Pattaya, Thailand-
Pattaya City will bring back weekend events after meeting with business leaders, starting with decorating the city under a campaign called ‘Light of Pattaya’ to boost tourism and encourage tourists to Pattaya over the next several weeks and months after the Thai government continues to ease restrictions around Covid-19.
Pattaya was downgraded from an “orange” control zone to a “yellow” high survey zone earlier this week by the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, which allows later closing of entertainment venues and begins to allow more normal activities to take place in the area. If the situation continues to improve the hope is that the province of Chonburi will become a green “survey” zone sometime in March, allowing a greater level of activities and events.
Last year, Pattaya ran multiple successful events that drove significant domestic tourism to Pattaya including a fireworks festival, seafood festival, music festival, and Loy Krathong festival. This was brought to a sudden halt when the second round of Covid-19 infections, originally traced from illegal gambling establishments, shut down the province and domestic travel for about a month at the end of December. This also canceled the biggest event of the year, the New Year Countdown festival at Bali Hai Pier. With the situation around Covid-19 improving, Pattaya City leaders have partnered with business leaders in the hotel and entertainment industry and have begun cautious planning to drive domestic tourists back to the city.
The Pattaya City Mayor Sonthaya Khunplume told The Pattaya News, “We are planning with eight major tourism business industries and companies to boost Pattaya tourism in the upcoming weeks and months, especially around the busy Songkran “high season” in which many Thais have vacation and time off. The plan is to bring back tourism-related events that helped many business owners in the Pattaya area, especially those catering to Thai tourists, while still balancing Covid-19 precautions.”
“The first event will be called the ‘Light of Pattaya’. The city will be decorated with a festival of lights and four-dimensional screen shows around famous tourist attraction places. The goal is to set stunning light displays and shows in some of the areas seen in the photos below and inspire people to visit, check-in on social media, and share on social media platforms like Instagram.” The Mayor continued.
“This is aimed to encourage domestic tourists to visit Pattaya and see many of our local tourist attractions, islands, and places.” The Mayor stated.
“We are also planning multiple tourism events from April onward such as the 2021 music festival, food festivals, sporting events, and more. We are also in discussion with local leaders and the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration around Songkran events, the most important holiday of the year for Thai people.”
Last year, Songkran, the Thai New Year, also called the water festival, was canceled, costing the economy an estimated amount of billions of baht according to the Ministry of Finance. The CCSA has so far stated that it is too early to tell if Songkran events will be able to take place as normal-which usually includes water fights-but it is looking increasingly likely some sort of event, even if toned-down, will take place to drive domestic tourism to Pattaya as long as the Covid-19 situation continues to improve.
“In June will be the anniversary of Pattaya City, which we also plan to hold a major festival and event for. Tourism events will be planned until the end of this year, which will also include our most popular non-Songkran or New Year event, the fireworks festival.” The Mayor concluded.
Details on events and dates should be released over the next several weeks, notes The Pattaya News.
Story by The Pattaya News
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=–=–=–=–==-
Help support The Pattaya News in 2021!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google News, Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, Pinterest, Parler, Flipboard or Tumblr
Join the discussion in our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/438849630140035/ or in the comments below.
User Review
( votes)
