Association veteran Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn was elected as president of the Pattaya Business & Tourism Association, vowing to help area entrepreneurs prepare for Thailand’s entrance into the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.
Sinchai, who has worked with the PBTA for a decade and most recently as vice president, was elected unanimously at a March 12 meeting chaired by Chonburi Gov. Khomsan Ekachai.
Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn has been elected president of the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association for the 2103-2015 term.
Sinchai succeeds former Lions Club district governor and Chonburi Chamber of Commerce President Wiwat Pattanasin as PBTA’s president.
Sinchai, who has been in the hotel business for over 30 years as owner and GM of the Flipper Lodge Group in Pattaya, and who is also vice president of the Sawang Boriboon Foundation, said he initially wants to focus on the relationship between association members and query them on issues important to them.
Later on, he wants to promote marketing, monitor Pattaya’s embattled public utilities system, and prepare for the AEC.
“I will manage the association under the principle of unity in working together …,” he said. His appointed 16 member committee will include “new blood businessmen in their early 30s, who are working in Pattaya City. … I expect to reveal the new members of the committee within the next meeting.”
Sinchai predicts “an increase of at least 10% in tourists … from the Russian and Chinese markets.”
He also predicts a large increase in business and tourism from the upcoming Asean Economic Community (AEC), and concluded that “the association must prepare for these changes in the near future.”
