Vol.8 No.1 ! 16 - 30 September 2008
PATTAYA TODAY 1
Volume 8, Issue 1
16 - 30 September 2008
Foreign Tourists Say They’ll Return
25 BAHT
Pattaya less affected than Phuket
Popular tourist spots in Pattaya are having a quiet September
DESPITE ongoing political turbulence in Thailand, as many as 97% of tourists and investors say they will revisit the country once uncertainty is removed. A poll conducted earlier this month by Assumption University amongst 532 foreigners found that 98.9% of
respondents said they would still recommend to relatives and friends to visit Thailand. Poll director Noppadol Kannikar said that 88.7% expressed positive comments even during the current stand-off between protestors and the government. However,
23.8% of residents conceded that their journeys were inconvenienced owing to the suspension of some flights in the south of the country and cancellation of some railway journeys. Some 12% apparently had to change their travel plans according to the poll findings. Meanwhile the Tourism Authority of Thailand, a government agency, is going all out to explain the political turmoil and to restore foreigner confidence. TAT deputy governor Juthaporn Rerngronasa said that a random survey was conducted and that more than half of foreigners said the unrest in Bangkok did not affect their plans as their destinations were not near to the sites of possible unrest. However, a report issued by
Kasikorn Research Centre suggested that Thailand could lose as much as 70 billion baht in tourism revenues from foreigners if political unrest lingers into the fourth quarter of the year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, is stressing that Bangkok international airport is operating normally and that normal service has resumed at Phuket. Continued on page 4
100 million baht for road repairs A BUDGET of almost 100 million baht has been allocated by Pattaya city hall to develop and renovate the road surface on parts of Sukhumvit Road in accordance with the authority’s travel development plan.
Deputy mayor Ronakit Ekasing explained that fourteen kilometres of highway were affected by holes and corrosion and the situation deteriorated daily because of useage by heavy vehicles and trucks. Continued on page 3