CityNews – On December 1, ten representatives and entrepreneurs from bars and restaurants in Chiang Mai, led by Apinya Wairatpani, submitted documents to Chiang Mai Governor asking for closing hours to be pushed back to 2am like the rest of the country.
The group submitted the letter to the authorities and also forwateded another copy to General Prayuth Chan-ocha via Chiang Mai Damrongtham Centre, asking to extend bar and restaurant closing hours to 2am, just like other tourist cities across the country.
They submitted the request so their businesses could have a chance at competing with other tourist destinations. All the owners who submitted their documents had also made it clear that they had no record of law breaking and underage patrons.
Most of the bars owned by those who signed the letter are in the Loy Kroh and Thapae area.
“Chiang Mai is a tourist city. Most income is from tourism. Police and military have inspected our bars almost every day, affecting foreign tourists, who are our important customers. They are tourists. When they come to Chiang Mai, they want to enjoy it as much as they can. When it was midnight, police and military came and told us to close our bars. They told our customers to leave. Sometimes they even speak in English to our customers, saying “Get Out”. We think it is too rude to foreign tourists. We would like officials involved to think about the words they use with foreign tourists too. If they are too rude, it will cause long-term effects,” said Apinya Wairatpanit.
She continued, “Most importantly, they [police and military] specifically inspected our beer bars. It was clear that some karaoke bars turned off the lights in front of their bars, but they still provided services inside. Yet officials didn’t go in and inspect, but only choose to inspect our bars which we feel is unfair. This has affected us a great deal. During poor economic conditions like this, our businesses are doing worse. We asked government institutes to understand us.”
Speaking outside of City Hall, Apinta said “we just asked them to expand closing time for 1 – 2 hours, which will be good for our businesses during poor economic conditions with a small amount of tourists.”