The great Pattaya crash...

[mardhi]

And if you thought news was not BAD ENOUGH already in Thailand - there is talk of an imminent rise in alcohol duty.... Likely to come in within a week if it actually happens.

So just when you thought it could not get any worse..... It does.

Cheers
mardhi

[deepthroat]

Can you sign up for Alcohol duty in shifts, are are you just randomly assigned Alcohol Duty?

I think many of the tourists are already on round-the-clock "alcohol duty" for the duration of their vacation.

[pacman]

An increase in alcohol duty was always inevitable. A decline in tourist numbers, less taxes being paid, the authorities have to get their money from somewhere.

And who better to slug than the proverbial golden goose - drinkers. All the better when that group includes the holiday makers who sit in a bar all day.

This increase will need to be passed on adding higher costs to those who have to deal with their own devalued currency.

While the big GoGos are still busy & WS gets crowded, this new impost is just one more thing gnawing away at the profitability of the bars & clubs.

Perhaps the demise of the marginal bars will be good for the rest of the Pattaya hospitality scene. I can only hope so.

[Bumpa STIKKA]

(manarak @ Dec. 15 2010,21:55) I don't know who moved and changed the title of my original post, but the observation was not about Pattaya...

Well, it WAS about Pattaya!

Here are the opening three sentences from your original post...

I have seen many empty bars in Pattaya, some closed.
This has to be the worst high season ever.
I saw very few people from Europe or the USA, but more russians...

[Bumpa STIKKA]

(mardhi @ Dec. 16 2010,04:18) And if you thought news was not BAD ENOUGH already in Thailand - there is talk of an imminent rise in alcohol duty....

I would love someone to explain to me why some people on their holidays would come to Thailand and drink their way through it.

They could raise beer to 1,000 baht a thimble but if I was on holiday here I'd be fucking so much I wouldn't notice.

[azza33]

The ones drinking brought their wife along

[Bumpa STIKKA]

Yep. That would do it.

Just imagine bringing a fat old cow from back home to a place where 250,000 pretty teenage Thai girls want to fuck you senseless for less than ten quid!

Ha ha ha!

[Torurot]

That should be against the Geneva convention for "cruel and unusual punishment".

[guydesavoy]

In fact it's genocide. Take a look at those guys' faces. They're dead already

[pacman]

(Jake_Sully @ Dec. 15 2010,21:03) I agree with TG925 with 1 exception.. the people you're referring to as unworthy paccie are "smart" and don't want to waste their time with "bargirls" when it comes to considering long term relationships.

I know I'm inviting controversy, but I ask you this.. lets say you have a home and a successful business and a college degree, who would be your first choice when it came to companionship - a college grad or a bargirl?

I have no idea how smart they are. What they are is rich. The scions of wealthy Chinese families turn up their precious noses at "inferior" races. I should have made that distinction. And of course Chinese males who can't find a partner locally will look elsewhere.

I wasn't suggesting that no Asian girl was good enough for the men of China, I was referring to how a girl of low birth (i.e. a bargirl) was frowned upon & they were considered as potential concubines, not as marriage material.

I knew when I posted my comment I hadn't explained myself properly, I was just too tired to start writing it all again. Plus a little controversy does invite the inevitable rebuttal. Thank you gents...

[pacman]

 is HAPPENING?
When i went to collect last night's takings, i thought we'd been robbed, the till was so empty! This is a terrible 1st half of what should be our 2nd busiest month of the year!
Judging by how quiet the forums are too, i'm thinking everybody's gone off the idea of Ladyboys!

I just borrowed this quote from Jimbo that he placed on the Cocktail & Dreams thread today.

Given that Phuket is considered more financially dynamic than Pattaya as it is serviced by dedicated charter flights bringing the tourists right to their door, I couldn't express the problems faced by the barowners of LOS more eloquently myself.