Perhaps more to the point, did it ever start. I have never seen the city so quiet in the so called high season, November to February. Official sources state that numbers are down between 30% and 50% on last year, although I would suggest the lower figure is probably closer to the mark.

As usual, Walking Street was packed and all the popular bars and clubs were busy but the further you got from the concentric centre the more evident the reduction became. I spent one evening in a bar on 2nd Road in early January, just chatting to a friend. We were the only customers in the complex let alone the bar for almost the entire evening.

I am sure ALL bars etc were hit profit wise but the smaller ones, further from Walking Street, will almost certainly have suffered. Can it be any coincidence that the glut of beer bars “for sale” seems even larger now? Bars for sale everywhere you look, even bars empty where the owners have simply throw in the towel and the key money simply to stop them becoming an even bigger drain on their already depleted finances.

One area NOT suffering is East Pattaya. The (well run) bars here continue to tick over nicely but that is mainly due to the fact that they have an almost zero reliance o tourist trade so are not seasonal. Added to this most have very low rents to pay. So much s that I have always wondered why new owners almost always buy in the central areas. Then again we know the answer to that don’t we? Most come to Pattaya to continue to live the tourist life whereas perhaps a more prudent “businessman” would look at alternatives.

Anyway, back to topic. If it did ever start it is certainly OVER, and a few weeks early to boot. The easiest way to guage this is that the girls are hollering at the over 40′s again; a sure sign that they are short of potential customers now.

Visitors numbers have been down 2 years running now it will be interesting to see what happens next time around.