Chinese tourists vanish, Pattaya cruise sinks into crisisLegacyA luxury Pattaya dinner cruise once packed with Chinese tourists is now struggling to stay afloat, after a dramatic drop in visitors forced mass layoffs and desperate reinvention. Ocean Sky Pattaya, a once-thriving restaurant cruise catering largely to Chinese travellers, has laid off 30% of its staff in a drastic move to slash costs as Chinese arrivals dry up. Buncha Kullawanich, the cruise’s executive, revealed that the business has been battered by plummeting tourist numbers, particularly since early 2025. “Since early 2025, we’ve seen a 30% drop in customers. The situation worsened after the kidnapping of a Chinese actor using Thailand as a transit point to Myanmar, followed by a devastating earthquake that caused a government building to collapse. These events have significantly damaged Thailand’s safety image among tourists.” Photo of Buncha Kullawanich and the cruise ship courtesy of Pattaya Mail According to Buncha, even April, typically High Season, was dismal. “It was a very low season.” The fallout has forced Ocean Sky to consider reducing its cruise fleet to just one ship to rein in operational costs. The impact stretches far beyond the cruise decks. Pattaya’s broader tourism scene is feeling the pinch, with businesses heavily reliant on Chinese tour groups reporting similar declines. But the Ocean Sky team isn’t going down without a fight. Management is urgently pivoting its strategy, turning attention to new and growing markets such as Indian, Russian, and Vietnamese tourists. The cruise plans to revamp its onboard experience, tailoring entertainment and facilities to appeal to a broader international crowd. Buncha urged the Thai government to do more to restore the kingdom’s bruised tourism image. He called for faster crisis response, better communication, and proactive safety campaigns to rebuild trust with foreign visitors, reported Pattaya Mail. Photo of tourists disembarking the cruise ship courtesy of Pattaya Mail While Pattaya has long relied on waves of Chinese tourists, the current crisis has exposed the risks of overdependence on a single market. For Ocean Sky Pattaya, survival now depends on innovation, diversification, and a government willing to help steer tourism back on course. The story Chinese tourists vanish, Pattaya cruise sinks into crisis as seen on Thaiger News.

Bar humbug! Foreign tourist brawls bruise Pattaya’s party sceneLegacyPunches flew, tempers flared and yet another black eye was dealt to Pattaya’s party scene today after a boozy bar bust-up between foreign tourists left three injured and police scrambling to track down the culprits behind the chaos. A full-blown street scrap erupted outside a bar on Soi Chalermprakiat 25 in Nongprue, Bang Lamung district, Chon Buri, today, May 6, with three foreign nationals nursing bruises but refusing both medical help and to spill the beans to officers on the scene. Despite their silence, Pattaya’s police weren’t about to let the matter drop, Pattaya News reported. Police Colonel Anek Sathongyu, Superintendent of Pattaya City Police, along with Pol. Lt. Col. Arun Saphanon and the Tourist Police, launched a rapid investigation, poring over CCTV footage and chasing leads. The battered bunch were later identified as German national Dominik Leupold, British man Jamie Lee Rocca, Swedish national Sture Mattias Arnkvist, and Cambodian Miss Py Pech. The man believed to have sparked the scuffle was Hallam Zachary Kalen, an Australian national. With identities now confirmed, officers are racing to round up everyone involved for questioning and promised to press ahead “in a straightforward manner based on the evidence.” But this isn’t an isolated incident, far from it. Pattaya has been plagued by a recent spate of tourist trouble, including an April 27 dust-up between two British men and a group of Thai locals outside a convenience store. That flare-up reportedly began after the Brits almost collided with a motorcycle taxi rider, then allegedly hurled rubbish at him from their car window. The rider followed them to the shop, where fists soon flew. Video of the bust-up was shared widely on Facebook by page เจ๊มอย v+ (Jamoi v+), drawing plenty of attention. The Brit duo were ultimately made to pay 15,000 baht in compensation. And back in March, things turned ugly again near Dong Tan Beach in Jomtien, when two groups of foreign tourists got into yet another dust-up, this time requiring the Pattaya City Patrol and Jomtien Civic Guard to step in. While two of the brawlers were nabbed and taken to Dong Tan Police Station, a couple on an Xmax scooter reportedly fled the scene, dodging local law enforcement in true tourist outlaw style. As the punches keep coming, police are now under pressure to get a grip on the booze-fuelled bedlam that’s threatening to spoil the resort’s already fragile reputation. The story Bar humbug! Foreign tourist brawls bruise Pattaya’s party scene as seen on Thaiger News.

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Some UK visa applicants are to face more strenuous inquiries prior to travel permission. The British government intends to make visa applications from certain countries more difficult. The main focus is on Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka because of the large number of nationals who, once in the UK, claim asylum status. Whilst their claims are being assessed, the Home Office often has to foot the bill for hotel accommodation. Student status is the most common visa category for potential abuse. In 2024 there were 108,000 such cases across all nationalities, according to the think tank The UK in a Changing World. But Thai nationals applying for UK visas are unlikely to be targeted as very few of them overstay or claim to be political refugees. In 2023 there were 58,000 successful visa applicants from Thailand (over 90% success rate) though the application numbers have been declining in recent years owing to stiffening entry rules. For example, the minimum annual salary required for a work visa in UK is now 38,700 pounds and there are restrictions on most students and overseas care workers bringing family members. Visit (tourist) visas depend on the applicant proving close ties with Thailand such as a job, property or independent finances which are known as “urgent reasons to return to Thailand”. Settlement visas, typically for Thai family members wishing to live in UK, now require a minimum of 29,000 pounds income from the British husband or sponsor. This could increase even further in the near future, though prime minister Keir Starmer has put further rises on hold for the time being. Professor Jonathan Portes, speaking for the think tank, said, “The government is looking at abuses in the system, so the main impact will be on countries which have a high number of asylum or overstay cases.” He added that the government was working with the National Crime Agency to build a model to profile applicants and check the detail of their financial resources. Immigration lawyer Jessataporn Bunnag said Thailand was not a country guilty of having problems with overstay in UK or fake requests for extra time. He expected no change in the way Thai visa applications are handled by UK authorities. Political commentators believe that a UK crackdown on asylum seekers has likely been prompted by the rise of the opposition Reform party which, in recent local elections, took 677 of the seats of the 1,600 up for grabs. Reform, which has an anti-immigrant platform, often refers to a broken immigration system which favors foreign arrivals over native Britons and costs the British tax payer billions of pounds in hotel accommodation or welfare for entrants and their families who have run out of cash.