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Asian tourists favour sun and sand of Pattaya
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Asia Pattaya
Beach Hotel |
Pattaya beach resort, the
jaded "old lady" of Thailand's tourism industry, is witnessing a revival of
sorts, demonstrating that a good location, sun, sand and a spicy night scene
are still a winning combination.
Tourist arrivals to Pattaya last year topped five million, a jump of 18
percent over 2003 figures.
Last year, while European visitors to Pattaya slumped from every country
except the United Kingdom (up 28 percent), visitors from Asian countries hit
record highs.
'We think Pattaya is going to change'
The number of visitors from
Malaysia jumped 51 percent, from
Singapore 12 percent,
Hong Kong 41 percent,
Taiwan 27 percent,
Korea 75 percent and
from India 142 percent,
according to Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) statistics.
Russian tourists
continued to flock to the resort, up 67 percent on 2003, as did tourists
from the
Middle East, up 83 percent.
Pattaya's cheap
hotels, wild nightlife and wacky attractions such as open zoos where
tourists can have their pictures taken sitting on elephants, or with tigers
and crocodiles sitting on them, are the main draws for the Asian, Russian
and Middle East markets.
"We are a mass tourism market," said TAT Pattaya director Chattan Kunjara Na
Ayudhya. "Look, we have 26 000 rooms to fill so we need the numbers."
Although arrivals dropped off in the first three months of this year, during
the post-December 26-tsunami tourism slump, some medium-priced hotels have
reported up to 80 percent occupancy rates in July and August.
'We're not marketing ourselves as a quiet place'
Overall, the resort is expected to benefit from tourists avoiding the
tsunami-hit Andaman resorts in southern Thailand, especially Thais and
tourists from neighbouring Asian countries.
"A lot of Thais are coming for the weekend," said Chattan. "We're not too
far away from Bangkok, so
the high gas prices may have something to do with it."
Pattaya's proximity to Bangkok, only 90km away, has always been one of the
resort's main draws. Once a quiet fishing village, Pattaya was first
discovered by American GIs looking for a rest and recreation (R&R) spot
close to Bangkok.
After the GIs left, European tourists rediscovered Pattaya in the late
1970s, attracted by the same things that drew the GIs - sun, sand and sex.
The resort peaked in the late 1980's when mass tourism discovered Thailand.
But Pattaya's main market over the years has always been Thais, eager to get
away from crowded Bangkok, and usually coming with their families.
Nearly 34 percent of the tourists who visited the city last year were Thais,
many of them big spenders who stay at higher-end hotels such as the
Dusit,
Marriott,
Hard
Rock and
Royal Cliff.
With the opening of
Bangkok's new international airport, scheduled sometime late next year,
the drive from the
airport to Pattaya will be cut by an hour (Suvarnabhumi Airport is
located in a south-east suburb of Bangkok, closer to Pattaya.)
"With the new airport, there will be the possibility of picking up guests at
the airport and bringing them right here, rather than the old way of having
them spend a night in Bangkok," said David Cuddon, general manager of the
Sheraton
Pattaya, which just opened on August 12.
The opening of the five-star Sheraton Pattaya was a another sign that hope
springs eternal in the resort, at least among hoteliers. In 2004 there were
already 261 hotels in Pattaya with 26 503 rooms.
During Thailand's recession years following the 1997 financial crisis,
Pattaya's hotel occupancy rates were close to 40 percent. There were few
buyers for old properties, let alone investors in new ones.
"I think the largest endorsement for Pattaya you can see is people like us
investing in the city again," said Ashwani Bajaj, managing director of
Amburaya Resorts, the Thai owner of Sheraton Pattaya.
The Sheraton Pattaya, a 156 room "boutique" hotel perched on the southern
peninsula of Pattaya with a spectacular ocean view from each room, goes for
$140 to $800 a night. The resort is a five-minute drive from Pattaya proper,
which could be a selling point for guests seeking peace and quiet and
distance from the nightlife scene.
Sheraton is not the only newcomer to Pattaya this year.
France's Accor hotel group opened the 249-room Mercure Hotel Pattaya in
July, and will launch the 240-room Sofitel Garden Cliff Resort and Spa on
the northern tip of Pattaya in October. Again, the Sofitel establishment
will be quite far from Pattaya proper.
Given Pattaya's notoriety for sex tourism and low spenders, the entry of
higher-end Sheraton and Accor brand names is indicative of something new in
the wind.
"We think Pattaya is going to change. Over a five-year period of time you'll
see its profile change. We will be part of it," said Accor Managing Director
Asia Pacific Michael Issenberg.
Issenberg, again, predicts the new airport will bring in new clientele,
especially from Asian markets.
TAT seems less certain about Pattaya's ability to change it's mass-tourism
positioning, at least in the near term.
"We'd like to be a high-end market but in the absence of high-end
facilities, or during the waiting period while Sheraton and others come
online, we go for everyone," said TAT's Chattan.
"We're not marketing ourselves as a quiet, serene place but as a fun city
that never sleeps and has lots of activities,
wonderful
food, entertainment, sea sports and
golf," he said.
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