Pattaya vendors pray for tourists

Visitors stroll along a stretch of Bang Saen beach which opened on Monday after being closed for two months. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)
Visitors stroll along a stretch of Bang Saen beach which opened on Monday after being closed for two months. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)

After having had to close their businesses for two months due to Covid-19, vendors along Pattaya beaches are now praying tourists will return after the government initiated its Phase-2 easing of lockdown measures.

The beach in Pattaya was once packed with tourists but has been deserted since the emergency decree began on March 9, reducing the number of jet skis, banana boats and people.

Many vendors were not optimistic on Monday, when Phase 2 began and when the beaches were allowed to reopen and water sports could resume, after only two visitors rented boats.

"Foreign tourists -- my main clients -- will not return in the near future," the owner of a massage parlour at the southern end of Pattaya beach told the Bangkok Post.

She said vendors relying on domestic tourists, who make up 45% of all Pattaya's visitors, are keeping expectations low.

"The problem is that despite the easing of the lockdown, the city of Pattaya is still keeping the [nearby] Walking Street that attracts many tourists and visitors closed," she said.

"The government and local administration must reopen Pattaya's Walking Street if they want to see tourists return," the businesswoman said.

She said massage parlours have suffered due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the government's handouts have hardly helped.

The lockdown has hit vendors on Pattaya beach very hard with some having been left penniless.

Meanwhile, a Croatian football coach who moved to Pattaya just over a year ago said there is a bright side to the lockdown.

"I enjoy social distancing and the beach having been closed has meant nature and the sea have had time to recover [from human activity]," he said. "Now the town can reopen in a better environmental condition."

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Vocabulary

  • bright (adj): having reasons to believe that good things will happen; likely to be successful - สดใส, สว่าง
  • deserted: empty - ที่ถูกทิ้งให้ว่างเปล่า  ร้างไป
  • despite (prep): used to show that something happened or is true although something else might have happened to prevent it; used to show that somebody did not intend to do the thing mentioned - ถึงอย่างไรก็ตาม, ทั้ง ๆ ที่
  • expectations: the belief that something will happen - สิ่งที่คาด คิดว่าจะเกิดขึ้นในอนาคต
  • handout: an amount of money or goods giving to people who need them - การให้ทาน
  • nature: the physical world including all living things as well as the land and the seas - ธรรมชาติ
  • optimistic: expecting good things to happen or to be successful - โดยคาดหวังสิ่งที่ดี
  • penniless: having no money -
  • resume: to begin again after stopping for a period of time - เริ่มอีกครั้ง, กลับมาอีกครั้ง

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