Thailand extends nightlife hours in hot tourist areas, as Hong Kong renews campaign ahead of Lunar New Year

“Everything is open, it’s cool,” he says, as his friends livestream the giddy whirl of drunken tourists, touts, cannabis stalls, tuk-tuk drivers and night workers on a downtown part of Sukhumvit Road – one of the city’s main tourist drags.

For years the kingdom’s nighttime economy in its most popular tourist areas has been officially governed by a closing time of 2am, with bars, clubs and restaurants selling alcohol complaining of arbitrary police enforcement, or having to pay to remain open for longer.

Packed DJ nights were routinely closed down mid-set, while harried customers seeking an after hours drink had to sink beers in hushed darkness behind closed bars, or at street pop-ups that folded away at remarkable speed at the first flash of lights from a police patrol.

The pandemic brought a merry-go-round of curfews, booze bans and movement restrictions, further crushing the nightlife industry and taking with it the income of the hundreds of thousands of Thais who depend on it in some way.

The new government of Srettha Thavisin wants all that to change by helping tourists to spend more, and later.

It has extended opening hours to 4am in zoned areas with the highest tourist footfall. Those are in parts of Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket, the three most visited parts of Thailand, as well as Chiang Mai and Koh Samui.

Hong Kong, whose own once storied nighttime economy is yet to fully recover from the punishing years of the pandemic, is renewing its own “Night Vibes” campaign as the Lunar New Year approaches. The city is offering street performances, discounts on evening screenings and later openings at museums, as it seeks to entice more tourists to the city and get residents to spend after dark to support local businesses.

Thailand