PART III - CASE STUDY 4.2
Resort development of Pattaya, Thailand
In the 1940s, Pattaya (which lies 140km south-east of Bangkok) was a relatively inaccessible fishing community which contained a handful of second homes established by wealthy Thais. These second homes formed the basis for the development of the resort that was included by Smith (1991) in his study of modern beach resorts and its associated model (see Figure 4.4). Improved road access to Bangkok in the early 1960s coincided with the development of US military bases in the region and created new demands that led to the construction of the first hotels on the beach frontage from 1964. These provided the catalyst to a subsequent expansion of hotel-based tourism catering for both the domestic market and, with time, a progressively more important international market. As Smith’s model hypothesises, these developments of hotels and guest houses formed distinctive zones in close proximity to the sea, whilst the demands created by tourism stimulated both the growth of business and increases in the resident community that triggered new construction of residential areas inland.
Smith’s (1991) survey of Pattaya revealed a resort that had perhaps reached Stage 6 of his model of beach resort formation (see Figure 1) with established zones of coastal hotels, zones of tourism business and more recent zones of hotels at inland locations also in evidence. However, in the twenty years since Smith’s original fieldwork was undertaken, Thailand has developed strongly as an international destination with international arrivals having risen from just under 2 million in 1980 to more than 11.6 million in 2004 (Economic Intelligence Unit, 1995; WTO, 2005a). Pattaya has also emerged – along with Phuket and Ko Samu – as a major destination for visitors to Thailand, attracted both by the exotic and often luxurious facilities that are on offer in parts of the resort and by a less commendable reputation for sex tourism. Consequently, the resort has more than tripled in size and, in the process, clearly progressed to the final stage of Smith’s model. Figure 4.5 (which was compiled remotely through a combination of online tourist maps and satellite images) shows a generalised land use map of the area in 2006 which conforms to several of the criteria set down by Smith for a ‘city resort’. Satellite images reveal a highly urbanised environment with many new road networks and associated infrastructure, whilst the resort shows both lateral expansion into the neighbouring coastal areas of Wong Amat and Jomtien, and a greatly increased zone of inland residential neighbourhoods. The inset in Figure 1 shows the resort as originally surveyed in 1991 and reveals, as the model suggests, that many of the functions that marked the formative phases of the resort development have been displaced by new construction of zones of high-quality hotel and condominium develop- ments, the further expansion in tourism-related businesses, and a widening range of attractions that are associated with mature resorts.
Source: Smith, R.A. (1991) ‘Beach resorts: a model of development evolution’, Landscape and Planning, Vol. 21: 189–210.
Figure 1. Resort structures and land use patterns in Pattaya, Thailand, 2006
Resort development of Pattaya, Thailand
In the 1940s, Pattaya (which lies 140km south-east of Bangkok) was a relatively inaccessible fishing community which contained a handful of second homes established by wealthy Thais. These second homes formed the basis for the development of the resort that was included by Smith (1991) in his study of modern beach resorts and its associated model (see Figure 4.4). Improved road access to Bangkok in the early 1960s coincided with the development of US military bases in the region and created new demands that led to the construction of the first hotels on the beach frontage from 1964. These provided the catalyst to a subsequent expansion of hotel-based tourism catering for both the domestic market and, with time, a progressively more important international market. As Smith’s model hypothesises, these developments of hotels and guest houses formed distinctive zones in close proximity to the sea, whilst the demands created by tourism stimulated both the growth of business and increases in the resident community that triggered new construction of residential areas inland.
Smith’s (1991) survey of Pattaya revealed a resort that had perhaps reached Stage 6 of his model of beach resort formation (see Figure 1) with established zones of coastal hotels, zones of tourism business and more recent zones of hotels at inland locations also in evidence. However, in the twenty years since Smith’s original fieldwork was undertaken, Thailand has developed strongly as an international destination with international arrivals having risen from just under 2 million in 1980 to more than 11.6 million in 2004 (Economic Intelligence Unit, 1995; WTO, 2005a). Pattaya has also emerged – along with Phuket and Ko Samu – as a major destination for visitors to Thailand, attracted both by the exotic and often luxurious facilities that are on offer in parts of the resort and by a less commendable reputation for sex tourism. Consequently, the resort has more than tripled in size and, in the process, clearly progressed to the final stage of Smith’s model. Figure 4.5 (which was compiled remotely through a combination of online tourist maps and satellite images) shows a generalised land use map of the area in 2006 which conforms to several of the criteria set down by Smith for a ‘city resort’. Satellite images reveal a highly urbanised environment with many new road networks and associated infrastructure, whilst the resort shows both lateral expansion into the neighbouring coastal areas of Wong Amat and Jomtien, and a greatly increased zone of inland residential neighbourhoods. The inset in Figure 1 shows the resort as originally surveyed in 1991 and reveals, as the model suggests, that many of the functions that marked the formative phases of the resort development have been displaced by new construction of zones of high-quality hotel and condominium develop- ments, the further expansion in tourism-related businesses, and a widening range of attractions that are associated with mature resorts.
Source: Smith, R.A. (1991) ‘Beach resorts: a model of development evolution’, Landscape and Planning, Vol. 21: 189–210.
Figure 1. Resort structures and land use patterns in Pattaya, Thailand, 2006