Pattaya’s Money Expo 2014, held from 7 to 9 February 2014 at the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel, concluded successfully, resulting in the highest number of loans in the past four years, according to an article in The Nation. The expo, the largest local and regional forum that connects consumers, SMEs and investors to a range of financial service providers and resources, attracted more than 30,000 people over the three-day period.
Over 17,000 people applied for financial and investment services from banks, financial institutions, asset management firms and insurance companies. There was a total of THB 17 billion in loans. The most popular loans were for buying houses; about 4,500 customers applied for a home loan, which accounted for about THB 12 billion.
Loans for small and medium-sized enterprises reached THB 2 billion, a reflection that businesses in the Pattaya area are largely unaffected by the current political turmoil. As the anti-government protests are concentrated in Bangkok, the Pattaya tourism market, as opposed to that of the Thai capital, has remained relatively unscathed.
