Tourism is one, if not the main driving fuel of Thailand’s economy. Despite the tsunami incident, the sporadic political conflicts and the ever-increasing competition coming from neighbouring countries like India and China, tourism in Thailand is still growing, with over 11 million visitors reported in 2005 by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Sadly though, commercialized sex and prostitution are generally acknowledged and even perpetuated as integral factors contributing to the “miracle growth” in the country.

Sex tourism in Thailand can be traced back to the Vietnam war in the 1960’s when the American military would take their rest and recreation leave in places like Bangkok or any of the outlying beaches in the country. From then on, Thailand has gained a notorious reputation as a haven for sex tourists, spurred on by continuous demands from a large base of locals (mostly men) and an even larger group of farangs, or foreign tourists. Pornography, prostitution and human trafficking are just some of the activities which the sex industry in Thailand has come to be known around the world for. With the abjectly poor Northeastern provinces contributing their young women and their children to the sex industry at a steadily increasing rate, not to mention the advances in technology that has enabled commercial sex peddlers and operators to proliferate and expand their activities within and even beyond the country, there is no wonder that sex tourists are attracted to come to Thailand in droves. It has been said that beyond the usual tourist offerings, Thailand promises far cheaper sexual services and a wide range of choices easily accessible and available for those whose definition of adventure involves sex. Just a walk along the bar-lined street of Patpong in Bangkok, or along the beaches of Koh Samui or Pattaya dotted with girlie joints, massage parlors and pimps hawking pictures to all the passersby gives you a glimpse into the scope and breadth of this burgeoning industry.

An Endemic and Systemic Affair

If you belong to a family of 10 living off a sparse piece of agricultural land and barely surviving on a meager daily income of $2 – in some parts of rural Thailand one in six families earn even less than $1 – the promise of earning more money and thus finding a way out of poverty is, and will always be the biggest lure. Such is the case in Thailand where one third of the population lives below the poverty line, and its borders inhabited by hill tribe people suffering from varying levels of poverty with no citizenship rights to protect them from abuses and afford them opportunities for livelihood, healthcare and housing. Factor in the cultural aspect of familial duties imposed on females – Thai custom dictates that the first duty of a girl is to support her family materially, including paying off family debts – and the tableau is set for a lucrative commoditized sex operation, where a supply of willing workers can almost be guaranteed to never run out. Aside from Thailand residents, young women and children from neighbouring countries such as Burma, Laos and Cambodia are being trafficked by crime networks to work in brothels across Thailand, baited with offers of employment and education or sold by their families and relatives. Although there are several laws prescribed against child prostitution, punishing traffickers, sexual abusers and even parents who sell their children for sex, they are not enforced to the fullest extent with arrests and prosecutions of such offenders remaining at a low level. Crime organizations also find ways around border police and the immigration laws and are able to use drug-trafficking routes to bring in women and children. Despite stronger government policies and guidelines for commercial sex operations brought about by pressure from concerned groups and agencies, hill tribe people are still excluded from enjoying such protective measures and conditions.

Thailand Sex Tour: “Every Man’s Paradise”

Farang is the Thai term for foreigners, mostly Western or Japanese men who come to Thailand for the purpose of procuring sex – and they are usually the primary market for the sex tour package trips. Mostly coming from Europe, North America and countries nearby, they bring in much-needed foreign currency to pump the country’s economy, and to prostitutes and sex workers they represent a ticket out of their miserable conditions. From twenty-year old backpackers that come in groups, the lonely older men looking for romance, to the well-traveled urbanites bored with the usual tourist attractions, they are the main targets of sex operators who call their packages “exotic vacations” to the “Disneyland of the adult world.” The sex tours are sometimes marketed under the guise of providing female companions or escorts to the tourists so they can appreciate all the attractions that are bundled in the package. There are those, however, that just blatantly offer tour packages promising days and nights filled with various sexual activities with as many partners of every age to the tourists’ liking.

With the aid of the Internet and the developments in digital technology in recent years, opportunistic sex operators and pedophiles have found various ways to take advantage of the situation and ply their illegal trade without getting caught by the Thai authorities. There was even a report about a British national who operated a school in Thailand and sexually abused a number of children for years before the police was tipped on his activities. Foreign sex offenders find it easy to slip into the country undetected and even get involved in promoting such sex tours for other foreigners.

The Price of a Promise

With over 800 billion baht or $32 billion revenues generated from tourism alone, it is easy to see why the negative effects of a well-oiled tourism machinery can be downplayed. Combined with the socio-economic and cultural elements, there is an almost fatalistic, if not permissive view prevailing about sex tourism in Thailand. The concern over the ill consequences has gotten to alarming proportions however– a UN report in the late 1990’s places the count of prostitutes in Thailand at over 1 million; a World Health Organization report cited one out of every two prostitutes working in Northeast Thailand has AIDS; and the number of Thais being reported as HIV-positive is continuously growing.

There are of course efforts by the Thailand government to change the country’s notorious image worldwide as the “Asian adult playground”- framing national policies against child trafficking and prostitution; conducting information campaigns and encouraging vigilance amongst the locals to report incidences of sexual abuse to the authorities; providing more training and employment opportunities for young Thai women coming from poor rural families. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is also working closely with the tourist police in catching sex tour operators. With a stronger enforcement of the laws Thailand can perhaps redeem itself and show that there is indeed more to the country than offering sex for pleasure.