Following the surge of optimism and positive messages from business owners in Pattaya, after the lockdown and curfew measures were lifted, locals are now beginning to admit defeat.
Sophon Cable TV has presented a realistic report on the once popular resort city that reveals only quiet streets littered with for-sale and rental posters.
As Bangkok Jack pointed out in July – being back open for business is only relevant if there are paying customers in town.
And now, four months on, pubs, clubs, parlors, 7-Elevens, food markets, barber shops, hotels, spas, discos and anything else you can think of are closing down.
In their place, the squatters and beggars have moved in.
Defeated business owners are predicting greater misery to come. This, they say, is only the beginning of the end. The end is GHOST TOWN.
Sophon TV interviewed three different kinds of business people, for their news report, and each had a similar tale to tell.
There are NO foreign tourists in Pattaya.
Oot Kaesuwan said he has owned three profitable beer bars for the last two-decades. Now, all of them are closed.
In his case the owners of the premises have frozen his rental payments, in the hope that his business may return to something like normal. He said the government had provided a small amount of relief but his staff have had no income for their families.
Wirasak Chayeng owns a souvenir shop in the once thriving Walking Street. He said that most of the people there have closed up as they can no longer meet their rental costs.
Some landlords have been demanding full rental payments and this has lead to owners simply giving up and going home.
Others have been locked out by uncompromising and threatening agents.
Until now he has been ‘playing the waiting game’ in the hope that business may improve for everybody but soon he says, in his own words, ‘it will be every man for himself.’
He has called for the tourism authorities to promote Pattaya with festivals and events to draw in domestic tourists at the weekends.
But the Pattaya mayor and his officials have already proved themselves to be quite clueless during the current crisis.
Wirasak says that by the end of the year everybody will have run out of resources and will have left town.
Finally, Premrudee Sae-kow, who is the owner of a seafood restaurant, said that her attempts to provide for her staff by offering street food outside her restaurant have failed, because there are no customers.
She said she does not know what to do next and believes that even big business will be leaving Pattaya soon and the once prosperous city will be left completely deserted. – Albert Jack
