Thai sex industry under fire from tourism minister, police

[55Jay]

Thailand ought to transform into a full and proper Nanny state with a rigidly enforced tax code to support a robust social safety net.

Once achieved, have the police and army round up all the filthy, dark skinned bar girls, put them on The Dole and ship them to Issan on trains and busses, back to the village where they rightly belong and secretly want to be anyway. Dress them up in traditional Issan/Lao costumes, sat in a group of tangled brown toes on a dirt floor making wicker baskets for OTOP. Ah yes, a beautiful, natural way of life for the child-like little brown people.... just as the nail biting colonial puritans envisage how things ought to be.

[facthailand]

This man clearly, doesn't know his job

Umm, the new Tourism minister is a woman!

[Krataiboy]

This man clearly, doesn't know his job or doesn't read the incoming tourists statistics, majority of male

tourist to the kingdom has to do wit a quest for some kind of sexual gratification of some sort,

if he ever bothered to leave his ivory tower and go down and mingle with the masses, he'd soon learn

that sex tourism is a major revenues earner, and by eliminating it, he'd be putting out as many as a million

hospitality workers that otherwise will go underground and still will ply their trade,

Not the minster, nor the PM and all their army and police men can stop the sex industry from being,

legalize and control it, will be the better way to go about it.....

The tourism minister is a woman, Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul. Like most of the women in positions of authority in LoS, she is from the top drawer of society and has little grasp of what life is like for the relative poor - particularly women with children and older family members to support.

For a fascinating insight into the role of women in the class-ridden society which is Thailand, I recommend the following link to a Thai Foreign Correspondents' Club debate in June entitled Sex as Entertainment -Gender Objectification in Thailand (

).

This no-holds-barred debate, led by a panel of three very different Thai women - a university professor, a Yale student and an outspoken feminist who enjoys porn - should be compulsory viewing for the tourism minister and every member of the current regime, which (understandably, perhaps, since it is dominated by military men) is reacting in a simplistic, knee-jerk fashion to a complex situation with huge economic and social implications.

[dbrenn]

kobkarn.jpg

This the Minister of Sports and tourism, Kobkarn Wattanavrankul. I believe she is correctly referred to as a woman.

She looks rather cute.

[dbrenn]

I wouldn't blame Thailand for being sick of mass tourism in all its forms, not just sex tourism. Hordes of rude foreigners invading every beauty spot.

Thailand was once a pristine and beautiful country. Mass tourism has spoilt it for everyone.

I can see why some countries like Bhutan limit the number of tourist arrivals. Small numbers are fine but masses are ugly.

[ttthailand]

Watch the GDP plunge 30-60%.

How when tourism altogether is only 10% of GDP? Sex tourism is a small minority of this, the economy can survive westerners hand outs to the whore industry. Who are the largest numbers of tourists, Chinese and western backpackers, how many of those are interested in buying sex?

There is a black market that is not counted when figures regarding GDP are calculated. Do you really think the government knows how much money all the farang are giving these girls ? It is not as much as some dreamers think but it is enough to make a huge difference in the lives of tens of thousands of these girls and their family. I don't support this behavior but I understand why it takes place.

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

IMO in the mid-term (5 years or so) the following is likely to happen:

The garish in your face establishments are in the crosshairs. The shops closed last week on Soi 7/1 are an example of that.

The suspected underage and trafficking shops are in the crosshairs. AS THEY SHOULD BE. The recent Rachada Road raids are an example of that.

The screws will be tightened on the silver pole and floorshow venues. Slowly so everyone will have time to adjust to the new economic normal. Farang owned and operated businesses will be top of the list of course.

Neon will be out of fashion. Marketing will be curtailed. Websites will be plain vanilla. What some call underground will still really be quite visible to those who are looking for it.

The organized nightlife clusters will be tamped down on to the point of financial extinction. The property will be put to a higher commercial use. The reborn will be smaller and scattered.

Opportunities for horizontal mingling will still exist. Ladies will still be about on the streets. Bars and disco's will still attract the usual following. Discrete massage shops will still offer all manor of happy happy. The internet will become more important as a primary point of introduction.

More like the pay-for-play scene around the planet really.

SL

Sounds so scientific and we'll thought out your predictions. But that is if Prayut somehow remains in power... Otherwise, the new minister of tourism will be replaced with a man and the neon lights will become fashionable again.

[thaibeachlovers]

I wouldn't blame Thailand for being sick of mass tourism in all its forms, not just sex tourism. Hordes of rude foreigners invading every beauty spot.

Thailand was once a pristine and beautiful country. Mass tourism has spoilt it for everyone.

I can see why some countries like Bhutan limit the number of tourist arrivals. Small numbers are fine but masses are ugly.

I see you are Thai. perhaps you don't realise that the people that actually destroy beauty spots are usually THAIS. I was taken to a waterfall that no farang tourists visit by my wife and it was disgusting. Horrid shacks had been built all over the river for the hordes of boozing Thais to party in, and the whole place was a ribbish tip end to end.

What made it worse was that it was a National Park.

Also, on places like Samui and Phi Phi, the people that build awful concrete buildings and ruin the beaches are THAIS, not the tourists. The revolting full moon party on Had Rin every month is run by THAIS. If Thais are sick of mass tourism the solution is in their hands to stop it.

[Mosha]

The girls will have to go work satisfying the locals needs. Perhaps the minister hasn't heard of the other places.

Sent from my SMART_4G_Speedy_5inch using Tapatalk

[PattayaBoy]

Thats what happens when u get feminist minister. 55

No one managed to sort it out before her and she will not stop it either.

[MaxYakov]

How would you care to explain the rising prices and falling numbers in places like Nana plaza parking and soi cowboy?

I used to buy all my house furniture in a discount furniture store (DFS, Army and Navy, etc.), now I buy online and the furniture stores are all closing.

I fear that the subtlety of that comment will be lost on many!

A subtlety that you both missed. Ever price-checked online services of the type being discussed here?

Edited July 18, 2016 by MaxYakov

[kiwikeith]

Who do you think runs the aex industry in Thailand? Who is behind the scenes raking in the money?

Answer: The same people that have been oblivious to it since 1960,the same as the ones quite often seen in Chappaya BK putting heaps of 1000 BHT notes around the singers necks, the same ones that the mama saaan told me were big time officals , police army politicians and mafia.

I once heard a quote from a stupid NZ politician when the flood gates opened to Chinese migrants into NZ, the worry was that the Chinese Mafia would infiltrate into NZ.

He said we have measures in place to prevent this, we have experience learned from British police in HK.

A statement made by this tourism Minister to get a spot in the news for himself.

NZ is rife with methamphetamine and crime and who is behind it? the main culprits are the ones that the minister said "Wont Happen".

If reform happens in a way of zero tolerance civil war will break out in LOS>

[louse1953]

She's funny, THAI culture, run down temples, dirty wash rooms, dirty food handlers, thieves, not 1 person speaks English at my local LOTUS store, under trained technicians, underage drinking, kids on motorbikes, 15 people in the back of a pick-up, trucks and buses crashing every day.

Take away the income for the sex trade, no more new motorbikes bought for girlfriends, no new houses or farms and education for their kids because the lazy Thai man who knocks-up a girl and then leaves her with the kids.

Please Ms. TOURIST police get a grip on what is real. I BET you have a nice 20 million baht house, good job, where did all that money come from.

SHE would be a great girlfriend for Clinton, both live in the clouds.

"not 1 person speaks English at my local LOTUS store,"

Why would you think they speak English,not necessary if you speak Thai.

It's the international language and they work for TESCO.

So!!!INot one tourist wouldn't not come to Thailand because of the lack of English skills at Tesco,or anywhere else for that matter.You are in Thailand you know.The sun is setting on the empire,old chap.Chinese is the way to go.

[brewsterbudgen]

If "They" want to "eradicate" sex tourism just start arresting the "Sex tourists" and see what happens.

Arrest them for what?

[thaibeachlovers]

How would you care to explain the rising prices and falling numbers in places like Nana plaza parking and soi cowboy?

I used to buy all my house furniture in a discount furniture store (DFS, Army and Navy, etc.), now I buy online and the furniture stores are all closing.

I fear that the subtlety of that comment will be lost on many!

A subtlety that you both missed. Ever price-checked online services of the type being discussed here?

When I buy fruit and vegetables I like to check them before buying. I'd never buy online as I'd probably get the rubbish that no one would buy in person .

[bobmac10]

For the goverment to close the sex industry successfully they would need to provide good jobs which pay well for the thousands of women who work for a period of their lives as prostitutes.

Until this happens, they have no chance of succeeding.

I have seen over decades the effect of the money being sent back to families by the daughter working in the sex industry.

Usually once they have paid off a house, car, and saved some money they come back home and quit.

What can the government do to provide the same income to all these women?

Nothing, that's the answer.

Farm work at 200 - 300 baht a day is just enough to survive

[alocacoc]

It will happen. Anyway. I never saw so many bars for sale as of now due lack of customers. And this is just the beginning. The crime rate will continue to rise. For the remaining tourists Thailand becomes more and more dangerous.

[Jiggo]

I went to a Temple once.....

[thaibeachlovers]

It will happen. Anyway. I never saw so many bars for sale as of now due lack of customers. And this is just the beginning. The crime rate will continue to rise. For the remaining tourists Thailand becomes more and more dangerous.

It is low season!

I was in Nana couple of weeks back and virtually no customers in the gogos. Not surprising when one sees how much the drinks are and the revolting so called music that the DJs like.

Lots of punters in the outside bars though. No doubt waiting till closing to pick up a takeaway without paying the BF.

I did notice that there are way less really pretty dancers than in the 90s.

Pattaya has had too many bars for donkey's years though, and low customer numbers per bar are the norm.

[alocacoc]

Yes, it's low season. But is one of the worst. And it gets not better. Even the last high season was bad.

[luckyman]

Every time some jaded expat comes out with the cliched, sarcastic 'right, because people come here for the temples and the culture' response, it makes me smile. You're just showing yourself up for what you really are. Because yes, people do, as well as for the scenery, the food, the people, the fun activities, and the many other things that people love this country for. The fact that you can't find anything to like about it beyond cheap sex says more about you than it does about Thailand - and the fact that you remain in a place you so disdain in order to have sex with people who only tolerate you for your money is bordering on tragic.

Nice comment! Spot on

[MockingJay]

Good luck!

[humqdpf]

Catering for dirty old men isn't really applicable in the 21st century. I must admit picturing a young pretty Thai lady barely 20 years old, with a drooling fart, old enough to be her grandfather is quite repulsive. In EU this would be considered unacceptable. Regretfully, Thailand does seemingly attract the dregs of society .. the sex tourists, perverts, and criminals. Most come after failing to attract a woman in their home country, (which is not surprising). So they come to LOS, as looks/age don't matter, so long as you have a fat bank account. I have witnessed 60 year-old men acting like a 21 year-old, which just looks ridiculous. Would be nice if Thailand cleaned-up it's act. The bars, and whore-houses were catering for the US service men at the time of the Vietnam war, well those days are gone. Time to clean-up the image of the country that is for sure.

Wow......at least we know how you feel.

Ahem, correct me if I got your wrong but . . . the "dirty" old men you refer to are not in a brothel but with a girl-friend. How do you legislate against such an old man being with a young girl-friend? Closing the brothels is unlikely to make any difference.

Yes, I too am sometime appalled by the behaviour of falang in Thailand - the presence of a number of loud drunk males in "wife-beater" t-shirts com plainly loudly never improves my evening. To solve this, I just go to places where those guys don't hang out.

I have to disagree with you on the age-difference issue. I have met quite a number of older foreign gents with younger wives in Thailand who are polite, good company and are well-integrated. I have also met a few older Thai gents with much younger partners. Why do you have something against them?

I have to declare a personal interest in this argument - and no, before you jump to conclusions, I don't live in Thailand, I am not over 60 years old and I don't have a 20-year-old girlfriend. It is just that my father was a few decades older than my mother and they met when she was about 20 (BTW, neither of them were Thailand and neither had ever been to Thailand). If somehow you had managed to legislate against them being together, I would never have been born!

[tuanku]

Who do you think runs the aex industry in Thailand? Who is behind the scenes raking in the money?

Maybe there is less Mafia involvement than you might think. I think there is a degree of "consent and mutual benefit" between brothel owners and many sex workers with most workers choosing the industry over the alternative of minimum wage factory or manual employment or unemployment.

Although plenty of exploitation exists, I believe the industry in Thailand is less "controlled" and therefore offers a better deal to its workers than most other countries. Girls seem able to come and go pretty much as they please, operate largely without a controlling network of pimps, and are able to keep almost all the money they obtain from their clients. Of course this may not apply to underage, trafficked girls from neighbouring countries. In my strictly limited experience Thai sex workers are there because they want the income they can derive and are pretty much able to leave at any time. Poverty seems to be the main driving force in their recruitment.

This may be a simplistic view, and there are certainly those enslaved in cheap brothels in the provinces (particularly "illegals" from neighbouring countries, and those enslaved by drug addiction, and those affected by HIV and other STDs. I am not saying that it is a good industry, but nowhere near as bad as it might be. I also believe that it will never be eradicated as long as prostitution occupies its present powerful position in Thai culture (the real culture as opposed to the "official" one. As most powerful lawmakers and law enforcers are male, they are part of the "prostitution culture" which pervades Thai society, and even has a high degree of acceptance from Thai women outside the sex industry.

from http://www.sexwork.com/Thailand/traditiions.html

Certainly, prostitutes play a large part in forming the sexual identity of young Thai males; "a demonstration of heterosexual orientation by having sex with a female prostitute is an important rite of passage for some groups of Thai men." This is borne out by the available statistics: "tudies show that the majority of Thai men have their first sexual experience with a prostitute - the act is often a part of high school and university hazing rituals - and that 95% of all men over 21 have slept with a prostitute."

When you see senior police officers defending their men having sex with prostitutes as part of information gathering before a raid, then you can be pretty sure that the sex industry is pretty deeply entrenched. There seems to be no concern about the policemen participating in an "illegal" act.

After a police raid on some Bangkok parlours where policemen had sex with prostitutes, "Acting Suthisan Police chief Colonel Varanvas Karunyathat defended the police action, saying that the (police) officers involved needed to have sex with the masseuses to gain evidence for the arrest."^[39] Apparently, this is standard practice as a separate police force did the same in Pattaya in May 2007.^[40]

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Thailand}

[Jackin1960]

One marries a farmer and together they have just enough money to get by. The other goes down to Pattaya and starts selling services. She sends 5000 a month back to mom and dad who, despite the fact that she told them she was a waitress have a pretty good idea what's really going on. In Thai culture which daughter is the hero of the family and making merit the most?

My vote would go to the one who doesn't have to lie about what she's doing. That's kind of a dead giveaway.

They both lie but one gets paid more for it.

[bazza40]

Every time some jaded expat comes out with the cliched, sarcastic 'right, because people come here for the temples and the culture' response, it makes me smile. You're just showing yourself up for what you really are. Because yes, people do, as well as for the scenery, the food, the people, the fun activities, and the many other things that people love this country for. The fact that you can't find anything to like about it beyond cheap sex says more about you than it does about Thailand - and the fact that you remain in a place you so disdain in order to have sex with people who only tolerate you for your money is bordering on tragic.

There are many falangs who come here and form long-term relationships with Thai women, some of whom they meet in the sex industry. Why? Because they are fed up with the ball-busting bitches many Western women have become. Thai women appreciate men who are good providers, and are not abusive like many Thai men are.

You make me smile also. For a guy who by his own admission is happily married to a Western woman, and has zero experience concerning sex with Thai women, you do pontificate with considerable frequency on a subject you know nothing about. As does the good Minister. Perhaps you should consider a career in politics.

[phutoie2]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/17/thailand-is-closed-to-sex-tourism-says-countrys-first-female-tou/

curtains now, UK press have it.

[SoiBiker]

Every time some jaded expat comes out with the cliched, sarcastic 'right, because people come here for the temples and the culture' response, it makes me smile. You're just showing yourself up for what you really are. Because yes, people do, as well as for the scenery, the food, the people, the fun activities, and the many other things that people love this country for. The fact that you can't find anything to like about it beyond cheap sex says more about you than it does about Thailand - and the fact that you remain in a place you so disdain in order to have sex with people who only tolerate you for your money is bordering on tragic.

There are many falangs who come here and form long-term relationships with Thai women, some of whom they meet in the sex industry. Why? Because they are fed up with the ball-busting bitches many Western women have become. Thai women appreciate men who are good providers, and are not abusive like many Thai men are.

You make me smile also. For a guy who by his own admission is happily married to a Western woman, and has zero experience concerning sex with Thai women, you do pontificate with considerable frequency on a subject you know nothing about. As does the good Minister. Perhaps you should consider a career in politics.

You've it clear before that you have a chip on your shoulder about farang women, so I'd expect you to judge me for marrying one.

Once again, this says more about you than anything else.

[thaibeachlovers]

Yes, it's low season. But is one of the worst. And it gets not better. Even the last high season was bad.

Don't expect to see many Brits now the quid has fallen.

[Jonmarleesco]

'“We want Thailand to be about quality tourism. We want the sex industry gone,” Ms Kobkarn told Reuters.' She does realise most of the customers are not tourists, does she?