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Pattaya
Friday, March 29, 2024

‘GOODBYE PATTAYA’ as the final few start LEAVING

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Although the government has announced that Thailand should be fully reopened to foreign tourists by
October, Pattaya residents say it’s too late and are leaving town now.

The words ‘La Laew Pattaya’ or Goodbye Pattaya, are trending on Facebook site Pattaya Talk.

It seems that the last, few remainers are now loading their possessions onto pick-ups and heading back to their villages.

There have been many supportive comments but no real enthusiasm for the city that was once packed full of tourists, especially in the high season.

Thai media have been to the resort and reported on the many apartment buildings that are now for sale or available to rent. Many of them lay empty, without a single resident.

Phasakorn Suntharot – the owner of Suntharot Apartments – said that his tenants began leaving during the first wave of the  SHAM-demic. And then just when it felt like there could be a recovery – along came the so-called ‘second wave.’

He said that most of his tenants worked in the entertainment industry and have just gone home to save money as there appears to be no end to the misery inflicted, which is being dressed up as ‘virus prevention measures.’
Suntharot has just one tenant now. Pattaya has nothing left, he groaned.

And all for a flu-virus with a 99.4% survival rate.

Meanwhile, the head of Pattaya’s public transport association has painted a grim picture of the effect of the Covid second  wave and the placing of the resort in the severest Red Zone restrictions.

Taxi drivers and song thaew drivers (called baht buses at the resort) are packing in the job and seeking new employment or just going home to their up country villages.

500 vehicles are simply gathering dust as only a skeleton service remains for the locals in Pattaya.
All the tourists – both Thai and foreigners – have simply vanished.

Tawat Pheuakbunnak – chief of the Pattaya Bus Co-Operative – said that the first wave of the pandemic had a devastating effect on his members with there being no foreign tourists.

But with government stimulus measures and the events held in Pattaya there were genuine signs that the corner had been turned and drivers were returning to their vehicles.

Then came the second wave and, said Tawat in an interview with Sophon Cable TV, it is proving much worse than the first.

He said that his organisation is responsible for 712 song thaews and 170 taxis and in total there are 1000 public vehicles in  Pattaya.

Of these now 500 have stopped offering a service – 50% of the total.

He said that there were so few customers that there was no point for drivers to rent or fill up with gas.

Many had gone to find other jobs or simply returned to their homes in the provinces.

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