Any comments on recent reports of crackdowns on sex tourism in Thailand?
https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-n...dustry-thai-tourism-new-tourist-prostitution/
Reports of empty go go bars and bored, Thai bar girls improvising Christmas parties, while tourist numbers are at an all time high, shows things have changed. Thailand’s tourist chiefs have decoupled Thailand’s growing tourist industry from the sex, sun and cheap bar image of less than a decade ago. Not only is Thailand sex industry in decline, it is now facing a campaign of suppression from Thai authorities, working with international NGOs who, while tackling human trafficking and abuse of under aged minors, are also sending a message. Time is up for Thailand’s sex industry and sex tourism.
Thailand has a had record tourism year but it faces a possible challenge next year, with an increasing negative and unstable world economy. The end of the year saw many bar girls in Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket entertaining themselves to Christmas parties alone, while some high end luxury hotels saw a dearth of big spending western ‘farang’ or foreigners. The reason is clear, Thailand is changing and so is the country’s tourism business. For one, there is a serious and ongoing crackdown underway against the sex industry in Thailand and sex tourism is no longer wanted by the country’s leaders and tourism chiefs. In the meantime, new tourists are using disruptive technologies such as AirBnB and heading for locations off the beaten track.
Thailand’s dynamic and successful tourist authority has this week released figures that show tourist arrivals to the Kingdom, to November 2018, up by as much as 7% with higher arrivals also from some western countries, with a 6.8% increase in the numbers of visitors from the United States. However for some, who depend on Thailand’s booming tourist trade, the end of year tourist numbers, as well as Christmas and New Years trade, has left a lot of to be desired. It is Thailand’s original tourist attractions, the sex industry and the large and established hotels and resorts throughout the country. Both are reporting a very mediocre year with many hard working bar girls in some of Thailand’s red light areas, left entertaining themselves, alone, with improvised Christmas parties, as Thailand gets set to ring in the new year.
Thailand’s tourist industry now decoupled from the sex industry and prostitution – that message has been heard loud and clear
The reasons are manifold. One of them is an ongoing campaign, since 2014, driven by the military government, to suppress the sex trade. In 2016, Thailand’s Tourism Minister, Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, was quoted by Reuters ‘We want Thailand to be about quality tourism. We want the sex industry gone,’ she said. She is the first Thai woman to hold the role and her comments, along the policies of the Thai military government, have been shown, demonstrably, not to be just PR talk. They are for real.
Raids and pressure on Thai sex bars and brothels
Since 2014, there have been ongoing raids on sex bars and brothels in Thailand. Admittedly, they have been focusing primarily on the underage prostitution with the government setting up a new task force and support structure to intervene to assist young people drawn into the trade. The Thai government is working extensively now with foreign NGOs, who are increasingly active in Thailand and focused on this area. ‘Tourists don’t come to Thailand for such a thing. They come here for our beautiful culture,’ the Thai minister said in the same interview with Reuters in 2016 . Again, she has been proved right, as Thailand’s tourist agencies have succeeded in decoupling the country’s tourism industry from the sex industry and gradually that message is getting out. In fact, the message has been heard and now understood, loud and clear.
In the meantime, for Thailand’s bar girls and prostitutes, the future is looking grim. While owners of brothels and bars, that cater for tourists seeking intimate, female company, reel under a range of indirect pressures, from early closing hours to regular police inspections, requests for proper paperwork, the bar girls are reportedly to be earning less and facing the unheard of prospect of job insecurity. Every police raid and closure, even for a short time, can put scores of young women out of work and the campaign seems to be stepping up. In the meantime, Thailand’s police authorities and officials are showing a determination to root out corruption. The days of having a word with a senior police officer and handing over a token, gesture of gratitude are gone forever. There are officially reported to be over 130,000 Thai women still working in Thailand’s prostitution industry although most observers suggest that this figure is more like 300,000.
