PATTAYA: The resort city, once a mecca for tourists, was turned into a ghost town by the Covid-19 surge as it received only 26,000 visitors in January, a 98% plunge from a year earlier.
The latest figures released by the Pattaya office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand on Wednesday showed 26,000 holidaymakers stayed at least one night in the city in January, a tiny fraction of the 1.5 million in the same period last year.
Office director Kajorndet Apichartrakul blamed the 98% plunge on the coronavirus spread that deterred interprovincial travel and instead kept holidaymakers home.
The tourism sector in Pattaya relies mainly on foreigners, who account for 70%…
