Tourists do not seem concerned about Bangkok protests

Thailands political problems and travel warnings issued by many western countries do not seem to be affecting tourism.

It is the end of 2013 and it has been a couple of years since Thailand's last last political dispute which means the country has been overdue for this.

 

Protesters on both sides took time out yesterday to honor the kings 86th birthday showing in spite of political strife, Thai culture and a strong common bond does still remain. Perhaps that common bond, ie: a Monarch, is the only real way forward for the Thai people. However with Thailand's peak tourism season upon us it seems that tourists are not concerned about red shirts, yellow shirts, or any other color, they just want their holiday. 

Here is an article from  the Wall Street Journal:

 

As Thailand Fears a Drop in Tourism, Visitors Say No Worries

By Nopparat Chaichalearmmongkol

BANGKOK—Political protests in Thailand have calmed slightly following an uneasy truce between demonstrators and the government on Tuesday. But fears remain that the ongoing political turmoil could reverberate throughout the economy.

Thailand’s tourism industry, a major contributor to the country’s gross domestic product, could be an obvious casualty, with news and scenes of continued street protests and the storming of government offices in Bangkok scarring away foreign travelers just when Thailand is entering peak tourism season.

As of Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry reported that 37 countries have issued travel advisories for Thailand – mostly at level 2 – “Exercise Caution.”

 

Still, several tourists interviewed by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday said they found Bangkok to be safe, even when coming across demonstrations.

The British government “issued advice, saying we should avoid protest sites, which apparently we have not managed to,” said 30-year-old British national Mark Abbott, who was walking down Ratchadamnoen Avenue, the main anti-government rally site in Bangkok.

The avenue sits adjacent to the city’s famous backpacker hub, Khao San Road, which makes avoiding the rally sites somewhat difficult.

But since Mr. Abbott and his companion Kadi McLeod arrived in the Thai capital just days ago they say they’ve not found anything to worry about.

“This looks very organized and everyone seems to know where to go and what to do,” said Ms. McLeod.

Even though the protests have eased, however, airlines and travel operators say their main concern is that tourists who have not yet arrived will re-think their visits, particularly if the protests resume next week after the country has celebrated the birthday of highly-revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Dec. 5.

The latest data from flag-carrier Thai Airways International and leading budget carrier Thai AirAsia showed a slight a drop in passenger numbers for the month of November, when protests first started heating up.

“While we are not seeing mass cancellations, a prolonged situation may lead short-haul travelers to change their holiday destination to somewhere else,” said Chokchai Panyayong, senior vice president of Thai Airways International PCL.

90 Day check in at Chonburi Pattaya Immigration

Thailand has a 90 day check in rule for all foreigners residing in the kingdom. Is Chonburi Pattaya immigration really ready to handle the growing foreigner population?

The new immigration office has now been open in Jomtien Beach for a few years now, having moved from its old location Pattaya Beach Rd soi 8.

This new building and location was set up to be a bigger and more efficient office. In reality it is about a 100 square meter building with very limited parking and limited capacity to properly handle the various departments needed to handle the many different immigration issues concerning foreigners.  I'm not quite sure how such a small building will be able to cope in the future with a few looming challenges...

1. The growing number of tourists coming for longer periods of time and therefore needing visa extensions.
2. The growing number of retirees moving here and now needing to check in every 90 days
3. With the growing industry here in Pattaya Jomtien areas there are far more foreign workers also needing to re issue visas and do their required check ins.  

 I showed up today for my check in at 1:00PM, i had a few errands to run in the morning so i could not be there when the doors opened. The place was so over crowded it took a few minutes just to be able to enter. It was another 10 minutes of waiting in line just to get the proper form to fill out and another few minutes just to be able to hand it back in. Once i was assigned a number, i saw there were about 12 people ahead of me in the queue. I thought for sure i would be there all afternoon, i was totally surprised to see that i was done and out the door in 15 minutes!

The 90 day check in is free. All you need is a copy of your passport, visa, and tm arrival card. No photos, bank statements, etc. All the immigration officer does is look at the form, hit it with a half dozen stamps, tear off the bottom and staple it in your passport. 

With the ability to check in for a flight on line, download and file your taxes on line i find it hard to believe there can not be a similar process for foreigners to check in. I was number 397 today. Just for that department. Now i am not sure if i was the 397th person to do a 90 day check in here in the Pattaya Jomtien office but by the looks of things there was sure to have been more than 100. What if the local immigration offices could reduce the number of people they needed to serve and increase the space available for other more complicated matters, would that be a possible solution to an obviously growing problem?

Thailands floating markets are no longer free in Pattaya

Pattaya no longer the cheap tourist destination it used to be. This is due to a few reasons...

• Thai baht strengthening against most currencies.
• Related inflation and increases in general.
• Uninformed tourists that do not realise they are getting scammed and happily paying what they feel are small fees.

Thailand is well known for its two and even three tier pricing but the low fees being imposed on tourists in Pattaya's floating market located just south of Jomtien beach takes the cake. This is approaching typical internet MLM ( multi level marketing ) scams. It apprears that tourists that pay to be part of a tour to be taken to the market will now be charged entrance fees on arrival.

This took place on December first where previously the market was free to all visitors. The fee structure will now currently beas follows...

1. Typically free for Thai nationals.
2. A nice break for those of that live here...we can enter free with a Thai drivers license or work permit.
3. Foreigners that are brought be a Thai can also enter free as Thais are entitled to bring two guests.
4. Foreigners that show up on holiday unaccompanied by a Thai citizen will be charged 200 Baht.

All i can say is congradulations to Pattaya Floating Market and Thailand in general for showing tourists just how appreciated they are. At least this time they have showed some restraint towards ex-pats.

Pattaya to become a safer place for tourists and ex-pats

Looks like the boys in brown and the local government are finally recognising the growing crime rate in Pattaya and deciding to take action. This will include safety nets, more tourist police in more areas as well as cctv cameras through out the city. Check out this article from Thai Visa

Pattaya sets up safety zones to reduce crime rates

PATTAYA, 27 September 2012 (NNT) - In the wake of increased crime rates in Pattaya district of Chonburi province, local police are pushing ahead with their plan to set up a safety zone project in the beach area and the Walking Street.
The Chonburi Governor and the Pattaya Mayor will together preside over the project opening ceremony at the Walking Street tomorrow, during which the safety zone project will be officially unveiled.

According to Superintendent of Pattaya police station Pol Col Thammanoon Mankong, the scheme is to provide tourists from around the globe who visit Pattaya each year with a greater sense of safety. He elaborated that a police patrol unit will be assigned to the safety zone on a 24-hour basis.

In a bid to reduce crime, the district police will set up police checkpoints, widen participation from tourist police units and other related agencies, enlist further cooperation of local communities and business operators, as well as monitor footage captured by CCTV cameras installed throughout Pattaya.

Pol Col Thammanoon said that by giving priority to tourist safety, the number of tourist arrivals will eventually be boosted, generating more tourism revenue for local businesses and for Thailand as a whole.

Jimmy Page joins Jesters in Pattaya

Jimmy Page joined the Jesters last night for their Care for Kids fund raiser. Jimmy donated an acoustic guitar ad was joined by other musicians to the likes of Len Tuckey, Tony Stevens, and Barry Upton.

Always nice to see people getting together for a worthy cause and make some kind of a difference. Jesters have been doing it for years and helps boost Pattaya's reputation to something more than just a sex-pat society. The full article from Pattaya 103 FM is below. Happy reading!

Pattaya: The Jesters celebratory fund-raiser, takes place on saturday  at the Amari Orchid Pattaya.

Giving his time to a worthy cause, Jimmy Page, of the legendary band Led Zeppelin,   is personally donating an acoustic guitar for auction on what promises to be a Gala Party night including  a sit-down international buffet dinner with complimentary beer, wine and soft drinks and live entertainment. and,once again, its a  sold out event!

Little surprise as the entertainers for the evening have a musical pedigree that would qualify them for the”crufts of the music world” with such musicians as Len Tuckey, who in addition to managing Slade was also the lead guitarist, and ex husband of Suzie Quatro, ( and co write of some of her best songs), Tony Stevens, whose hits with Foghat are legendary and Bob Lamb who, as the drummer with Steve Gibbons, also went on to discover UB40 and Duran Duran.

Their impromptu band, BBLT,  incorporates the vocal skills of US Artist Brian Thomas to create one of the best music sounds ever heard in the city.

Bary Upton will also be appearing, alongside the Band of Smiles whose showcase is outstanding and well respected amongst Pattaya Music lover and all in all it promises to be an amazing evening for the ticket only event

To make sure that everything is 100%, the bands arrived at Leo’s blues bar in Naklua on Friday to put the finishing touches to their presentations and to get to know each other better.

Leo, the husband of the bar owner, Nang, extended the welcome from his hospital bed, where he has been driving nursing staff mad for several weeks,  to all and offered them as much time as they needed to ensure that the fund raising night is a success.

Pattaya 103 FM will be covering the event and hopes to bring you updates afterwards including the results of the mammoth auctions and lucky draws, all of which raise money alongside the numerous other events, for Jesters care for kids, One of Pattaya’s finest causes

Tourists and ex-pats will have 4 new reasons to smile on Pattaya

There are four new projects in the works for the Pattaya area which will be beneficial to ex-pats as well. 

•    Firstly expats will be able to enjoy these venues and use them to entertain family and friends when they come to visit. 
•    Secondly these venues will help increase the value of their property. 
•    And finally these venues will help reduce Pattaya's image as only a sex tourist destination 

The four projects are worth a total of 2.23 Billion Baht worth of investment and are poised to open next year and include 

1. Kidzania 
2. Ramayan Water park
3. Amazon Falls Water Park
4. Siam World Art Company

Check out this article from the Bangkok Post:

     PATTAYA : Four projects in the tourism sector worth 2.23 billion baht that received Board of Investment (BoI) privileges are poised to open this year and next.

   The first is a Hong Kong investment of 550 million baht by the Kidzania Group, the world's fastest-growing edutainment brand, to set up Kidzania this December at Siam Paragon.

Kidzania is a role-playing activity where children aged 4-12 can try out different adult occupations.

The second project is a 900-million-baht Thai-Russian joint venture to set up Ramayana water park in Chon Buri's Sattahip district slated for next year.

The third is a 620-million-baht project by Pacific Shore Development to set up Amazon Falls Water Park. This joint venture between Hong Kong and Malaysia will be in Pattaya and is slated to open next year.

The last is a 162-million-baht project by Siam World Art Co to set up a cultural centre with investment from South Korea. The centre will be located in Pattaya exhibiting sculpture, paintings and Thai-Korean culture.

BoI secretary-general Atchaka Sibunruang said the board expects higher investment in the tourism sector, especially theme parks that will enable Thailand to compete with Hong Kong's Disneyland, Singapore's water park and Malaysia's theme parks. Amazon Falls will be the first water park in the world to use cartoon presenters.

The Ramayana is billed as the largest water park in Asia Pacific. Once these two open, they should attract investment in other areas, she added.

From 2007-12, a total of 23 projects applied for investment promotion in the tourism sector, totalling 3.48 billion baht.

Three projects totalling 1.47 billion baht were theme parks, four projects totalling 707 million baht were cultural centres, 12 projects worth 417 million baht were hiring boats for tourism, and three projects totalling 215 baht were tourist boat parking areas.

Dr Atchaka said the BoI is revising its promotion policies. The tourism sector will still be given a prominent place, but some adjustments might be made in terms of providing incentives for projects the government prioritises, such as theme parks and water parks.

To this point no global-scale theme park producers such as Disney or Universal have shown interest in investing in Thailand, said Dr Atchaka. Malaysia and Singapore provide many incentives to attract tourism projects, such as racing arenas, she said.

In the past the BoI provided incentives for a variety of tourism businesses, such as racing arenas, open zoos and electric hoists, but have not received any interest from business operators, said Dr Atchaka.