Pattaya City Reorganizes Umbrellas Along Pattaya Beach

The recreational area along the Pattaya beach has decreased dramatically due to the growing number of Thai business owners putting more umbrellas and beds along the beach in hopes to get more customers and make more money. This however clashes with the government’s policy of leaving as much space as possible for locals and tourists to use the area to play sport or conduct any other enjoyable activities.

From left: Chairman of the Beachside Business Owners Committee Phantawat Pimsakul, Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronnakit Ekkasing, and Police Major Jirawat Sukhonsub Head of Jomtien Municipal Work (right) as they carefully study the current condition of the Pattaya beachfront before reorganizing the beachfront umbrellas.

Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronnakit said, “The rule set by Former Chonburi Governor Pracha Taerattana stated that, along the beach, 50% should be used to conduct businesses while the other 50% should be left empty so that beach goers can use that area for recreational purposes. At the moment, most of the beachfront has been flled with umbrellas, beds, tables and chairs. We need to reorganize the beachfront to make it usable for other purposes rather than what it is used for now. Jomtien beach has been reorganized already and now we are moving on to Pattaya beach. There are currently 108 beach bed/beach umbrella owners along the Pattaya beach.”

“So far the beach bed/beach umbrella owners have been cooperating with us very well. The problem that we have now is that some parts of the beachfront are shorter than the other due to erosion. Each lot needs to be only 7x7 meters and must be 2 meters apart from each other. However, in the end we solved the issue allowing what was appropriate,” added Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronnakit.

Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronnakit continue saying, “Apart from reorganizing the umbrellas and beds on the beachfront, we will also put forward a case to the Pattaya Mayor to improve the Pattaya beach by dealing with the problem of erosion and giving new colorful umbrellas to owners to improve the view.” Mr. Phantawat Pimsakul, Chairman of the Beachside Business Owners Committee said, “We have been informed about the reorganizing of the umbrellas on the beachfront and as a chairman, I informed the committee members and they were all willing to participate. They experienced some problems with the length of the beachfront being uneven but we just did our best and the Deputy Mayor was pleased which made us really happy.”

Khun Aree Yindee, one of the beach bed/beach umbrella owners said, “The reorganizing of the beach umbrellas is a very good idea. My intention is to make Pattaya beach a better place anyway and I’m sure others feel the same way too.”