PATTAYA – Looking for a US$50 a night five-star hotel on an empty beach? You might consider a trip to Thailand’s notorious Pattaya beach resort, the “old lady” of the nation’s sometimes seamy tourism industry.
Pattaya, the once gyrating, all-night entertainment hedonistic hotspot just 100 kilometers southeast of Bangkok, has mellowed over the past eight months of a Covid-19 ban on international travel.
“For sale” signs dot the main beachfront road on deserted bars, shops, restaurants and the hotels and restaurants that have managed to stay afloat are offering huge discounts.
An estimated 100,000 Thais previously working at the beachside resort, where tourism normally accounts for 80% of the local economy, have gone home. Walking Street, which pre-Covid offered tourists a trot on the wild side at night, is now a spooky stroll through shuttered bars…
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