Pattaya has shrugged off concerns over Chinese businesses, including those using Thai nominees, partly because the tourism market from the mainland is slowly reviving.
Titipun Pettrakul, deputy mayor of Pattaya City, said the number of Chinese tourists remained relatively low compared with other markets, such as India, Vietnam and South Korea, the top three source markets for Pattaya at the moment.
Ms Titipun said the city should wait until the second quarter to see a significant volume of Chinese arrivals.
Chon Buri is among the nine provinces in which the Commerce Ministry has been investigating businesses suspected of acting as nominees for foreign owners.
She said local investment from Russian businesses has also dwindled as a result of the weak ruble over the past few years.
However, she said Pattaya saw a significant growth of Indian businessmen who want to capitalise on the influx of Indian tourists.
Those services included Indian restaurants, entertainment venues and money exchange companies.
Anoma Vongyai, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand's Pattaya office, said more than 2 million Chinese tourists were expected to visit Pattaya this year.
Ms Anoma said most of them would be those with high spending power, travelling in a small group of friends or families, not the big tour groups like in the past, even though group tours have been allowed to take outbound trips since last month.
Wittaya Khunpluem, president of the Chon Buri provincial administrative organisation, said zero-dollar Chinese tours or low-fare tour groups will not return as both China and Thailand are watching them closely at the moment.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of Chon Buri tourism at the 65th Thai Teaw Thai exhibition, he said as the province waited for the resumption of the Chinese market, tourism operators should focus on domestic tourists as their spending would remain a significant contribution to the local economy at 80-90 billion baht this year or 90% of pre-pandemic revenue.
In 2022, domestic tourism generated 74 billion baht, according to the TAT.
Krit Patarapal, managing director of PK Exhibition Management, the organiser of the Thai Teaw Thai exhibition, said the event this year includes 800 tourism operators focusing on the domestic market.
The event is expected to generate 100 million baht from 100,000 visitors.