The Powers-That-Be and Their Ideas for Improving Pattaya Tourism

[Gaybutton]

It's just more fodder for my "I Don't Get It" list. First, the areas they're talking about are nowhere near the areas where tourists usually go. Second, the local residents in those communities are opposed, but that doesn't seem to matter to the Powers-that-Be.

 

Water parks and cultural exhibitions? That's going to attract an influx of tourists to Pattaya? Where do these people come up with their ideas? Don't they understand that the two major complaints common to tourists are the very things Pattaya has lost? The night venues and feeling perfectly safe no matter where you are in Pattaya.

 

Pattaya is famous for the bar and entertainment scene. That's the one thing you never hear them talking about, other than raids and enforcing absurd forced closing times. 1:00am closing times for night venues ; gay, straight, and whatever, and the crime against tourists and cheating tourists is what is ruining Pattaya's tourist industry. If they would do something about those, that's when the tourists are much more likely to return to Pattaya rather than seek holidays elsewhere.

 

Pattaya is famous for the nightlife, but these people think they can turn it into a wholesome, family oriented city and still attract a major tourist industry. To me that makes about as much sense as trying to turn Las Vegas into a religious training center. That's simply not the reason why people go there and water parks and cultural exhibitions are definitely not the reasons people come to Pattaya.

 

Water parks and cultural exhibitions? Give me a break. "If they build it, they still won't come."

 

 

The following appears in PATTAYA ONE:

_____

 

Further Meeting Discusses Sustainable Tourism Here in Pattaya

 

On Thursday afternoon at Pattaya City Hall a further meeting took place to discuss plans to expand the Tourism Industry to sub-districts around the Pattaya and Banglamung area to allow for the area to become fully self-sustainable with regards to Tourism. The proposals were initially put forward by an organization called DASTA, Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration, who were present at the meeting.

 

The idea is to develop areas such as Pong Sub-District and Huoy Yai Sub-District to accommodate Tourist attractions and facilities such as water parks and cultural exhibitions.

 

The meeting discussed objections from local residents and business owners which have been raised and the need to improve the local infrastructure before any such plans could be put into action. Delegates were told to rethink some plans and a further meeting will be held soon.

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

Dear GB,

I understand exactly what you are complaining about. We have the same problem in Malaysia. Instead of cleaning up the beaches in Penang and showcasing the cultural events and activities of the Malay, Indian, Chinese and other Asian cultures on the island, they also wanted to build water theme parks and other things which other countries have built bigger and better already.

 

I could understand if somebody actually wanted to build a water park that highlighted the water theme in architecture and landscape in local culture, say a series of exhibition and dining pavilions floating in a landscaped pond or artificial lake where people could come to sample the best of local stuff. But for some reason, the powers-that-be invariably seem to think someone from say, California, wants to come to Malaysia or Pattaya to splash around in a poor imitation of an American water park.

[Gaybutton]

I understand exactly what you are complaining about.

 

Something else on my "I Don't Get It" list stems from the very fact of Pattaya's existence in the first place. What began as a small fishing village grew into a mecca for adult fun and games, namely the bars, sex, night venues, Walking Street, etc. For the life of me, I can't understand why there has recently been a big push to change the paradigm so that Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm would find Pattaya an ideal spot to visit. That's not what Pattaya is all about and why Pattaya exists.

 

Some might say they are succumbing to western pressure. I don't buy that argument at all. The only western pressure I've ever observed here has been the pressure to put the "whoa Nellie" on under-age sex. I've not aware of any other pressures exerted by western do-gooders.

 

Somehow, I don't envision Pattaya becoming a haven for family-style tourism because of bar closings at 1:00am and a water park here and there, especially when they're to be located in areas where the residents don't want them and the majority of tourists aren't going to patronize. Maybe a few busloads of Chinese tourists will go, but that's about it.

 

If that's really their idea of how to attract hordes of tourists and holiday makers, then I can foresee the day when someone mentions Pattaya and the response is, "Oh yes, I remember Pattaya. It's pretty much a ghost town now, isn't it?" Bases on the present tourist numbers, some businesses might say it's already getting to be that way.

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

A fishing village...did you know that Cannes also started off the same way? I wonder if that's what's giving the Powers-That-Be (PTB?) the funny ideas. Or maybe it could just be a combination of factors...after all, no matter how much revenue it's generating, I can hardly imagine any Asian town wanting to remain famous as a haven for horny, retired gentlemen of every sexuality.

[Gaybutton]

I can hardly imagine any Asian town wanting to remain famous as a haven for horny, retired gentlemen of every sexuality.

 

Why not? It sounds better to me every time I hear it . . .

[Guest lvdkeyes]

The sex tourism trade brings a lot of money into Pattaya (Thailand). It seems like the Thai Gov't likes shooting itself in the foot.

[Guest lester1]

I am not totally anti the idea of City Hall wanting to change pattaya from a sex and sun city into a more family orientated resort. I can understand them wanting to do this, broaden the appeal and at the same time enhance its reputation. Its entirely natural for a mayor to want to do this as it cant be much fun being known as the manager of a sex and bar resort and all that entails when there is the feeling that the Holy Grail of family fun might just be a few rule changes and raids away. Such a change would earn brownie points with the religious establishment, some powerful Thai's, government grant awarding boards, and, I suspect, many normal Thai families unconnected to the bar and booze business.

What makes it difficult in reality is all the problems so well documented here in the past. In my view the chief one is the quality of the seawater, plus the difficulty of getting around, and the crime rates.

There is, of course, some mileage in the old idea of 'it it aint broke, dont fix it'. It would be very easy to say that bars, sex and booze is what the place has always done and done well, so lets continue down that road, forget the recent past of raids, early closing, and whathaveyou, and go back to the golden age of about 10 years ago. Personally, I and many readers of this board and others would vote for something like that. However, it would be only be fair to say that there are many who wouldnt.

What will hinder whatever route is chosen is the totally half arsed planning skills of City Hall. I gather that the road from Pattaya to Jomtien is still potholed and useless, bars are still having to guess about which rules are being enforced, and I dream enjoyably about trams crushing baht buses and rashly parked lines of motorbikes.

Incidentally Gaybutton, I do think that a 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' themed bar, either gay or straight, could have tourists rushing in, and seriously, have often thought that a Pattaya Park Clone in North Pattaya would make commercial sense.

 

[Guest slackersam]

People go on vacation in order to get drunk and get laid.

 

Anything a city can do to make that happen safely will bring in tourists. This is why even post-Katrina New Orleans is popular.

 

People are not going to fly from New York is Asia to see a waterpark.

[Gaybutton]

I gather that the road from Pattaya to Jomtien is still potholed and useless

 

Not quite so bad now. They've dug up most of the potholes on Thappraya and moved them to other streets . . .

[Guest slackersam]

They used to do that in New Jersey all the time.

 

Sometimes I'd feel bad and miss my favorite pot hole when they pot hole control officer would take it away.

 

But, then I'd see it again a few days later somewhere else - and it was like reuniting with an old friend.

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

Speaking as a former hotelier who worked at Penang Island beach resorts for ten years, I can honestly tell you that GB's sentiment about retaining Pattaya as a haven for horny retired gentlemen is a much better idea than turning the town into a 'family-oriented' holiday destination.

 

The problem with most people who attain the status of PTB is that they did not get their start in the tourism industry, have no idea of what it's actually like and insist that they know everything about what's best for a destination. In this case, they seem to have forgotten that -

 

1. There are already quite a few other better established 'family-oriented' destinations in Thailand, let alone Asia. Whether the Pattaya PTBs can maintain the momentum and compete for long enough with these alternative destinations to make before Pattaya is actually recognized as a 'family destination' is not something any of them seem to have considered too carefully

 

2. The family niche market is a seasonal one - only when the kids are on holiday and only if the parents can afford to take the whole family on vacation. Family group travellers don;t actually spend more than sex tourists. The family group tends to book a package holiday for economic reasons - 3days/2nights, e.g. - air tickets, hotels (usually the big ones who give cheap desperation rates) and to a certain extant, food, are all covered. The small local businesses are lucky to smell twenty percent of each family's holiday spending money.

 

3. The sex holiday market is not dependent on holiday seasons - as we have seen from the posts here and on other Thai boards, we sex tourists (of all sexual persuasions) tend to come as soon as we have saved enough money to have a really good time.

 

4. The PTB ALWAYS think that adding a few theme parks and what-have-you are sufficient to turn any place into a 'family fun venue' - they never remember the number of years it takes for any destination to build up that kind of reputation or the actual number of real facilities and infrastructural changes that are needed

 

5. The PTBs don't seem to have taken the trouble to study how much we sex tourists actually contribute to their coffers - we spend thousands each on hotels, food, massages, etc. etc.

 

I could go on forever but I think I've made my point here. And that is quite simply that the sex tourist can always go somewhere else while the poor locals are the ones who are going to have to deal with falling revenue, the slow deterioration of their livelihoods and loss of business whenever some PTB decides that we horny old farts no longer feel welcome in Pattaya. I wonder why we Asians insist on continually electing such ignorant intellectually-challenged persons into positions of power.

[Guest slackersam]

Yep, a water park is no good in bad weather, but you can suck cock 365 days a year.

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

Yep, a water park is no good in bad weather, but you can suck cock 365 days a year.

 

I couldn't agree more! The PTBs don't seem to realize how many sick buffaloes, grandparents and parents we sex tourists have financed, either! Why, we qualify as individual walking charities!

[Guest slackersam]

Plus the weird property ownership laws that keep us from buying 100 percent of a home have helped make property owners out of tons of their local population.

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

Plus the weird property ownership laws that keep us from buying 100 percent of a home have helped make property owners out of tons of their local population.

 

And they want to get rid of us because...?

 

Just for thought, I wonder what would happen if we all upped, made our way to a little village further along the coast and offered to move in en mass. Consider our combined buying power and the potential to draw thousands more sex tourists to the impoverished little place for the next twenty or thirty years...I can't imagine any sane community leader saying 'No, thank you.'

 

Sounds a bit like a deal with a lot of old devils, I know, but at the very least, it would be a good lesson for any future PTB that gets uppity about having a lot of financially independent horny old farts patronising their little patch of turf.

[Guest slackersam]

Isn't that essentially why the mob created Las Vegas - because they were tired of being hassled by local governments in New York, Miami and Chicago, so they decided to simply build their own city away from everyone else?

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

We could always call our new town LOS Viagras

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Should be LAS VIAGRAS.

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

Yes, but this is the Land Of Smiles.

 

Quite seriously, just as I had no problem being known as a sex tourist, I am sure I shan't have any becoming an aging sex mobster.

[Guest slackersam]

I've spent my entire life dreaming of ruling a town, city or country with an iron fist - so I'd be happy to get on board and help build the new town.

 

For a percentage I'd be more than willing to run either the protection rackets or the rent boys.