#Pattaya ranked as 7th Best of the Best Destinations

 Popular online travel platform Tripadvisor ranked Pattaya in Thailand 7th in the Travellers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best Destination for 2024, suggesting the beach city is the perfect choice for great resorts, outdoor activities, cabaret and cultural tours.

Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Award Best of the Best for 2024, is divided into five categories including destinations, restaurants, beaches, hotels and things to do. The list is based on reviews and opinions from Tripadvisor users over the past 12 months.

Pattaya, on Thailand’s eastern Gulf coast, was ranked 7th in the destinations category, with the website claiming that only 1% of Tripadvisor listings could make its name.

Tripadvisor highlighted Pattaya’s must-see attractions, including the famous Jomtien Beach, Khao Phrabat Temple, Sanctuary of Truth and the city’s lively entertainment venues. The Sanctuary of Truth was also recently chosen as the location for the action sci-fi film, The Creator.

The platform suggests that travellers to Pattaya, the second-largest city in the Chon Buri province and the eighth-largest city in Thailand, can expect great resorts, outdoor activities, cultural tours, and cabaret performances.

Source: The Thaiger

#Bangkok - Immigration and Police Conduct Nightlife Security Sweep in Nana Area

 

On the night of November 9, 2023, Bangkok's Nana district saw a concerted effort by the Immigration Bureau Division 1 and the Lumpini Police Station to enhance security measures. 

The operation involved X-ray screenings and detailed inspections targeting areas frequented by tourists at night, with a focus on Sukhumvit Soi 3 and Soi 3/1, reported Siam Rath.

This initiative, led by senior immigration and police officials, was designed to boost public confidence, ensure the safety of visitors, and preempt any disturbances, especially in light of potential international conflicts impacting Thailand.

Police Colonel Kajaphon Pathamang from Division 1 stated that the operation aligns with the policies set by the national police leadership, aiming to fortify the Immigration Bureau's role in safeguarding the country.

The strategy includes strict supervision and collaboration with other security entities to monitor vulnerable locations for any security threats and transnational criminal activities.

Following strategic discussions between the Immigration Bureau and the Metropolitan Police Bureau, the authorities have committed to maintaining these rigorous patrols.

The public is encouraged to assist by reporting any unusual or suspicious behavior to the emergency hotline 191 or the Immigration Bureau's hotline 1178, both available around the clock.

Source: ASIAN NOW

#THAILAND - Other provinces demand extended nightlife hours too

 

What about us?!

With nightlife venues in Phuket, Chon Buri, Bangkok and Chiang Mai being granted extended opening hours, other provinces want to do the same. From December 15, bars and clubs in 4 popular tourism provinces can remain open until 4am (previously 2am) for a trial period.

The move is one of several introduced by PM Srettha Thavisin, in a bid to boost Thailand’s economy and the tourism sector. It is not yet known how long the trial will last and if or when it will be extended nationwide.

Nightlife operator Pichanont Ingprasarn, who co-owns a number of venues in the eastern provinces of Trat, Chanthaburi and Rayong, says he’s hopeful the government will extend the later hours to other parts of the country, if it proves to be advantageous for tourism and the economy.

“If the extension boosts tourism and local economy in the four provinces, other provinces should also be allowed to add opening hours. The government should look at other provinces with the potential for tourism growth, such as Rayong and Trat, which have tourist attractions (such as Koh Chang in Trat). Nightlife venues there are also the targets of foreign tourists.”

The nightlife operator goes on to say that more venues on Koh Chang should be eligible to apply for operating licences, adding that stricter law enforcement is required to prevent underage drinking and other issues.

Meanwhile, tourism operators on Koh Samui want to know when the island’s nightlife venues will be allowed to open for longer. Ratchaporn Poonsawat from the Koh Samui Tourism Association says despite talks that stretch back to the previous administration, Koh Samui has been excluded from the latest trial, despite being a popular tourism destination.

Source - Phuket.Go

#Thailand voted best tourist destination outside Europe

 

Thailand has been recognised as the “Best Destination Outside Europe” at the Danish Travel Awards 2023, marking the first time the country has received this prestigious award.

The Danish Travel Awards, organised by Travelmedia Nordic, the leading digital travel media platform in the Nordic region, has been recognising outstanding contributions to the travel industry for 26 years. The event, which was held in Copenhagen on October 4, was attended by over 500 professionals from the travel, tourism, and aviation sectors.

Thailand received the award based on a survey conducted by Epinion, a Danish analytical institution, among 3,000 Danish consumers. The awards were divided into three categories: airlines and travel, hotels and tourism in Denmark, and foreign tour operators.

In addition to the main categories, five special awards were introduced this year, including:

1. Best Budget Airline

2. Best Beachfront Hotel in Denmark

3. Best Camping Site in Denmark

4. Best Tourist Attraction in Denmark

5. Best Destination Outside Europe

Thailand's success in securing the “Best Destination Outside Europe” award underscores its popularity among Danish tourists. According to data from January to September of this year, more than 19 million foreign tourists visited Thailand, including over 80,000 Danish tourists during the first half of the year, a significant increase compared to last year.

It is anticipated that the number of Danish tourists travelling to Thailand will continue to rise during the upcoming winter season. Thai businesses can leverage this opportunity to enhance their products and services to meet international standards and cater to the preferences of the target audience, thus expanding their market presence.

Source - The Nation

Bangkok - Why aren’t tourists returning to Khao San Road?

The past few years have been dark for tourism in Thailand and around the world. The Covid-19 global pandemic closed borders and killed tourism in so many crucial areas. Khao San Road, the vibrant, bustling backpacker haven of Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok quickly fell into a desolate ghost town. Now, the last pandemic restrictions have been lifted, and the government is constantly reporting floods of international tourists bringing Thailand back to life. But vendors on Khao San Road say they’re just not seeing the tourism numbers that were predicted even as all Covid restrictions have been lifted.

The popular tourist neighbourhood took a beating when restrictions started rolling out. Bars were among the first businesses to close, and authorities did everything they could to prevent poorly ventilated crowded places to operate in the face of airborne disease. So Khao San Road – packed densely full of eating and drinking backpackers and cafes, street bars, and shops crowding them for their business – was a prime target to be shut down for most of the pandemic.

The Bangkok Post recently interviewed vendors on the street now though, and they all say that they have not seen the crowds come surging back even as the last of the pandemic restrictions were lifted last month. They are calling on the government the launch tourism campaigns luring international travellers back to Khao San Road and the surrounding area. One vendor selling clothing in a street stall appealed to foreigners to return.

“We’re still waiting for them…. come back to Khao San. We still need all of you. There are few foreign customers today. Before the pandemic, I earned around 5,000–6,000 baht a day, but now I earn just 1,000–2,000 baht a day. After the pandemic, most foreign tourists are more careful with spending. It’s even harder to close a sale each time. They want me to give them a big discount.”

Vendors called on the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Tourism Authority of Thailand to focus their efforts on raising awareness of unrestricted travel in Thailand. They also want help promoting that while many costs have skyrocketed in the industry, accommodation is still affordable on Khao San Road, and the area is linked to plenty of tourist attractions. The road lies just a short walk from the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo. Great shopping, dining, and other attractions are just a short hop away.

A pad Thai seller said she was happy to be back on Khao San Road for the first time since the pandemic, even though she is earning half as much as before. But she called on the government to support the area, promoting holidays and events. Before the coronavirus, Khao San was packed for every special event or holiday.

“We have not celebrated the new year and the Songkran festivals together for two years. So, the government must organise these two big events next year and should regularly promote events every holiday to encourage tourists to visit.”

Source - The Thaiger

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Lockdown Collapsed #Thailand’s lucrative sex-industry

The black leather party masks that performers May and Som wear for their fetish shows in Bangkok are definitely not the sort to stop the corona-virus.

Behind closed doors, they practise for the day when health restrictions are lifted and tourists return, but they have no idea when and worry that the city’s infamous Patpong red-light district could be very different by then.

“This kind of place will be the last to reopen,” said May 31. Like Som, she goes only by her Thai nickname.

“Even when it does reopen, customers will be worried about their safety,” she said at the BarBar club on Patpong’s Soi 2 street. BarBar and other clubs such as “Bada Bing” and “Fresh Boys” are shuttered and the nights are largely silent.

Thailand shut bars and clubs in mid-March as corona-virus cases surged. It halted international passenger flights, stopping the tourism that had made Bangkok the world’s most visited city for four years.

Patpong went dark.

But residents say the decline had already begun for a red-light district that flourished in the 1970s as a rest stop for U.S. forces in Indochina.

“This COVID-19 is an accelerant of change,” said Michael Ernst, an Austrian 25-year veteran of the district and former bar owner who opened the Patpong Museum weeks before the new corona-virus reached Thailand.

“The go-go bar and its very one-dimensional concept of a stage and ladies dancing on it with a number. I think that’s already over, they just don’t know that yet.”

SHIFT

The number of go-go bars in Patpong district has waned in recent years as business has moved to other parts of Bangkok or online and as sex tourism has become a smaller part of the overall tourism industry for Thailand.

For decades, tourism figures were skewed towards men. But the growing importance of Chinese visitors in particular changed that. In 2018, more than 53 percent of tourists were women.

Nonetheless, Patpong’s nightlife district employed thousands of people, mostly young women. Most are now among the 2 million Thais the state planning agency believes may be made unemployed this year because of the impact of the virus.

BarBar is still paying some workers. But the manager of at least one go-go bar on Soi 2 just abandoned the lease.

Patpong had never known it as bad, said 70-year-old Pratoomporn Somritsuk, who for 35 years has run the Old Other Office drinking den.

“A lot of ladies here working in nightlife are mostly from a poor family or upcountry,” she said. “They have no chance to go work in a company.”

The lockdown has meant the whole sex industry has collapsed. Online escort service Smooci said activity in Bangkok fell to 10 percent in April.

Thailand has now begun to lift some movement restrictions with infections at over 3,000 and deaths nearly 60, but neither rising rapidly. There is talk of tourism resuming.

But a health ministry spokesman said that nightlife venues would be among the last to reopen.

“In the new normal, Patpong will have to adapt a lot. It may end up looking different, but this change will be for the better,” Rungruang Kitpati said.

Social distancing and the sex industry are hard to make compatible, however.

“I can provide alcohol gel or temperature checks,” said 38-year-old Jittra Nawamawat, one of BarBar’s founders. “But staying one metre apart is impossible.” – Reuters

Source - Bangkok Jack