Editor;
As reported in the Pattaya Mail on 22nd September, the Army based government has now decided to ban alcohol sales on all beaches in Pattaya from 1st October 2017. In my 20 years as being a tourist and now a resident, I have never seen anyone drunk and disorderly on the beach. No doubt there has been, but this is very rare. Together with their change in rules as to the beach layout, where they now try to pack all the tourists into the very small areas that are now allowed to have chairs and umbrellas, they are now to ban alcohol as well.
It is getting to the stage where tourists will say, why go to Thailand? Being able to sit in comfort on the beach with a chair and an umbrella and being served with food and drinks of choice, was one of the main reasons high spending tourists came to Thailand. (It is not for the quality of the sea water in Pattaya.)
Now the growth in tourist numbers are being made up of non-spending tourists from China. These tourists spend very little with Thai owned restaurants, bars and other areas that the high spending tourists support and bring money directly into the local community. This includes at the beaches where many Thai nationals make their living. Since the compacting of the chairs and umbrellas on Dongtan Beach, I would estimate that there is a reduction of locals making a living at the beach of up to 50%. It is a pity that the local government did not address major beach problems like ocean pollution.
John,
Pattaya.
