The future of Pattaya Walking Street
(Arcady/Shutterstock.com)
Pattaya Mayor Sontaya Kunplome told TPN media last week his vision for the future of Walking Street. A major project of renovation and refurbishment of the Walking Street area is currently underway with the aim of attracting more tourists of all ages, both day and night. He also denied lingering rumors of the street "tearing down".
An important part of this recent renovation of Pattaya Walking Street relates to the progress of removing overhead wires and cables and placing them underground. This construction work is now 80 percent complete. During the implementation of this project, many problems have arisen over the past year, mostly caused by old pipes and construction work under the street, which did not appear on planning documents.
“We have also received budgetary approval from the Pattaya City Council for a comprehensive renovation of walkways/roads for Walking Street. Unfortunately, during the moving of cables underground, parts of the road have been damaged and some areas are in poor condition. Our plan is to refurbish and restore the sidewalk along the entire road, including full painting and a new art design for the street to give the area a fresh new look,” the mayor said.
“We are also continuing to work on the drainage system to the sea and have partnered with companies on the ocean side to improve their drainage. We have also started an extensive project on Second Road near Wat Chai and Walking Street, extending drainage pipes.
Contrary to decades-old rumours, there are no plans to "tear down" or demolish parts of Walking Street. We have spent a lot of money and infrastructure on these recent improvements to invest in the future of the area. We recently completed a difficult project connected to both drainage and cabling under the former police box at the front of the Beach Road side of Walking Street. We have also most recently renovated and improved the main Walking Street signage. We apologize for the inconvenience to traffic in the area, but we believe the long-term benefits of this project outweigh the short-term traffic concerns.” explained the mayor.
“We are also planning to provide Pattaya Walking Street with a retractable roof as we want to attract more tourists to Walking Street both day and night, and also provide shelter during the rainy season. This project is currently in the process of final designs, while the budget will be provided in the next fiscal year, the mayor stated.
“Walking Street's long-term vision is to provide a world-class tourism area with restaurants, cafes, shops and yes, nightlife and entertainment coexisting. With Bali Hai Pier nearby and ongoing improvements for this area also planned, we want this area to remain a vibrant destination both day and night.
We continue to reassure Walking Street owners that despite the difficulties of the past two years related to Covid-19, we remain committed to the area and its historical importance to Pattaya and that there are no plans to destroy it. We strongly believe that this area will recover as Covid-19 restrictions are eased around business sectors such as tourism and nightlife,” the mayor concluded.
Source: Pattaya News
The land directly on the coast is very valuable. Project developers will gladly pay millions to build shopping malls, hotels and apartments. Much more than the gogos and beer bars can or want to pay in rent.
Those gogos and beer bars will undoubtedly find their place elsewhere in Sin City, that won't disappear. But it will disappear from Walking Street, that is my firm belief. And that won't even last that long.
In any case, the Pattaya that I and many other retirees have known will gradually become a thing of the past. That decline had been going on for some time.
I just don't understand why people absolutely want to turn it into yet another family destination? Don't the happy families already have more than enough choice all over the world to go on holiday? The single person has always had a lot less choice.
For the younger generation, Pattaya will only survive in the juicy stories told by the older expats.
But let's be honest there are few places in the world that get more fun with time. Only those who can compare will understand what I mean.
I'll be curious to see how it turns out. The plans seem to give a great improvement. Something for everyone. Looking back has its charm, but then also note that it was not all joy. There was also a lot of doom and gloom to report in Walking Street and that has also influenced the necessary changes.
Walking Street is an icon, something like the Red Light District, you know that you usually buy a pig in a poke, by the way, but every tourist will take a look.
However, I can easily see the last least busy part about 1/3rd of the street disappearing into the hands of eg project developers to give it a different destination.
A bit like how Amsterdam played it on the red light district, keeping part open to tourists and giving part a different destination than 10 years ago.
quote: “An important part of this recent renovation of Pattaya Walking Street relates to the progress of removing overhead wires and cables and placing them underground.”
The logic of these activities with making the area more attractive to tourists of all ages eludes me completely. I was thinking more of a few playgrounds, half-pipes, a football field or something like that. Entertainment for the adults is already there.