Foot-massage shops are open in Pattaya, but bars remained closed with slim hopes for reopening any time soon.
None of that is hardly news to anyone in Pattaya these days. The city and the national government have moved from one catchphrased strategy to another. First there was the “tourist bubble”, then the “sandbox” and now government types are talking up a “sealed route” scheme that would let fully vaccinated tourists arriving in Phuket to travel securely to Pattaya after a week.
Sukaya, a bar girl in Soi 6, just wants the men in suits and uniforms to do something. She doesn’t massage feet, so she’s stuck dancing in skimpy clothing to a webcam with hopes lonely foreigners overseas will send money for virtual “drinks”. While not on camera she and her mates, who live at the bar, pool change to buy food to cook together.
Thanet Supornsahatrangsi, an advisor to the Pattaya Business & Tourism Association, has stopped talking about the October “sandbox” which would allow fully vaccinated foreigners to come to Pattaya for a week or two without having to undergo quarantine, provided they don’t leave the city.
The first sandbox, in Phuket, already is falling apart, as the former generals running the country attach more and more restrictions to a plan that was intended to be easy and hassle free. Now, instead of staying only one week in Phuket, visitors must stay there two. And bars will remain closed, alcohol banned in restaurants and strict coronavirus protocols kept in place.
Thailand’s tourism minister said Monday that, in light on the onerous new restrictions, more than half of reservations for Phuket hotels in July – more than 50,000 – have now canceled.
Pattaya’s sandbox would depend on the government vaccinating 70 percent of the city’s population. To date, less than one percent has been inoculated.
Thanet is now talking up a Move On “sealed route” scheme that would allow tourists to escape Phuket for their second week and spend it in Pattaya. Koh Samui also has put its hat in to the sealed-route ring, but none of the routes have been approved.
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