PATTAYA, Thailand – Hope may shine in the headlines, but on the streets the reality is far less promising. Recent reports claiming a “weaker baht” will trigger an early high season have been met with laughter, eye-rolls, and outright frustration from regular visitors.
“Going from 42.5 to 43.5 to the pound is not going to cause a spending frenzy,” scoffed one long-term tourist. Another pointed out the contradiction: “Everyone says the baht is stronger. It’s not. It’s the pound and the dollar that are weaker.”
Most agree that one or two baht shifts are meaningless compared to the soaring price of flights and hotels. “People aren’t rushing to travel agents to book flights because the FX rate helped them out by a baht or two in one day.” said another.
If there is activity, it’s at the beer bars where survival relies on razor-thin margins. “The bars are full due to ridiculously low happy hour prices – almost the same as 7/11,” one Pattaya regular explained. Owners hope to make up the difference with lady drinks, but many say this backfires. “Lady drinks are too expensive, double the price of a beer,” complained one visitor, echoing a common theme. “That’s why guys don’t stick around.” The result is bars with bodies in seats, but wallets staying shut.
Currency isn’t the only drag on Pattaya’s fortunes. Many point to what they see as suffocating policies, from visa rules to inconsistent nightlife regulations. “The Thai government doesn’t want us here, hence all the new rules about staying longer than a couple of weeks,” said one long-timer. Add to that complaints of rip-offs, rising costs, and aggressive competition from Vietnam and Cambodia, and Pattaya’s old magic starts to fade. “Desperation cloaked as hope. Pattaya’s days as it once was are finished,” another critic observed. Some are even blunt about who is left spending: “The Russians and Indians are only spending in 7/11, and Walking Street is unfamiliar to European tourists these days compared to the ’90s.”
Tourism promoters still talk up the “high season,” but on the ground many dismiss it as nostalgia. “No such thing as high season – been done 10 years ago,” said one man who described walking through Pattaya and seeing “ghost town” stretches. Even optimists admit the real surge doesn’t come until Christmas, New Year, and Songkran. “Complete rubbish – anyone booking would have done so months ago,” another scoffed.
With inflation biting worldwide and Pattaya losing its once unbeatable value, small baht fluctuations are not going to change the story. “Hope is not a strategy,” said one particularly cynical voice. Unless the city addresses deeper issues – from affordability to atmosphere – the “high season” may soon exist only in memory.
