Pattaya, Thailand-
After over two and a half years of the Covid-19 pandemic essentially shutting down Pattaya’s tourism industry things are finally starting to look slightly up for Pattaya and Thailand.
For the first time since December of 2019 the city looks set to have an actual “high season” in December and January without widespread border closures, business restrictions, covid mandates, nightlife and entertainment being shut, and everything else that came at the world during the pandemic.
Yes, there are still issues, many of them out of Thailand’s direct control such as inflation around the world, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, rising oil prices and expensive flights, China still committing to a Covid Zero strategy, and more. But Thailand has announced that as of October 1st the emergency decree that had been in place since March of 2020 is being eliminated and tourists and visitors will not have to test for Covid-19, prove their vaccination status, be vaccinated, or any other measure, finally fully reopening the country. Thailand is also downgrading Covid-19 to a disease to be monitored and disbanding their Covid-19 operations center.
On top of that, Thailand is also expanding the period for visa on arrival and visa exempt over the next several months at least, allowing people to easily take longer holidays. For more information on this click here
The excitement is palpable on many internet forums, groups, communities, and similar items where many people are (or have already) planned to return to Thailand, many for the first time since 2019 or early 2020.
The Pattaya News’s own website has been growing month over month recently showing an increasing interest in the city and area, especially in regards to tourism events and activities as well as changes to the area. Pattaya leadership has committed to different events every single weekend to drive tourism so there is always something going on locally and we are covering each and every event right here at The Pattaya News. We also have an active social media group on Facebook here to discuss local happenings.
For those only interested in events, business highlights, festivals, tourism tips, what’s opening and new, and general “what’s going on” media around Pattaya we also have our sister website Pattaya Unplugged here, which focuses purely on “positive” things around town and showing what Pattaya has to offer as well as give advice and tips to new visitors. Pattaya Unplugged was largely on ice during the pandemic due to everything leisure wise being closed for much of two years but has been growing and active again recently.
Facebook groups devoted to Pattaya in general have seen rising traffic and with that, of course, many questions around pricing, changes, what is open and what isn’t, entertainment on offer, and more. Many of these groups had also been essentially “dead” during the pandemic and tough border restrictions but their increasing engagement and liveliness speaks well for the immediate tourism future of Pattaya.
YouTube channels devoted to Pattaya, like Ridez4Kickz, have also seen substantial growth after the pandemic and interest from would be tourists and visitors. The Pattaya News own YouTube has been steadily growing as well and will be in the near future refreshed to focus fully on highlighting the best of Pattaya and giving accurate, factual, on the ground information about the area.
Last but certainly not least one of Pattaya’s oldest message boards and forums, Pattaya Addicts (PA), has reported that they are seeing the strongest new user registrations and signups since well before Covid-19, reflecting an increase in interest in visiting Pattaya overall. The forum, Pattaya’s largest, has been around since 2006 and is still strongly active and full of engaged users, especially those that may for one reason or another choose not to use Facebook or other social media platforms. The forum prides itself on a “nice to be nice” community that gives advice, knowledge, support, and direction to other members, especially visitors new to Pattaya. The forum also regularly holds events, meetups, bar crawls, and other activities. You can check out the forum for yourself (it’s free!) Here.
Combined, the increasing social media presence of Pattaya online forums, groups, and more speaks to higher interest in Pattaya and as a result higher visits and tourism in the near future!
