Pattaya’s low season is biting hard, with bars dropping like flies and even the biggest go-go bars suffering.
Redlight Report was in Pattaya May 8-10 and business had noticeably dropped since RR’s last visit April 22-25. During the April visit, it was obvious Pattaya’s low season had hit after Songkran ended April 19. But, Saturday night, the manager of a large, popular go-go looked around his empty bar around midnight and could only say “this is bad, really bad”.
Pattaya’s low season is barreling toward Covid-level disaster with Donald Trump’s misguided Iran war wreaking havoc on tourism. People either cannot afford to fly due as airlines raise ticket prices to cover skyrocketing jet fuel costs, or they don’t want to fly thrugh the Mideast where they’re flight could be delayed or canceled or the plane blown out of the sky.
Tourist Arrivals Plunge
Visitor arrivals to Thailand in the April-June quarter are expected to contract 9.2% year-on-year to about 6.5 million tourists. The Tourism Authority of Thailand already slashed its full-year 2026 foreign arrival forecast by roughly 18%, lowering expectations to 30-34 million visitors.
In the first four months of 2026, the Middle East tourist market collapsed, with arrivals plunging 57.1% in April and 32.2% across the first four months of the year. U.K. arrivals fell 22.8% in April, while South Korean tourism dropped 18.28% and Malaysian arrivals fell 16.3% year-to-date.
Overall arrivals declined 7% in April to 2.4 million visitors, while total arrivals for the first four months slipped 3.5% to just under 12 million tourists.
Bar Closures During Pattaya’s Low Season
Pattaya’s low season always sees churn, but this year’s shutdowns have come early and fast.
- Dirty Money, the Australian-owned go-go on Soi Buakhao opposite the very successful Rum Runner, closed May 6. It will be remodeled and reopen later as a sports bar.
- After 79 days, Abyss sunk into the depths, closing for good on May 7 after running out of cash before owners could sell it.
- Identi on Walking Street closed in April, but was sold this past weekend and will reopen this summer under a new name.
- Lek’s Classroom on Soi Buakhao fell into darkness this past week, but it’s unclear if it’s permanent.
- Still open – barely – is Secrets Pattaya. No, not that one. The smaller copy on Soi Buakhao that has no ownership connection to the once-popular and now-long-gone Secrets Bar & Hotel on Soi 14. The lights were on, but two big “for sale” signs on the door. Guess that wasn’t the brand to trade on during Pattaya’s low season.
Soi 6 Update
The never-ending stream of openings and closings during Pattaya’s low season on Soi 6 continued this past week.
- The long, long-running My Friend You Bar is history and has been replaced by Sixth Sense. If anyone sees dead people there, it’s the ghosts of what used to Soi 6’s best house of oral delight before and during the 20-teens.
- BTS, another attempt at Korean branding that hopefully for the owners goes better than Jisoo on Walking Street, is now open.
- Panda Pink, one of four Panda bars, and the reworked Toy Box also opened during Pattaya’s low season.
AJ Replaces RJ at Heaven Above
Heaven Above has a new manager and a bit of a new look since four-year manager RJ, aka, Capt. Hornbag, departed Sin City for his new gig at Hot Lips on Soi Cowboy. Now holding down the fort on Soi Boomerang is AJ, who formerly owned a share of the defunct Bachelor Club on Soi LK Metro, and was the manager of Sugar Sugar among other bars.
Since RJ’s departure, Heaven Above’s interior has gotten some tweaks. Four bright LED signboards have gone up and the lights have gone down. Heaven Above is now quite a bit darker, which the mostly old, expat crowd who frequent the gentlemen’s club surely approves of.
Isn’t That a Shot in the Head!
Thursday was the 35th birthday of Fahrenheit Pattaya manager John and, to celebrate, a fellow Walking Street bar owner bought him 35 shots. That seemed like a lot, but John said that, in fact, he had 94 shots by the time his night finished – early. He checked out at midnight.
Now, 94 shots sounds like fun, but, in reality, that’s alcohol-poisoning territory. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if the “Sangsom” in many of those shots was, in fact, apple juice.
Meanwhile, down the road at The Hive, Toto Pattaya continues to rack of big shot totals of his own. A (male) fan on his popular Facebook page wired over 5,000 baht to the (very male) Toto to buy him 20 drinks. And Toto wasn’t sharing any of those Jaeger Bombs! That’s not only a lot of booze, but a lot of sugar. Not bad for Pattaya’s low season.
Drongos, Dills and Numpties
Away from Walking Street comes Pattaya’s low season story of not-the-full-quid farang newbies concerns the Australian owner of a relatively new Aussie beer bar. The bar is now closed and there’s not much the drongo can do about it. You see, the numpty bought the bar and put it in the name of his 18-year-old “girlfriend”. Said girlfriend has since disappeared and the bar was taken over by some Thais who aren’t interested in hearing his pleas of ownership.
Bangkok Notes
The past couple of Redlight Reports have focused on Pattaya’s low season and Sin City in general, but only because more happens there, good and bad, than in Bangkok’s redlight areas. But that’s not to say there’s nothing happening in BKK.
Spanky’s Entertains Even While Closed
Spanky’s Entertainment, the proper name for the iconic Nana Plaza go-go, long has been “No. 1 for Fun” in the plaza. But the entertainment factor continues even when the doors are closed. Redlight Report attends more than a few go-go bar staff meetings but Spanky’s, by far, has the most entertaining meetings. While most such affairs are podiums for mamasans to drone on and bitch at staff, Spanky’s staff meetings have owner Marc playing class clown, his girlfriend/manager demonstrating cheerleader and other shows, and lots of jokes and laughter. It’s no wonder girls are so loyal to the bar.
No Checkbin Funny Business at Supernova
Both Bad Beach and Crazy House have resisted the march toward technology and automation by sticking with old-school written checks stuffed in your bin. Interestingly, the group’s latest bar, Supernova, uses the now-normal computerized checks that clearly show the drink, waitress, number of any lady you buy a drink for, prices and the running total.
Now, Redlight Report has never had or even heard of checkbin shenanigans going on at Crazy House, but Supernova’s computerized bills are nonetheless reassuring.
