Tourists flock to Pattaya seafood festivals over long weekend

Tourists flocked to two seafood festivals in Pattaya over the three-day weekend. The Central Pattaya shopping mall held the “Sea Bear” food festival, bringing in income for vendors.

There was also a seafood festival at Terminal 21 shopping mall, which saw hundreds of vacationers stopping by, Pattaya Mail reported. The festival had planned to feature street food vendors from across eastern Thailand, under a street market theme. The festival was hoped to bring in revenue to local vendors to revive Pattaya’s tourism.

As Phuket and Pattaya have both historically been major tourism hotspots in Thailand, officials from both areas have scrambled to find ways to revive their tourism economies dishevelled by Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the Thai government. Officials in Pattaya and Phuket have organised several food festivals this year, to bring income to local vendors and farmers.

Some of these efforts have appeared to bear fruit. In May, the 20 vendors at Pattaya’s new Squid Fair seafood festival earned almost 30,000-40,000 baht a day. The president of the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association said that 3,000-4,000 visitors went to the festival every day it was held.

Hopefully, Pattaya’s latest seafood festivals will also help bring income to hardworking local entrepreneurs.