Pattaya tourism officials will focus most of its efforts to bring more visitors to the city from the Middle East and North Asia.
Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn, chairman of the city council’s Tourism and Culture Committee, presided over a Dec. 11 meeting to outline the full 2019 calendar of roadshows, cultural events and sports tournaments meant to drive tourism in Pattaya.
Pattaya Tourism Promotion Department officials will join counterparts from the Tourism Authority of Thailand at trade shows and expositions in India, Dubai, Qatar, Oman, South Korea and Hong Kong, China and Taiwan in 2019. Only one tourism-promotion event is planned for the western world: The ITB Berlin show in Germany.
MICE – Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Expositions – events are planned for Singapore, Vietnam and Germany.
The TPD and TAT also will push hard for more domestic Thai tourists at trade shows in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Khon Kaen and Udon Thani. Two domestic MICE events also are planned.
City planners have prepared their usual calendar of events, including the Pattaya Music Festival, Countdown and Fireworks Competition. All the usual holiday festivals also are on the calendar. Pattaya also will spend 3 million baht to install signs and do landscaping in Naklua to make it more attractive to tourists.
On the sports calendar will be swimming, takraw, petanque, badminton, beach football, futsal, jet skis and the Pattaya Marathon. New in 2019 will be the AFC Beach Football Championship March 7-17 near Bali Hai Pier.
