Hopes For Pattaya High Season Sinking

[Gaybutton]

Either reopen the bars and other nightly entertainment venues and put the prostitutes back to work, or kiss Pattaya goodbye.

I think it is more complex than that. Suppose they permit the bars to reopen tomorrow and also serve alcohol. How many really will open any time soon? It is not doing the bars much good to reopen if there are hardly any customers to support them enough to at least break even and how many international customers are going to go to Thailand any time soon?

We also don't know yet how many bars even survived to be able to reopen.

Also, they may be looking at a recruitment problem. Many of the boys returned to their home provinces and have had no income whatsoever for months. Just to return to Pattaya they have to come up with the money for bus fare to return, have to pay at least a month rent in advance wherever they're going to stay, have to have money to eat, have to have money for personal expenses, etc. That will be at least several thousand baht. Where is that supposed to come from? None of the bars are going to pay the boys in advance and no apartments are going to let the boys move in without paying at least a month in advance, probably with a security deposit too.

And for the foreseeable future, none of the Cambodian, Burmese, or Laotian boys can even get into Thailand at all.

Again, I hope I am totally wrong, and I'm sorry to be so gloomy about it, but I believe that is the reality. I find it very difficult to be optimistic that the bar scene has much chance of returning to any semblance of normal within the next few years.

[Manforallseasons]

Again, I hope I am totally wrong, and I'm sorry to be so gloomy about it, but I believe that is the reality. I find it very difficult to be optimistic that the bar scene has much chance of returning to any semblance of normal within the next few years.

You know there is a small contingent of folks here that prefer to see things through rose colored glasses, hence you shall be branded as Negative Nancy.

[Dodger]

I think it is more complex than that. Suppose they permit the bars to reopen tomorrow and also serve alcohol. How many really will open any time soon?

Speaking just about the gay bars in Jomtien Complex, I think 100% of them would reopen almost immediately. They've been paying their leases continually for the past 18 months waiting for the green light to reopen, I seriously doubt we'll see too many laggers.

As far as the sum total of bars in Pattaya (all 10,000 of them), I imagine some would reopen right away (similar to the Complex) and others would be reopening on a more gradual/incremental timeline based on tourist-flow and economic forecast.

The Thais are one of the most resilient cultures on earth based on what I've observed. They've been holding their breath and living on peanuts this long, and I don't have a doubt in the world about their abilities to swing back into action when the light turns green.

Once the money starts circulating in the bar scene the working boys will find a way to return. When most of them came here years ago their pockets were empty just like they are now, and they know how to put the pieces together.

At least that's how I see it happening in a REAL REOPENING scenario.

[Gaybutton]

Speaking just about the gay bars in Jomtien Complex, I think 100% of them would reopen almost immediately.

I hope it turns out that you're the one who's right and I'm the one who's wrong. The problem is it looks like we're not going to find out any time soon.

As for the Sunee Plaza bars paying their leases for the past 18 months, I don't know that. How do you know?

[Dodger]

As for the Sunee Plaza bars paying their leases for the past 18 months, I don't know that. How do you know?

I was referring to the bars in Jomtien Complex, not the bars in Sunee.

What's distinctly different between these two places in that business was dwindling pretty badly in Sunee before the pandemic, and the Complex was growing. Not so much in terms of customers at the time, but in planned investments. Even now, as bad as times are, The majority of bars in the Complex bars have not been vacated...continue to have staff appearing from time-to-time cleaning the places...and small pockets of boys mingling around the area. The bar owners are clearly intent on reopening and will rely on our support in doing so.

Sunee is a different picture. I was talking to the owner of Green Chairs Bar (Sunee) on Wednesday and she has refused to abandon ship - even after going so many months without a single customer. She was smiling at the delight of having 3 farang just arriving from Belgium (Sunee regulars) who now visit her bar in the evenings. The doors are down - and the lights are dim - but she's still standing behind the bar waiting to do her job, and there are boys in the area who are equally happy. Nice Boys, Winner Bar, Momma Leks, and a few other bars in Sunee are still standing and poised to reopen as well. They may have some cobwebs across their doorways, but as soon as Pattaya is REALLY OPENED I have no doubt that they will be trying to make a go of it as well.



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[GWMinUS]

Somewhat off topic.
But my friends from Germany just had a wonder Gay holiday in Spain.
Forget about Thailand...