The following is the third in an ongoing series showing #lifeaftertourism in Pattaya, Thailand.
Pattaya was the nineteenth most visited city in the world last year with almost ten million foreign tourists and about seven million domestic tourists. The city relies on tourism for almost all of its GDP. With the Covid19 pandemic impacting the whole world Thailand has closed its borders to foreign tourists for the time being. Officially, Thailand is Covid free locally. There are very few restrictions and even nightclubs, movie theaters and sport events are open. However, with a lack of tourists the scene in tourist areas is a desolate one. Pattaya is known worldwide for its nightlife but now the town is quiet as local businesses wonder how much longer they can hold on with closed borders.
To be fair some places are doing ok such as expat focused bars and Thai centric venues. However, for the majority of the city the pandemic and closed borders has affected every sector. It goes well beyond the thousands of bars that Pattaya is known for. The impact on tourism has devastated restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, public transportation, dentists and hospitals who relied on medical tourism, construction workers who built bars, massage shops, clothing stores, repairmen..there is nearly no sector untouched.
We will let the pictures do the talking.
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Stay tuned for our next set in the near future.