem to be spending very little money in the town itself. They also seem to like the budget hotels where they can cram 3 families in one room
HISO is by definition about conspicuous consumption, so the idea of three HISO families crammed into one room in a budget hotel in Bang Saray for the weekend is hilarious! This might even be the format for a reality tv series along the lines of "I'm a Celebrity....Get Me Out of Here!"
Re: Thai Tourists the Main Focus for Pattaya
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gerefan2
Surely they are defeating the whole object?
The delay in allowing tested falang tourists who are CERTIFIED COVID FREE has been caused by the lack of vaccine so that the required 70% of locals have not been injected.
A damn good point. Will the Thai tourists have to do a covid test before entering Pattaya ?