Pattaya-
The Pattaya City Mayor and city officials are set to give 2,000 baht for each registered family in the city that are permanent residents as part of a plan for financial assistance due to the Covid-19 crisis.
As a result of Covid-19 the city’s tourism, hospitality, and entertainment industry, which the city relies on for about 85% of its GDP, has been essentially shut down since April 10th with no end in sight. Foreign tourism has been essentially zero since February of 2020 and domestic tourism basically stopped in April when the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration shuttered nightlife and bars nationwide and measures restricted or shut many other venues and tourist attractions.
Even hospitality venues and places that can open, like restaurants, have been hit with restrictions like a ban on alcohol sales, hours of opening, and other rules. Effective Tuesday, restaurants have to move to delivery and takeaway only, further hurting those venues still in business in a city that relies on hospitality.
Unfortunately, as a large majority of Pattaya’s workers are “informal”, which means they don’t collect social security for one reason or another, (some numbers estimate over 80 percent) this means many people have been left with no financial support despite months of force closures and lack of customers locally. This has also seen, as a result, a rise in homeless and people at charity food donations in the area.
The Pattaya City Mayor Sonthaya Khunplume told The Pattaya News, “We have codes on the books in terms of legally providing financial aid in situations like the current Covid-19 crisis. We have already done a city-specific financial compensation last year after the first Coivd-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns of businesses. ”
“The situation is now getting worse, and Pattaya is moving into a maximum control zone, which will see even more businesses have to close and the ones that can open likely see even fewer customers. People have been widely affected by the outbreak and nobody wants to see the city in its current condition. We don’t know exactly when we can give the all-clear for businesses to reopen, especially Pattaya’s entertainment, tourism, and nightlife industry which is a major economic draw.” The Mayor added.
“Pattaya City leadership is all set to give 2,000 baht to each registered family in Pattaya that are considered permanent residents. This budget is from other projects that we have cut budgets on as well as from delayed or postponed plans and projects that are on hold due to Covid-19. We have to help our people first.” The Mayor stated.
“We expect that from early August residents can start to register and the funds will be distributed in September of this year.” The mayor explained, without committing to a specific date for the program.
”There are about 30,000 registered families/households in the Pattaya area. Last time, there were about 9,000 families who had registered for the financial aid program. As this shutdown will, as of August, have gone on longer than last year’s shutdown and has no immediate end in sight we expect more families to register this time.” The Mayor stated.
“Places of the registration will be at the Pattaya City Hall and at schools in the Pattaya City area. We will provide an update to local media, including The Pattaya News, when we are ready to accept registrations for this program.” The Mayor concluded.
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