Private sector calls for the government to expand the opening of entertainment places

Chatrudee Theparat

Private sector calls for the government to expand the opening of entertainment places in other tourism areas until 4am to boost economy and tourist numbers.

Currently, the government allows entertainment places to stay open until 4am in tourist provinces from this New Year festival onward, including Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket. The policy is aimed to stimulate the economy and tourism industry in the areas.

However, Mr Damrongkiat Pinitkarn, secretary to the Entertainment & Tourism Association of Pattaya City, has urged the government to expand the area lists to other tourist areas like Pattaya. Opening of entertainment places in Pattaya until 4am would lead to promote the entertainment businesses by adding growth about 30-40%.

“Currently, tourism competition is high. Many countries have opened their entertainment places until 6 am such as Singapore, South Korea and countries in Europe. The opening until 4am can meet lifestyle of tourists, and also the local businesses can attract the growing number of domestic and international tourists which can generate more tourism income to the country.”

Mr Damrongkiat also asked for the government to expand the zoning of Pattaya city because its current zoning was conducted since 2002, against its big change in landscape in urban areas. The out-of-date zoning may cause illegal openings of entertainment venues and be hard to control.

Mr Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, deputy governor for Asia and South Pacific of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said the government policy to open entertainment venues until 4am in some tourist areas can stimulate the tourism industry. Also, free visa policies helps create more confidence among foreign visitors to come back to travel here.

As of November 19, Tourism and Sports Ministry reported tourist arrivals from January 1 to November 19 were 23.85 million and generated 1.01 trillion baht in tourism revenue.

Malaysian visitors were the top rank with 3.9 million, followed by 2.97 million from China, 1.4 million from South Korea, 1.39 million from India and 1.21 million from Russia.

Mr Suthikorn Kingkaew, an economics academic, proposed that the government should limit zoning for the entertainment venues opening to 4am as the pilot project before expanding to other tourism provinces. Also, the government should increase the excise tax of rice whisky in order to resolve unfair tax collection, especially liquor.

“Cheap price of rice whisky or white spirit has caused too much alcohol consumption among low income earners,” he said, adding rice whisky has a high degree of 40% alcohol, but it starts with unreasonable price from 110 baht a bottle. In fact, its real price should be 200-300 a bottle.

Currently, rice whisky is the highest degree of alcohol, but pays the lowest excise tax of 2%, against 22% of beer and 10% of wine.