Drunk Monkey wrote: ↑December 8, 2021, 6:34 pm
A few bizz colleagues met up in Bkk yesterday eve n its becoming more apparent just how badly this whole covid pandemic has effected business in general ..obviously the booze industry has taken a severe hit.
Isan has been effected way less than the likes of Bkk Patts n Phuket etc with many venues closed never to re open ..to date we have only lost 2 Isan customers which is a testament to how established they and we have become over the last few years ..
The knock on effect will be felt for years not months and whose to say there isnt another serious variant or even a totally new virus manifesting in a lab or wet market some where...lets hope n pray not.
International tourism will.take long while to return in any real numbers .. again the knock on effect to all involved n their families .. that will effect every business sector in some way shape or form...some more thaan others.
Keep.the faith .. keep calm , keep safe .. and have a cuppa tea.
Not doom.n gloom just the opinion of a few business ppl.in the metropolis and isan.
DM
Spent the last 40 Days in Thailand, entering via Phuket, where I stayed for 10 days. Then jumped to Bangkok (3 days), Udon Thani (14 Days), Pattaya and the last 11 Days back in Bangkok.
PHUKET: Phuket as a whole, was still suffering, with hit and miss activity of some everyday businesses open and obviously much more nightlife in Bangla Road. But no major shopping centers open. Some businesses on and directly adjaoining Bangla Road appeared to doing very well, but I am not convinced it was for the day/full night, maybe just a few hours of being a hot spot.
However, there were still a lot of businesses outside of immediate Bangla Road and the Beach areas, that are shuttered up and or even stripped out, with no signs of opening any time soon.
Obviously, Phuket is a long way down from its tourist numbers, of 2019 (9.89 Mill). Nevertheless, I get the feeling at Phuket (Patong Beach area) is still several years away from getting its Tourist numbers back to a reasonable level, even back up to 50% of what they were in 2019. I just don't more than 75% of these businesses ever re-opening, for a long long time, unless there are a lot of new investors out there ready to jump in an take a punt.
Then go outside of Patong, down to Karon and particularly Kata Beach and it is a lot worst, for businesses in general. From what I observed, it will be a long road back to some sort of reduced/limited activity in the areas outside of the Patong Beach center. Kata Beach area is still appeared to be decimated, with only an occasional shop, restaurant, massage shop, pharmacy hotel and bar open, with customers being few and far between.
Just not enough walk buy or even drive by, Customers in the Kata beach area, at present to justify many of the businesses re-opening, at the same time. I fear will be for quite a while for business normality to return. Lets hope that I am wrong.
BANGKOK: My stay and travel was sort of limited to the general Sukhumvit area, from Nana to Ekkamai, but I was pleasantly surprised at the level of activity that I saw in many restaurants, small shops, markets and bars, both in the day and also in the evening/night. Quite a few are open/operating and with steady streams of customers/patrons, if not full, in several cases.
Particularly in Phrom Phong and Thonglor, where I actually needed to wait to get into a restaurant for a seat, even in the early part of the afternoon, around 2.00pm. OK the wait was only about 20 minutes, but the restaurants and adjoining market eatery areas, seemed to be very busy, if not packed in some cases. Same with the Food Courts in early afternoon, in several major shopping centers, such as the EmQuartier and Terminal 21, both of which were very busy each day. Soi 8 Nana was also very lively each night, in the restaurants and bars.
Ok it is only a snap shop of Bangkok, at that time, but it gave me hope that this part of Bangkok, could well be back to near normal in 12 months, if not sooner. It looked very promising down Sukhumvit way. Can't speak for other areas of Bangkok.
I think it is going to be a much different tourist world environment for the Hospitality industry, for many years to come in Thailand, especially in places such as Phuket and Pattaya.
pipoz4444
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