Pattaya is fighting for the title of UNESCO Creative Film City!

Pattaya is fighting for the title of UNESCO Creative Film City!

Pattaya is on the creative rise! On November 7, 2025, many visionaries and creatives gathered at the Grande Center Point Pattaya for the “Thailand Creative Cities Network 2025” event. The organization for the development of sustainable tourism areas (องค์การบริหารการพัฒนาพื้นที่พิเ Please note, อพท.) has made it its mission to promote Pattaya as part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). Your goal? To make Pattaya a UNESCO Creative City of Film and further promote the creative film industry, as thaipost.net reports.

The event's theme, "Pattaya Rolls: The Best Location for Film Industry", indicates that the city has the potential to establish itself as a leading film production center in Thailand. Numerous interesting activities were on the program, including lectures by renowned speakers such as M.R. Chalermchatri Yukol and Pingsak Lamphraeng, who shared their insights about Pattaya's cultural treasures and inspiration as a creative film city.

Pattaya in creative exchange

Pattaya is not alone on this creative path. The event also promoted the “City Cross Collaboration” project, which aims to establish collaboration between Pattaya and other creative cities in Thailand such as Suphanburi, Sukhothai and Bangkok. The acronym APT plays a central role in this by fostering exchanges between government, private sector and community to support creative endeavors across Thailand.

In line with the national 20-year strategy (2018-2038), which aims to increase the country's competitiveness, creative and cultural tourism is becoming increasingly important. Thailand already has nine cities in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network recognized for their unique strengths. These include Chiang Mai, Sukhothai and Nan for crafts and folk art, Bangkok and Chiang Rai for design, while Phuket, Phetchaburi and Songkhla are known for their culinary diversity.

Honorable new members

The news that Thailand recently welcomed two more important members to the UNESCO network was all the more joyful. Nan, the lively ancient town, was recognized in the crafts and folk arts category, and Songkhla achieved recognition in the gastronomy category. Minister Sabeeda Thaised announced that these two cities are part of a new group of 58 cities joining the network this year from 41 countries, globe.co.th reports.

With a variety of creative expressions from seven different areas, such as literature, architecture, film, and media art, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network shows the value of culture and creativity for sustainable urban development. The upcoming UNESCO policy paper will even proclaim how important creativity is to economic, social and cultural growth and how governments in the region should recognize the long-term benefits of creative strategies, as unesco.org shows.

It remains exciting to see how Pattaya will continue to grow with its commitment to becoming a creative film city and take a place in the global creative network. Collaboration between creative cities has the potential to bring not only Pattaya, but also the whole of Thailand, onto the international cultural stage.