Homeless people are sleeping in abandoned Thai lap dancing bars

Homeless people are sleeping in abandoned Thai lap dancing bars

Lap dancing bars abandoned in Thailand during the Covid-19 pandemic have been overrun with squatters.

The seedy nightlife venues in the Sin City resort of Pattaya once boasted round-the-clock hookers on demand for Brits and other tourists.

Tourists dubbed the region the sex capital of the world - as pictures taken shortly before the pandemic show, with prostitutes posing next to chrome poles.

However, the country's tourism industry - which accounts for up to 20 per cent of GDP - has been decimated by the coronavirus ban on holidaymakers, which started on March 22 and is still in force.

Popular gogo bars in Pattaya are now deserted.

Some in the notorious Walking Street area of the city have little sign of action, other than homeless people sleeping on the counters and sofas.

Speaking yesterday (July 21), one of the down-and-outs said they were forced to take shelter in the closed bars as he had no money to pay his rent.

The homeless man said that before the pandemic, he had earned a comfortable living from tourism but now he has to go out every day begging for food and searching for jobs.

He said: "I have been unemployed for more than five months, with no money or income.

I lost my home because I couldn't pay the rent and now I have to live here.

"I go out everyday to collect food donations.

Then I spend the time wandering around looking for work, but every business is cutting back and they don't have jobs.'' The Covid-19 pandemic has decimated tourism in Thailand, which enforced a national State of Emergency with strict lockdowns and curfews when cases started to increase in March.

Tourist arrivals were banned and international flights to the country have been cancelled.

Despite the success in stopping the spread of the disease - with no local transmissions for almost two months - the lockdown measures are predicted to hit GDP growth over the next two years.

The World Bank predicted that the Thai economy would need at least two years to recover from the recession and would also require significant government stimulus.