Editor;
Imagine trying to encourage tourist visits to Jomtien Beach for a happy holiday time, when directives…
1) Pave over a pleasant beach side walking street.
2) Cut down shade trees.
3) Restrict/reduce beach vendors. (Were never enough during peak seasons in past.)
4) Reduce vendors’ spaces and restrict setting up of umbrellas.
5) Ban alcoholic drinks from the beach.
6) Ban cigarettes – with penalties of one year in jail with a fine.
Further ‘directives’ for consideration, to complete the Jomtien experience:
(7) Ban food from the beach.
(8) Mandate specific beachwear, just too much skin is showing.
Perhaps those former foot massage providers can be retrained to ‘massage’ the numbers of missing tourists and lost revenues to make things look better? Soon, every day at Jomtien Beach will appear like the front page of Pattaya Mail (Sept 29) showing a day of no chairs and umbrellas.
But once gone, tourists will not return. Will TAT count tourist arrivals in transit to beaches in Cambodia and VN, as destination for Thai beaches?
Trip Advisor and social media will have a field day with all these ‘improvements’ for the tourist experience at Thai beaches. What are they thinking?
Peter in Jomtien
