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.

How could I possibly have realised that walking down a certain road at night on my own while a tourist might result in being mugged unless I had lived in Thailand. And danger on the roads? Really? Being beaten up for being disrespectful or unruly?

LOL. I grew up in Dublin.

And as a woman, I would never dream of drinking from anything other than the bottle or can while out.

The point about Thailand is that there is a very open sex trade, dumb-ass. You can't fail to notice it if you spend any amount of time in the country. It's no different in that respect from people choosing to visit Amsterdam to buy weed in a coffee shop rather than from a man on a dark corner.

The Western-focused large-scale commercial sex industry makes efforts to keep itself 18+ (id checks, etc.), because there's far more money in attracting Western men on a large scale to have sex with adult women than being an international haven for child sex tourists.

That's what drove the likes of Gary Glitter to Cambodia, because it's a laxer jurisdiction.

There are half-a-million child sex workers in Brazil, and clearly anyone who actively seeks to have sex with a child can do so in Brazil, as no doubt in Thailand and many other countries. However unlike Thailand, Brazil does not have millions of excess male tourists, and people don't assume that tourists to Brazil are going there to abuse children.

The point is that the reason Thailand has such a large sex tourism industry is because it has brightly lit go-go bars with adult prostitutes available. No doubt if you asked your tuktuk driver he could find you underage prostitutes, but the same would be true in Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and so on, and probably in those countries you are less likely to find yourself in serious legal trouble.

For example, the sex industry on Batam, in Indonesia, just off the coast of Singapore, serves Singaporean men, and there are many trafficked children there, and with neither Singaporean clients nor the Indonesians typically seeing a problem with men wanting 'younger' prostitutes, there is no real restraint on underage sex there at all.

E.g., take this story berita-medan.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/anak-sd-dipaksa-kawin-sama-kakek-60.html it describes a girl of 12 being married off by her parents to a 60 year old man, in return for a house, motorbike, and cash.

Same story as Thailand: www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/330397/daughter-forced-to-marry-for-b2000 but Indonesia doesn't carry the association because it doesn't have the gaudy go-go bars.

Sorry, that was in reply to 'DebrisSlide Sun 16-Feb-14 01:32:27'

If you exclude exploitation of poor women and children from your list of what is 'wrong', as most locals seem to do, then punters are safe. Pay up and nobody cares. Of course you are going to find yourself in the hot seat if you try to steal the services that are for sale. But why would you do that? Part of the attraction of buying women and children is the act of payment.

Well I think there are ID checks on the women in the gogo bars. The girls working in massage parlours, for Thai men tend to be younger on average.

I wasn't excluding exploitation from being wrong, I was just explaining that foreigners in Thailand are expected to pay up and shut up, in essence. The long list given by MrsTerryPratchett isn't accurate.

Huh? What long list?

I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if someone else has already mentioned this but Thailand is a huge destination for diving and climbing - both somewhat make dominated leisure activities. I'm sure they don't account for the whole difference in the numbers of male and female visitors but they certainly account for some of the groups of men travelling without families.

Against the better judgement that usually keeps me away from threads like this, I agree with OP - who said most men, not all.

I've lived in another sex-tourism destination country, so I thought myself fairly unshockable. Thailand blew my mind. Nearly every foreign man was with a partner. Those who were not clearly with their usual partners were with Thai girls or boys, who were clearly being paid (I'd just come from the other sex-tourism country, I recognised it.) The men were mostly just regular nice guys, the sort who don't "need" to hire a girlfriend. Sex was so pervasively on offer, I ended up paying Thai women to sit with me in the evenings as I was fed up with being propositioned! I was in a tourist area, but not one of the notorious sex destinations. I have worked with prostituted children & young women. What I encountered in Thailand made me very sad.

It is, of course, a stunningly beautiful country with a rich, deep culture. The sex business hasn't spoiled my appreciation of all that Thailand is. But it has given me a new personal rule - to be wary of men who go there without partners.

I'm not currently in the market for a relationship but, if I were, I'd automatically rule out anyone who visited Thailand on his own or in male groups. I might miss out on the occasional genuine student of Buddhist artefacts or Precambrian erosion, but the odds are overwhelmingly in favour of any such man being sexually exploitative.

ID checks? Carried out by whom?

"Against the better judgement that usually keeps me away from threads like this, I agree with OP - who said most men, not all."

I still think that's wrong - she said most men alone on holiday in Thailand go there for sex.

I think even the word "most" is wrong.

128 men
100 women.

So 28% more single male travellers than single female travellers. Yes a difference.

No doubt some are there for sex. some.
I'm sure some are there for the other aspects of the sex industry - such as the clubs.

But how many? most or some. ?

I have no doubt Grennie would have issues with a man starting a thread saying most women .......did something. She would ask for data and links.

The whole sex industry in the Far East is appalling. Children being exploited, sold and used by their parents. It is a serious problem and some men - particularly of a certain age - are part of that.

This discussion has been sidetracked by the sloppy use of the thread title which was bound to detract from a serious discussion about the sex industry in the Far East.

It's part of the same thought processes that put men off childcare with people thinking "well, most men who go into childcare must be paedophiles". I bet most single men who go to Thailand do not go for sex.

Grennie and others If you had a brother or a male relative who went travelling alone to Thailand (which believe it or not many single men do), what would your instincts be? Why do you think he wanted to go there?

I would love to go to Thailand but what I have seen on TV puts me off.

I usually travel on my own, and I can't put my finger on why I think I wouldn't feel safe, but not sure I would.

Anyway what I'm saying is the reason some men go to Thailand is also the reason some women don't.

If my brother or male relative went travelling alone to Thailand, I would be apalled and suspect them of travelling there for prostitution. Since none of my male relatives have shown any great interest in Buddhist artefacts, and assuming they hadn't booked a diving holiday (everyone I know who has went on a diving holiday comes back with photos/videos of them diving), then that would be the only logical conclusion.

You do know men who go to Thailand to have sex, are someone's brother or son, and often someone's partner or husband?

I assume it too. I hated Bangkok

Men need to be traveling withfemales to chaperone them or they're up to no good are they? Your train of thought is disgusting.

Thailand is a hotspot of gay people and has been for a considerable time are you going to feather them with that same brush or would your target just be heterosexual men?

I went travelling on my own some years ago. It included a trip to Thailand.

Wonder why I went? Obviously for the sex tourism.

It is more unusual for females to travel there alone. I got a lot of comments about it - almost exclusively from girls - guys rarely questioned it, often because they were more likely on their own too so understood. The main reason is women tend to be more worried about their safety when travelling alone or to places outside Europe/or more generally the West. Some of them thought I was insane for doing it! The guys were more confident and happy to meet fellow travellers on holiday rather than worry about getting on with their mate from back home. Given that its simply easier to go on holiday on your own than persuade your friend to go with you, I do think its far too easy to assume its because of sex rather than look at the culture and think about reasons why women don't travel as much as men in general.

I think its probably particularly true of Thailand too. It is part of the travelling culture to go to Thailand to 'find yourself'. Often that means partying and yes the oppose sex - but a lot of the time thats more likely to be other Westerners seeking the same experience rather than locals selling themselves.

I suspect if you look at the number of men/women travelling to other countries you will get a disproportionate split. Particularly to non-Western destinations.

Red - no other country do you get such a disproportionate split. And countries with better sex equality than ours, do not have a disproportionate split of women and men going to Thailand.

I wouldn't automatically assume that any lone male going to Thailand was a sex tourist. However, the fact that the OP's partner wants to visit Thailand regularly without her is very suspicious, particularly as there is no suggestion that he is enjoys travelling, culture or any other specific activity in Thailand.

I should have said the "OP on the other thread"

But no other country has the same thing for being the place to 'find yourself' either.

"If my brother or male relative went travelling alone to Thailand, I would be apalled and suspect them of travelling there for prostitution"

That's incredibly cynical. Have you been to Thailand and met male travellers?

Hell - have you been to Thailand? Have you been travelling? Do you understand the backpacker culture?

See - I have. I've met loads of single male travellers. Some went to the sex parts of Bangkok. To the clubs. Some women did as well. No man talked about having sex.

Then you get to the countryside and you meet Dutch, English, American, Australians, Japanese lone travellers who are.....travelling. Finding themselves. Seeing the country. Taking drugs.

If you've never been there and met lone male travellers, you are being judgemental.

Oh and the other reason for the difference could simply be the perception of Thailand for women, which puts them off going rather than actively encourages men to go there.

Its not as simple as blaming men in terms of decisions of holiday destination. Women are making conscious decisions and have certain preferences and perceptions too which have an influence.

OP yes I have seen the sex industry in Thailand - and in other countries - with my own eyes. I know that some men do travel there to partake in it. My objection is to assume that it is MOST men. When I was travelling in Thailand (and Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam where there are also flourishing sex industries) I came across many many men who found the whole thing abhorrent.
Assumptions based on gender help no one.

I got very very low and depressed travelling around Thailand and witnessing the sex trade. As a single female traveller I was offered children for sex, stunning little children who should have been safefly tucked up in bed and not being offered to tourists. I cried and hated men a lot whilst there. Yes there are temples, beaches etc but for me this was ruined by mans horrific exploitation.

Horrible horrific place, the Thai government should hang their head in shame and sort it out, banning western travellers who travel for this purpose.

pigs my son and his mate went to Thailand for a gap year, they were disgusted and hated Bangkok.

left to oh south and loved Cambodia and Lao.

he has younger sisters as has his friend and told me a man offered them as 'little girl' for sex. ds said she looked about 10 and he nearly vomited on the spot.

both lads were very affected by the incident.
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