Pattaya, the vacation town that acts like it's not...

[bucknaway]

I've often wondered why gay establishments in Thailand don't promote themselves much.  They will promote a new opening or a birthday but planes are landing every day with new first time visitors who know nothing about the gay scene and don't know where to go to have fun.  

 

I remember when I landed in Puerto Rico.  I checked into a gay hotel.  It was a dump and I had to stand in line with other guests that wanted a refund and to check out.  The hotel told us all that we had committed to a 3-night stay and after night 3 we checked out!  How did we end up staying at that dump?  Promotion!  They posted in the gay newspapers and were promoting themselves in the gay forums and on America Online.  

 

Every day, on the beach in Puerto Rico, sexy and hot men and women would hand out fliers for gay bars and restaurants as well as tours and taxi services.  In the hotel rooms, bars had reference cards and discount coupons.

 

I can't remember how often we passed other bars to head to a bar that promoted themselves to us.  As it turned out the bars were often holes in the wall, but they drew a crowd from their flyers.

 

In Thailand, the 2 bars with name recognition are Jupiter and Moonlight.  It is not happening by luck, they are promoting their bars and people are interested in finding them for a visit.

 

I was reading the Gray Lady (Sawatdee) and read that a gay bar in a hard to find area of Pattaya on a dark street quietly blew out the candle and bowed out.  Why don't the owners or managers go out fighting?  Is it possible to turn a handicap into an asset?  Is there a way to promote to visitors that there is a gay area away from the lights, away from the straight couples gawking and giggling?  A place where underwear is the standard dress attire?  Is there a way to promote Sunee as the place for secrets and privacy?  A place where Kissing and Telling is not allowed?

 

I think it is a damn shame that a bar whose name I can't remember, closed up without me ever giving it a look or a try.  It just kept quiet until it faded away...

 

If I was in the bar business and I knew my bar was in its final days, I think I would go out either fighting or with a bang!  I would try Snuggle Nights.  Maybe a game night of musical chairs but with guys sitting on the laps of customers.  Maybe I would try Gay Playboy Bunny Night and tell the guys to flirt their asses off with the customers and make them all feel like they are old sex friends!  If my bar was an open/outside bar, I would do what I could get away with.  Maybe I would have my staff dress in traditional period clothing much like they do in the formal photographs.

 

I'd tell my staff that their friends can drink at 1/2 price or at a reduced rate and see if a full bar will attract guys with deeper pockets.

 

I would even try bringing back the LeCafe Royale tight short shorts.

 

If you are going to close your doors, why not try something new before the last night?  Why not invite visitors to find your establishment?

 

But I am just a customer looking for a fun place to spend my money and I've never owned a bar.  I just spend my money on them.

[Terry4]

Buck...u raise some good points about hustling for business.

 

But i think is whats happening with Sunee is the Landlords are either not renewing the Lease or again offering very short leases.

 

It seems the owners of Sunee are selling or even perhaps sold the land and are just waiting to vacate tenants.

 

But your right; business' s nowadays need to go out and hustle and look for business, it no longer comes to you, new ideas, new technology,new look etc

 

Its now moving towards two different generations, they have different needs and wants

 

To a lot of them sitting in a bar staring at a wall is not the thing they do unless theres something spectacular.

[hank75]

Very interesting topic. I’m not sure how I feel about gogo boy musical chairs! But “if I owned a bar” is definitely one of my favourite fantasies and there are many ways I can think of for bars to up their game....a peep show bar for instance.

 

It is no accident that Jupiter and Dream Boy have lots of Chinese custom and also attracts the younger set with lots of disposable income. Jupiter has active promotions and ads targeted towards this audience. Mamasans are not in your face pesky queens but groomed as strategic salespeople, who collect customers’ Line and WeChat IDs to promote the bar. They’ve also cleverly found their niche (hunks, models, slick shows) and are milking it as much as they can, with other bars like Moonlight attempting to muscle in.

 

But don’t forget, investing money into bar promotion shaves profit from the bar owner’s pockets. Not many of them are far sighted enough to see beyond the immediate payday, which I think is an affliction the smaller bars suffer from. Maybe some of the owners think the bar has a finite lifespan and they just want to make as much as they possibly can before laying it to rest.

[Londoner]

In the mid-nineties, I would stay in Boyztown and spend the mornings on Jomtien's gay beach which was then very busy. One day, a couple of guys appeared handing out fliers for a"new" gay area not far from Boyztown. Sunee Plaza.

In this instance, ther fliers worked and I visited for the first time.  I can't think of any other instance in Gay Pattaya which persuaded me to visit an area or establishment; perhaps the internet is a more sophisticated and effective means of advertising. Nevertheless, I'm all in favour of more assertive marketing to support gay establishments.