(From left) Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, PBTA
President Wiwat Pattanasin and past president Jamroon Vitsavachaipan
preside over the latest PBTA meeting.
Manoon Makpol
Pattaya business leaders say encouraging foreign
investors and improving the city’s public utilities are key to
increasing tourism over the next decade.
At an Oct. 12 meeting of the Pattaya Business &
Tourism Association, board President Wiwat Pattanasin said he’d like to
see a committee to plan improvements to area roadways and bolstering of
utilities to make the city more environmentally friendly. He said doing
so could open up the city to more tourism from senior citizens.
Former PBTA President Jamroon Vitsavachaipan said
that for high seasons to remain strong the city must welcome foreign
investors to open businesses in Pattaya.
However, traditional tourism-promotion efforts remain
important, the business leaders said. The public-private
tourism-recovery committee, Pattaya Grand Sale and next year’s tourism
“road shows” all are important ways to bring tourists and foreign
investors to the city.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome said utility, roadways and
infrastructure projects will hopefully spring from a 15 billion baht
government proposal to develop Pattaya and its surrounding districts as
a sustainable-tourism zone. The master plan, which gained preliminary
approval in March, still must be budgeted for and would not go into
effect until at least 2013.
The mayor said other initiatives are also underway,
such as working with the British Chamber of Commerce in Thailand to
promote Pattaya as a destination for business meetings and conventions.
