In assuming most men going on holiday alone to Thailand, are going to have sex with prostituted women or men?

[Grennie]

It is estimated that about 1% of Thailand's GDP is earned through sexual exploitation tourism.

In 2003 (the last year for which full figures are available) some 545,000 British residents arrived on visits. If you remove the children, and the British citizens visiting for business or reasons other than a holiday, you arrive at about 489,000—314,000 men and 175,000 women. That is 139,000 more British men than women coming to Thailand for a holiday—a gap of 28 per cent.

In no other international holiday destination, is there such a big difference in the number of women and men travelling there. There is no obvious reason for this apart from prostitution.

The top origin country for tourists to Thailand, outside of Southeast/East Asia is Russia. The majority of Russian tourists in Thailand are female.

www.lookeastmagazine.com/2013/06/russian-visitors-to-thailand-women-outnumber-men/

Does Russia have good sex equality?

Aga, there is a link on the thread that breaks down by country, the number of women and men going to thailand as holidaymakers. The WHO produces a list of countries according to sex equality. The UK does not come out well in the west.

Mathanxiety, some of what you say is true. Some things aren't really that important to locals.

I really want children and a friend suggested that I pay a student from another province to help me get pregnant!!

I see things every day that westerners would disapprove of. Parents give 3 year olds red bull, teachers hit pupils, cyclo drivers get commission for taking tourists to certain places....

Pregnancy outside of marriage is a big no~no though.

Minimum wage in Thailand is 9,000 baht per month (about $300)

A night with a foreigner gets 1,000 THB plus meals and maybe gifts.

I know we look at things from our own pov here in the west, and we often superimpose our values on people who don't need them. I think we are right, however, to suspect that lack of alternative opportunities means women's choices are stark in places like Thailand.

Also, being fair to western feminists and anyone else who finds sex tourism troubling, the men who engage in prostitution in Thailand are the same men we are faced with in our jobs and in our marriages when they come back. The attitudes to women and to equality that make them head off to the far east for sex are alive and kicking at home too. They are hiring and firing and choosing staff for promotion, teaching our daughters and sons, and writing prescriptions and influencing corporate decisions on entertaining clients, representing people in court and even sitting on the bench or responding to domestic violence calls in their police uniforms. I think that should bother us.

the picture is this article sums up what parts of thailand are about for far far to many men (its the dm though so of course has sympathy for the men who too are exploited )

a woman being bought

I feel so sad at this thread . My family have had this sort of ignorance for a number of years with raised eye brows . Gets a bit boring . My Thai Dil is lovely and very well educated . The poverty up north is awful
Thailand is a beautiful country with gentle kind people. Superb landscape and wildlife ....culture and history .
Not all men are sex tourists .

Holly, let me help you with your maths :)

128 men
100 women

= 28 men alone or in male groups, yes?

Most = more than half.
Half of 28 men alone or in male groups = 14

So the title statement means "At least 15 out of every 128 men visiting Thailand".

Personally, I'd think that was an understatement - based on my own experience in Thailand. You haven't said how often you yourself have visited.

But that's beside the point; the point is that I've now explained OP's meaning of "most" as you seemed to be having trouble with it.

All of your requests for data can be answered by Googling, by the way. Most of the answers are in Wikipedia. You should try it some time, it's much quicker than demanding other posters do it for you!

Yes, there are repercussions of the notorious industry for Thai women in both Thailand and the west. My cousin's Thai wife faced all sorts of hassle on the streets in her younger days when she travelled back to visit her family from her home in the US. She has a PhD in maths and works for GE. Her daughter and sons were not spared either.

In Dublin, part of the issue with British stag groups was the propositioning of women in Temple Bar and the growing alarm that the area was being turned into a red light district where Irish women (or female tourists) could not venture at night unless they were prepared to put up with a lot of unwelcome attention.

These appear to be the most recent statistics:

web.nso.go.th/en/pub/e_book/YEARBOOK_2013/files/assets/basic-html/page505.html

Japan 72.4% male
Italy 65.3%
Israel - 64.8%
USA 63.6%
UK - 63.6%
Germany - 62.4%
France - 62.9%
Other Europe - 61.2%
Canada - 60.4%
Australia - 58.5%
Sweden - 58.0%
Netherlands 62.2%
Switzerland 62.1%
Denmark 60.7%
Russia 47.8%

Garlic - So you think that if people are advancing an argument based on data that they shouldn't have to cite their sources?
How odd.

I think people who keep demanding further data should find their own first.

Aga's figures for % of tourists who are male, above, put the UK at 64%, which is higher than Grennie's 56% (128/228)

Anyone who kicks off an OP containing data should provide sources for that data.
Absolutely ridiculous to argue otherwise.

Basset, one of my favourite places in Thailand is Mukhdahan on the Lao border. :)

You don't see a lot as a tourist..... Just one tiny piece.

Garlic, mine excludes businessmen.

Harticus - I actually thought I had posted the link, I was wrong. Someone else did on the thread. It takes 2 minutes on google to find it.

In no other international holiday destination, is there such a big difference in the number of women and men travelling there. There is no obvious reason for this apart from prostitution.

Perhaps you're not thinking overly hard as I've known a number of men who have gone travelling round the world. Backpacking alone or with friends has been huge over the past 20+ years.

It may not sit well with the view that most men are after exotic young women but many men go to Buddhist retreats as, god forbid, they are of a moral disposition and Thailand is renowned for its Buddhism.

Thailand is also renowned for Muay Thai and I've also known men who have gone for training holidays. But I would agree that most martial artists are rough, violent men who would jump at the chance to fight and fuck in one handy location

Again..

Thailand is a favoured destination for gay British people and a good many of the men on that "Evidence" will be gay males.

But by some strange logic shown by some posters on this thread we can say with some certainty that it is only one demographic heading there to be debauched.

Heterosexual males.

Not some.

Not just a small percentage.

But most.

Holly has put up with some pretty childish abuse on this thread by some pretty chilish and dare I say it sexist people.

Thailand is the only country in Asia that markets itself to gay travellers. Many places in the world are dangerous for gay travellers.

gothaibefree.com

Certainly Thailand is internationally famous for its gay/transsexual culture.

i think quite a few of us did say
to exploit men, women and/or children (of either sex is implied there)
dont worry. i think some gay men, although i would hate to be specific about my vague thought, go there to exploit men. i just base that on what people i know tell me about what they get up to tbh.
and i think quite a few men, both gay and straight, go there because they can pay for younger people than they would find in their own countries and think they have more chance of getting away with it
this isnt restricted just to thailand of course
and yes, it is beautiful there and the people lovely. it is a tragedy imo.

will overlook the insult to muay thai

The attitudes and behaviour of some people on this thread have made me decide to take a break from MN. It's only a thread and some people have got really abusive when someone disagrees with them. They misquote and show an alarmingly poor knowledge of maths and statistics that I really can't be bothered to go into.

But you know what really hurt. A very very personal attack was made on me. Not one person said that was wrong. People may have reported it but no one said that was out of order. Even people who may have disagreed with me on here said nothing. They just stood by and carried on the attacks.

I know it's the Internet. Not real life. But that attack really really hurt and went to the core of who I am and what I hate about myself.

But people said nothing.

some one last night was telling people to fuck off- they said they'd probably get deleted, so they said it again

imagine.

of course, telling specific posters to fuck off probably isn't a personal attack, just an attack on a person

or something.

anyway, no doubt a totally legit response to people disagreeing with you

You kept saying that I did not think there was a problem with the sex industry in Thailand.

Repeatedly.

I have on this thread constantly said that it was a massive problem.

But you kept saying that I did not think there was a problem. Even though my posts on here said that it was a massive problem.

If someone kept saying things that that weren't true, I think you might get annoyed as well.

Chibi - simple question;

Do I think that the sex industry in Thailand is a massive problem and causes exploitation of women and children?

If you read the thread, you might be able to answer that question.

But no - you repeatedly accused me of thinking it was not a problem.