Pattaya downturn
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whitedesire
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Re: Pattaya downturn
Low season + inflation = fewer customers.whitedesire wrote: ↑Sat Jun 07, 2025 10:47 pm
https://www.pattayamail.com/news/once-r ... ief-503605
Pattayamail is sensationalizing again.
If the sky was actually falling as many times as Pattayamail claims it was over the past 12 months we'd all be sitting in the dark right now.
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya downturn
Regarding restaurants, at least the restaurants I like, are just as busy as ever and the ones that accept bookings, it's still a very good idea to make that booking if you want to be sure of a table.
In my opinion the restaurants that truly are suffering, it's not because of low season or lack of tourists. It's because they're lousy to begin with . . .
Re: Pattaya downturn
Exactly. The good businesses survive and the bad ones don't. Capitalism doing what it's supposed to.
I see that too. For example, two desparately poor coffee shops near my hotel have closed. One a few years ago and the other in the last 3 months. With all the high quality coffee in Pattaya, there's no need to support bad businesses.
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya downturn
Yes. I can't count the number of times I've seen Thai restaurants where one is bursting at the seams with customers and another is virtually right next door and empty. It doesn't take much to figure out why.
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya downturn
What is YOUR reaction to this article?
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Who would Pattaya listen to—if not its expats and long-term visitors, the very people who helped build it?
By Pattaya Mail
June 15, 2025
As low season bites harder than ever, seasoned foreigners say the city has lost its way.
Pattaya, once the beating heart of Thailand’s tourism industry, now feels like a ghost town to many of its most loyal residents—its long-term foreign visitors. As this year’s low season hits new depths, foreign retirees, digital nomads, and working-age Westerners are asking a pointed question: If City Hall won’t listen to the people who live here year-round, who exactly is Pattaya listening to?
“I’ve never seen Pattaya this quiet,” says one veteran expat, reflecting on the eerily empty streets and shuttered businesses. “This isn’t just low season. It’s lowest season.”
According to several long-term residents, the city’s attempts to chase mass tourism numbers—particularly from short-term markets like China and India—have come at the cost of alienating those who gave Pattaya its original international appeal.
“Been here full-time for ten years and it looks the same as low season pre-pandemic, 2015–2019,” one user wrote online. “Except back then there weren’t cars parked 24/7 along Theppasit and Pattaya Tai. Now it seems many long-term residents have moved here permanently—but spending has dropped off.”
Others point to a shift in nightlife quality as a key reason for the downturn.
“Bars were full until around 2010,” said another longtime resident. “After that, the women just got worse and worse, the harassment for money and lady drinks got worse. Spending Westerners stopped coming. The numbers were filled with non-spending tourists from China—and you know who.”
It’s a bitter reflection of changing times: quantity over quality, short-term gains over sustainable growth.
“Now the girls are double the age, double the weight, and double the cost,” one longtime expat said bluntly. “People aren’t paying it—why would they?”
Many seasoned visitors say it’s not just nostalgia talking. The high prices, dwindling quality, and persistent push for lady-drinks have made Pattaya’s bar scene a hard sell. “These conditions just don’t attract Westerners anymore,” he added. “It’s not worth it. That’s why they don’t come.”
Meanwhile, small business owners and bar operators are already feeling the decline firsthand. “Bars are closing down everywhere,” one observed. “Hotels are running on a skeleton crew. Everyone’s trying to survive.”
Thailand’s tourism authority continues to tout impressive arrival numbers—more than 15.5 million tourists from January to June 2025. Meanwhile, critics argue those figures hide a more complex truth: most new arrivals don’t spend like the Westerners of the past and don’t stay long enough to sustain the city’s local economy.
Without meaningful dialogue with the expat community, many fear that Pattaya may continue to lose the very people who once made it unique—a city shaped not just by its visitors, but by those who chose to stay.
“Who’s Pattaya really for now?” one resident asks. “It used to be for all of us. Now it feels like it’s for no one.”
https://www.pattayamail.com/news/who-wo ... -it-505250
________________________________
Who would Pattaya listen to—if not its expats and long-term visitors, the very people who helped build it?
By Pattaya Mail
June 15, 2025
As low season bites harder than ever, seasoned foreigners say the city has lost its way.
Pattaya, once the beating heart of Thailand’s tourism industry, now feels like a ghost town to many of its most loyal residents—its long-term foreign visitors. As this year’s low season hits new depths, foreign retirees, digital nomads, and working-age Westerners are asking a pointed question: If City Hall won’t listen to the people who live here year-round, who exactly is Pattaya listening to?
“I’ve never seen Pattaya this quiet,” says one veteran expat, reflecting on the eerily empty streets and shuttered businesses. “This isn’t just low season. It’s lowest season.”
According to several long-term residents, the city’s attempts to chase mass tourism numbers—particularly from short-term markets like China and India—have come at the cost of alienating those who gave Pattaya its original international appeal.
“Been here full-time for ten years and it looks the same as low season pre-pandemic, 2015–2019,” one user wrote online. “Except back then there weren’t cars parked 24/7 along Theppasit and Pattaya Tai. Now it seems many long-term residents have moved here permanently—but spending has dropped off.”
Others point to a shift in nightlife quality as a key reason for the downturn.
“Bars were full until around 2010,” said another longtime resident. “After that, the women just got worse and worse, the harassment for money and lady drinks got worse. Spending Westerners stopped coming. The numbers were filled with non-spending tourists from China—and you know who.”
It’s a bitter reflection of changing times: quantity over quality, short-term gains over sustainable growth.
“Now the girls are double the age, double the weight, and double the cost,” one longtime expat said bluntly. “People aren’t paying it—why would they?”
Many seasoned visitors say it’s not just nostalgia talking. The high prices, dwindling quality, and persistent push for lady-drinks have made Pattaya’s bar scene a hard sell. “These conditions just don’t attract Westerners anymore,” he added. “It’s not worth it. That’s why they don’t come.”
Meanwhile, small business owners and bar operators are already feeling the decline firsthand. “Bars are closing down everywhere,” one observed. “Hotels are running on a skeleton crew. Everyone’s trying to survive.”
Thailand’s tourism authority continues to tout impressive arrival numbers—more than 15.5 million tourists from January to June 2025. Meanwhile, critics argue those figures hide a more complex truth: most new arrivals don’t spend like the Westerners of the past and don’t stay long enough to sustain the city’s local economy.
Without meaningful dialogue with the expat community, many fear that Pattaya may continue to lose the very people who once made it unique—a city shaped not just by its visitors, but by those who chose to stay.
“Who’s Pattaya really for now?” one resident asks. “It used to be for all of us. Now it feels like it’s for no one.”
https://www.pattayamail.com/news/who-wo ... -it-505250
Re: Pattaya downturn
"As low season bites harder than ever"
Well that's a damned lie for a start. Do they not remember the pandemic of silly policies in 2020~21?
Overall Thai tourism is only a few percent off all time highs. The only question is how Pattaya fares relative to that.
They mention the poor quality of the ladies. Obviously I don't go after them, but there are girly bars everywhere, so anyone walking around can't miss them. They are typically fat and covered in tattoos.
The standard of boys in certain Gogo bars has dropped markedly in the last 10 years. However, this problem is easily solved by going to Jomtien. Certain bars have excellent boys.
If you are after boys, there is nowhere that competes with Jomtien. That's why I keep coming back.
For anyone not chasing after sex, there are some far nicer cities in Asia. The authorities in Pattaya aren't even trying to do a good job. So what do they expect?
Well that's a damned lie for a start. Do they not remember the pandemic of silly policies in 2020~21?
Overall Thai tourism is only a few percent off all time highs. The only question is how Pattaya fares relative to that.
They mention the poor quality of the ladies. Obviously I don't go after them, but there are girly bars everywhere, so anyone walking around can't miss them. They are typically fat and covered in tattoos.
The standard of boys in certain Gogo bars has dropped markedly in the last 10 years. However, this problem is easily solved by going to Jomtien. Certain bars have excellent boys.
If you are after boys, there is nowhere that competes with Jomtien. That's why I keep coming back.
For anyone not chasing after sex, there are some far nicer cities in Asia. The authorities in Pattaya aren't even trying to do a good job. So what do they expect?
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya downturn
I think they still expect to change Pattaya into a family oriented holiday destination. The only family interested in going to Pattaya rather than elsewhere in Thailand might be The Addams Family . . .
Re: Pattaya downturn
To me it is obvious that there are fewer tourists and expats in Pattaya now. Many places are very quiet. It doesn't bother me since I like it this way.
But I am not surprised at all that people have had enough of high flight prices and the Thai government's constant changes of visas, visa exempts and bs with taxes and refusing entrance to people who "come too much" etc etc.
And for the gay scene, it was so much more fun 10 years ago.
But I am not surprised at all that people have had enough of high flight prices and the Thai government's constant changes of visas, visa exempts and bs with taxes and refusing entrance to people who "come too much" etc etc.
And for the gay scene, it was so much more fun 10 years ago.
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Gaybutton
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Re: Pattaya downturn
Do they really do that? I wasn't aware of it. I thought they are trying to attract tourists, not refuse them entry on the basis of frivolous reasons. Who gets to decide that certain people "come too much" and turn them away?
I remember on flights many years ago they handed out customs declaration cards. That was great, trying to fill them out on a turbulent flight, or if you didn't think to bring a pen, or you brought one of those lousy pens that won't work just when you need it.