With perhaps the least surprising statistic released this year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand said tourist numbers for Pattaya in January were 1 percent of the same month a year ago.
Pattaya hotels recorded 1.5 million check-ins in January 2020 and only 26,000 in the same month this year, when Pattaya was in lockdown and most hotels were closed.
Pointing out the obvious, TAT Pattaya Director Kachondej Apichattrakul said the collapse was due to a lack of foreign tourists and the inability of domestic tourists to enter Chonburi for anything but essential business.
He said the goal is to bring the percentage of domestic tourists checking in to Pattaya hotels from the historical 22 percent rate to a 30 percent rate.
He urged the government to expand its subsidized tourism campaign to give Thais more incentive to travel.
