A slight majority of people oppose the idea of extending the opening hours of nighttime entertainment venues, shifting closing time to 4am instead of 2am, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.
A few even say such places should not be allowed to open at all, according to the result of a survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted on Oct 17-19 by telephone interviews with 1,310 people aged 20 and over of various levels of education, occupations and incomes throughout the country to compile their opinions on the Interior Ministry's proposal to allow nighttime entertainment venues to stay open another two hours, with a new closing time of 4am, in order to revive the country's economic and tourism growth.
Of the respondents, 55.65% said they never visit those places while the rest said they do or have done in the past.
Of those who have been to nightspots (581), when asked how often they had visited those places during the past twelve months, 57.66% said not even once; 33.22% occasionally; 4.13% once a month; 2.58% once a week; 2.07% three to five days a week; and 0.34% every day.
Asked about the idea of extending the shifting the closing time of nighttime entertainment venues from 2am to 4am, the replies from all respondents were as follows:
• On one side, 41.76% said the places should close at 2am when it is not too late in the night; 8.32% said they should close before 2am; and 4.35% said nighttime entertainment venues should not be allowed at all in Thailand.
• On the other side, 23.66% said they should be allowed to stay open until 4am, but only in cities popular with foreigners, while another 17.56% said closing time should be 4am throughout the country.
Of the rest, 4.27% did not know or were not interested and 0.08% were of different views, including those who wanted the closing time to be 3am.
When all respondents were asked whether they were confident the extension of operating hours for nightspots would help generate higher revenue from tourism while the country is in an economic downturn, 54.43% said "no" and 44.27% said "yes". The rest, 1.30%, did not know or were not interested.