Chon Buri: The particular 3. 5-kilometre-long Em Jomtien beach within Pattaya City can be expected to fully reopen to tourists in 2025 when the well-known beach is fully fortified by fine sand fences in a seaside erosion prevention project initiated in 2020.
Design of the 50-metre wide sand fences across the first 800-metre section of beach stretching towards the south of Soi Na Jomtien 11 finished last week.
The second phase of building has now begun and is expected to end in November 2025, said Sompong Jirasirilert, deputy director-general of the Marine Department.
The particular northern section of the beach where more sand fences are being built extends to Pattaya Water Park, north of Soi Na Jomtien 11.
Starting within 2020, the erosion prevention project was implemented as an urgent task after erosion had become serious enough to threaten the popular beach plus tourism in the area, Mister Sompong said.
Coastal erosion at Na Jomtien beach had led to it shrinking can be 60 rai in dimensions between 1976 and 2015, which pointed to the need to take serious action to tackle this problem, he said.
“If the problem had been still left unresolved, the entire beach would have vanished, ” said Mr Sompong.
In this event, the area might lose valuable visitor income, not to mention the particular natural beach appeal itself.
The department employed Chulalongkorn University and Kasetsart University to jointly inspect the erosion and style a prevention method, he said.
A feasibility study conducted as part of the project found that every 1 baht within budget spent on funding the project might yield 3. 5 baht in financial value, Mr Sompong said.
Before the project had been approved, three rounds of hearings had been held to measure public opinion about the project.
The first round associated with hearings was executed in March 2015, the second in September that year as well as the third one within September 2016, along with participants at these hearings who approved of the project which range from 84. 2% in order to 96. 8%, he added.
Aside from helping safeguard the landscape, the particular sand fences may also be thought to help improve the beach’s ecosystem, which will help Pattaya’s tourism and related industries within Chon Buri, Mister Sompong said.
Pattaya rated the eighth most popular tourist destination on the planet in 2022, according to online travel reservation platform Agoda.
While still struggling with the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pattaya in 2019 attracted regarding 5 million domestic visitors and about 2 million Chinese travelers, as well as travellers from Russia, India plus South Korea, generating some 300 billion dollars baht in income, said Pattaya mayor Poramet Ngampichet recently.
Among January and 04 this year, the beach town welcomed a few. 8 million guests, mostly Thais, partially due to the government’s “We Travel Together” resort subsidy scheme, producing income of about twenty two billion baht.