City Hall has announced its budget plans to spend 1.9 billion baht in the financial year October 1 2023 to the following September. Mayor Paramet Ngampichet said that more wholesome weekend activities would be held, such as jazz festivals and sports jamborees, as these had been successful post-covid in attracting Bangkok residents in particular. He also promoted basic infrastructure projects, believed to include desalination plants and beach improvements, to ensure Pattaya can aspire to be the premier resort of the Eastern Economic Corridor.
Mr Poramet also drew attention to the scandal of the 371-rai and still unfinished 20,000-seat sports stadium, on Jomtien’s Soi Chaiyapreuk Two, where digging began as early as 2008. City Hall earlier this year approved a 300 million baht plus budget to restart the work after innumerable delays. For example, the ground was found to be littered with huge boulders which required the Thai army to blow up. There has also been a shortage of labour which has variously been blamed on the pandemic and too few manual workers recruited from Myanmar in particular.
Other planned projects over the next few years far exceed Pattaya’s budgets. The Eastern Economic Corridor, with foreign and Thai stakeholders, is currently debating the building of a new 15-rai cruise terminal at Bali Hai, which could doom portions of the current Walking Street. Another hot potato is the possibility of a raised mono-rail tram service throughout the city with links to Pattaya railway station, once the hi-speed train service from U-tapao to Bangkok is eventually operational.
City Hall has championed the concept of neo or new Pattaya to replace the traditional resort stereotype based on sex tourism. But the covid pandemic created a ghost town and neo Pattaya has been put on hold until businesses of all types make a substantial recovery. But, as Pattaya’s tourist profile continues to evolve with more dependence on high spenders, domestic tourists and Asian family groups, there is a general feeling that “old” Pattaya is slowly disappearing. Slowly yet surely.
