Pattaya business owners protest over city being labelled 'Sin City' for its depraved sex industry

Indignant Pattaya business owners protested over the city being labelled 'Sin City' for its sordid sex nightlife, drugs, violence and alleged underage prostitution.

Footage shows the angry shopkeepers gathered outside a neon green-lit cannabis dispensary on the notorious red-light strip Walking Street district of Pattaya on July 11.

Despite tens of thousands of sex workers being found across the city - available for some of the most depraved services imaginable - the demonstrators demanded that a North Korea-style ban on reporting be enforced in order to 'protect the image of the city'.

They held up banners and placards demanding to 'Save Pattaya' as they slammed a local broadcaster for airing a news report entitled 'Pattaya, City of Sin, Paradise of Prostitution'.

Despite international media criticising the city for several years, branding the region a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, it is the first time domestic media has bravely highlighted the illegal activities, which police often willfully ignore.

However, angry official Lisa Hamilton, President of the Pattaya Nightlife Business Association, said: 'Pattaya does not only have entertainment tourism. It also has a variety of businesses to meet the needs of tourists from all over the world.

'The news report that Pattaya is a sinful city has made other professions feel inferior. I do not want people to look down on each other with this kind of perspective. I demand responsibility from the media for presenting news that harms Pattaya.'

Amporn Kaewsaeng, President of the Pattaya Entertainment and Tourism Industry, said Pattaya is a vital economic hub that has provided Thai people with jobs to support their families.

He said: 'We don't want other tourism-related professions to be looked down upon because nightlife workers contribute significantly to the country's income.'

Boon-anan Pattanasin, President of the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association, said he wanted the media to portray Pattaya in a positive light, calling it a 'city of opportunity' instead.

Following the outcry, the broadcasters apologised on July 11.

The network added it was ready to present news to improve Pattaya's reputation and build confidence among tourists.

Former fishing village Pattaya became popular with American troops on 'rest and relaxation' breaks in the 1950s and 1960s when the U.S. military had bases in Thailand for its campaign against Communism. But in the ensuing years, the coastal resort spawned into a semi-barbarous sex-tourism hellscape.

It began attracting thousands of British, European, American and Australians to live in the coastal town - enjoying round-the-clock cut-price romps with avaricious local women and men.

However, Pattaya quickly became known for its corruption and lawlessness, with police turning a Nelsonian eye to wrongdoing and Brits opening bars to profit from the impoverished Southeast Asia women flocking to the region in search of the better wages offered by the sex industry.

Shockingly, a report by German broadcaster DW News last year found that a Bavarian holidaymaker had been caught with underage prostitutes before paying off police with a bribe to allow him a clear passage back to his homeland.

While in May this year, a Brit was kicked in the head and knocked unconscious by security guards on the city's lurid Soi 6 Road, where several bars are operated by the Nightwish Group. However, they do not operate the bar where the men had clashed with the guards.

A different bar run by the Nightwish company, which is overseen by a Brit, was raided in April 2023 for allegedly prostituting sex trafficked minors.