Ferry service Pattaya – Hua Hin?
For years there has been talk of a ferry service from Pattaya to Hua Hin. It's starting to look like it's about to happen. The plans were announced on Thaivisa. A date on which the service should start has not been mentioned.
The main advantage of the sea crossing is the travel time. The ferry takes you to Pranburi (just a few kilometers from Hua Hin) in just 90 minutes. By road it will take you at least 3,5 hours (380 km) and then everything should go well.
There will be 16 crossings per day with fast catamarans that can carry a total of 400 people, 30 cars and 12 motorcycles. In addition, another 40 tons of goods can be transported per day. The costs for the crossing are 1.000 Baht per person and 3.000 Baht for a car.
Investors are optimistic about passenger numbers. Up to 2,8 million passengers are expected to use the ferry service. That will also have to be because the plan costs quite a bit of money: 15 billion Baht for the construction of 3 terminals in Pattaya near Ban Amphur and the purchase of four ferries.
A few years ago there was also a ferry service from Pattaya to Hua Hin that soon stopped due to lack of passengers.
Source: Thaivisa and Dutch Association Pattaya
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I am afraid that this initiative will also fail.
Then ask yourself how people arrive at the expectations of 2.8 million passengers. Wet finger or thorough market research.
Distributing 2.8 million passengers over 365 days a year with 16 crossings (8 outward and 8 return) evenly distributed over the year and evenly distributed over the boats already results in a capacity problem. 365 * 400 * 16 = 2.336.000 passengers. This is the maximum number of passengers per year. And then, depending on the time, very empty or overcrowded boats. Apart from the days when no boats sail at all due to bad sea conditions.
Thai will make the decision to opt for the car and the 1000 km for the 380 Baht pp. That is considerably cheaper in terms of money. And the difference in time and money is pure profit for an average Thai income.
I wouldn't invest in it.
Yes, let's do some math….
There are four of you and you take the boat to Pattaya (one way is 4000 baht) + car (3000 baht) brings the total amount to 7000 baht one way.
Round trip also 7000 baht which works out to 14.000 baht!!!!!!
By car round trip 760 km, say 1 1/2 tank of diesel is about 1700 baht (?)
I think that is a big difference….. And I think that a large part of the Thai also thinks that and will indeed choose the car….
First time in Hua hin in 1990 and at the time there was a ferry service (mini hoovercraft) with which you could return to Pattaya. This service was subsequently discontinued for reasons unknown to me.
Well Giorgio exactly as written in the article itself, due to lack of customers. Incidentally, when I went to Hua Hin from Pattaya about 3/4 years ago, this service was still advertised on the homepage, despite the fact that it had been discontinued for a few years. From what I remember a one way ticket was quite pricey back then so maybe they are a bit more optimistic now because of the lower cost..
In my posts about this plan at the time, I received different figures from various quarters.
I wonder how Thaivisa arrived at these figures.
The former ferry service has been discontinued due to the lack of interest.
The target passengers will probably not be the Thais, but mostly the tourists who usually do not have a car and are therefore only able or willing to travel along the road. A travel time of 3.5 hours along the road is totally unfeasible. You've lost more than half an hour to drive out of Pattaya and the same to drive into Hua Hin. If you calculate an average speed of 80 km/h in Thailand, you are already closer to reality, so count on at least 6 hours along the road, especially for a tourist who is not familiar with the situation here. For the tourist, such a crossing is already an attraction in itself and saving time is important.
They may have to limit the number of crossings and adjust them to the time of year.
When the Lomprayah ferry to Koh Samui started here, at Chumphon, it was also an unfeasible lost cause because the ferry service by ferry was more than half the price. However, we must conclude that this is a success. Two arrivals and departures a day and the occupancy rate is almost never below 80%. In the case of Fullmoonparty on Koh Phangan, they even have to use Don Sak due to overcrowding.
If the Pattaya-Hua Hin service is well developed, it has a chance of success. It will mainly depend on building good connections from Pattaya and Hua Hin to the tourist resorts in the vicinity. Just like on Koh Samui: you arrive at the pier and the minibuses are ready to take you to any destination on the island for 200THB. Same on arrival in Paknam ( Chumphon ) bus services to and from the airport, the train station ... The saving in travel time is not that huge but, as I already wrote, it is an experience in itself to travel with a high speed catamaran and, fortunately, there are still people who do not only look at the money, but also want to experience something during their holiday that they do not have in their home country and are willing to pay something extra for it.
The distance from Pranburi (where the ferry apparently will moor) to Hua Hin is at least 35 kilometers, and therefore not, as in the article, “only a few kilometers”. You still have to get to Hua Hin from Pranburi, so that makes the so-called time savings a lot less. In short, for the umpteenth time, a totally unfeasible plan, characterized by a rich fantasy, and certainly not by any realism!