It’s the dog days of summer and Pattaya tourism-related businesses are ready to howl.
July is the traditional lowest of the low season and 2015 is no different. Beaches from the Dusit Curve to Royal Garden Plaza were sparsely populated July 3, with half or less of the normal crowds.
Beach chair and umbrella vendors said business was dead, due to not only low season, but politics, currency weakness and media reports of crime against tourists, which is giving Pattaya a bad name. Some vendors said they have fewer than 10 customers a day.
The most obvious difference from recent years is the throng of Chinese tourists, who now make up one in every five visitors to Thailand.
Vendors said were it not for Chinese tour groups, they would be in real straits.
The normally bustling Beach Road promenade is void of tourists.
