“Travel broadens the mind.” This truism applies not only to the tourist, but also the host country.

Visitors naturally feel most comfortable where their hosts are welcoming and tolerant. Few nations have been as historically open to others as the Thais. That's why in a polarising world, easy-going Thailand proves so popular with both Arabs and Israelis, traditionalists and hedonists, straights and gays. Thailand got its huge gay visitor-base without even trying, through word-of-mouth, private enterprise and by just being itself.

For over a decade, wised-up Asian organizations like the Utopia website have pioneered promotion of Thailand to gays, who number five to six per cent of any population, yet ten per cent of all tourists. Now there’s more need for Thailand to cultivate the custom of this trend-setting sector, which prizes high value holidays from spas to eco adventure.

Corporations and world cities no longer find it prudent to be prudish; they risk losing market share to those that liberalise. Tourist boards hype Sydney’s Mardi Gras, ‘Gayfriendly Germany’ or Manchester’s ‘Home of Queer As Folk’. One official UK booklet asks, “Isn’t it time you came out… to Britain?”

LOYAL LONG-STAY VISITORS
Market research reveals that gays express preference and loyalty to brands that publicly associate with them, whether airlines, cars or countries. “What might seem a very brave step to make isn’t that brave, really,” says London ad agency Quiet Storm as quoted by Time magazine. It notes that compared to straights, gays are on average “more affluent, more interested in style and brands, and travel more.” And with same-sex marriage growing, a new honeymoon niche will benefit resorts that let two men or two women book a bridal suite.

In the past, social taboos had inhibited tourism policy from marketing gay attractions. Now an official rethinking of this issue sees it as a global trend that creates tangible benefits for countries that embrace it.

The country’s reputation results in many gays becoming repeat and long-stay visitors. Gay-friendliness also over-rides factors that deter others, like SARS, bird flu or unrest. “Gays are more willing to part with their last baht here than a family is,” argues a Bangkok hotelier. “Even if they can’t really afford it, they will still come on a budget, just so they can come.”

GAY DOLLAR OUTSTRIPS MOST NATIONAL ECONOMIES
With their generally higher income, education and tastes for luxuries repeatedly proven in research, gays represent a grade-A consumer category. Same-sex couples earn proportionately even more, and without children cramping their disposable income.

At a staggering $610 billion, earnings by US gays and lesbians are more than three times greater than Thailand’s entire GDP. As Time noted, the UK fits a widespread pattern in that on average, gays earn 40% more and lesbians 25% more than straights. Of their total $130 billion earnings, gay Britons alone spend $5.6 billion a year on travel. That’s a lot of room service, facials and champagne brunches.

PINK BUSINESS
“Who actually pays for the deluxe suites at top hotels? It’s the gays!” exclaims the general manager of a Bangkok hotel seventy per cent frequented by followers of the rainbow-flag. Apply ‘gaydar’ to Bangkok’s five-star lobbies and you can see his point. Beyond room, restaurant and spa bookings, gays always mean business. Needless to say, Thailand’s fashion and design industries would wilt without gay sway over both production and purchasing.

Insiders admit that some buyers would skip Thai furnishing fairs were it not for the country’s R&R appeal to décor queens. And just count the clutches of pretty boys from elsewhere in Asia spending liberated weekends in Bangkok’s bars and boutiques. Many a gay Westerner exports Thai goods just so they can spend chunks of the year here, sourcing products and feeling sabai (relaxed).

PRIVATE FREEDOM, PUBLIC DISCRETION
“There's not much of a gay movement in Thailand because there's basically nothing to move against,” cooed the PlanetOut Gay Travel Awards in which Bangkok was the 2006 runner-up as Best International Destination. But foreigners wowed by the politeness, exoticism and diverse gay infrastructure often mistake tolerance for full acceptance. Like any personal matter in Thai society, private freedom comes at the cost of public discretion. Families often won’t discuss sexuality even if they suspect an offspring’s orientation, yet would never disown them. Thanks to that discretion, gays can rise high in society.

BANGKOK ’S SOPHISTICATED SCENE
Just as Thailand has officially been shy about its gay appeal, queer venues tend to fringe fashionable locales so closets can enter unnoticed. Online portals like Utopia, Dreaded Ned’s and Fridae carry listings, as do free bilingual maps and magazines like Variety, Max, Sticky Rice, Thai Puen and PluGuide.

In downtown Silom Road, Sois 2, 2/1 and 4 brim with international style bars, restaurants, cafés, galleries, spas, clubs and shops, both male and mixed. Upmarket venues like Bed Supperclub have chic Pink Sunday parties and hosts Gyent, an elite gay club that runs trips, parties and other activities. Royal City Avenue now has a women-only club, Zeta. Asian visitors also find camaraderie in trendy Thai-Thai gay bar areas at Soi Sarasin, Kamphaengphet Road, Lad Prao and Ramkhamhaeng. As with their straight equivalents, host bars, escort services and massage parlours cater far more for locals, but are hidden in the suburbs, unlike the minority for tourists visible around Patpong and Sukhumvit.

CAMPING UPCOUNTRY
Sophisticated gay venues are also flourishing in the provinces. These include male-oriented hotels and tours, spas and bars. Pattaya is known for katoey (transvestite/’ladyboy’) cabarets, bars at Pattayaland Soi 3 and a stretch of Jomtien Beach favoured by gays. Phuket’s gay enclave centres on the Paradise Centre in Patong, while a new scene is developing at Chaweng on Koh Samui. Chiang Mai’s venues lag behind the city’s popularity among aesthetes appreciating the gentle Lanna culture.

Thailand is open to such values, albeit passively. Countries with the longest chapters in the Spartacus global guidebook cater to these needs proactively through help lines, sexual health provision, police training, anti-discrimination laws and hosting pride festivals.

Despite the genuine welcome to people of all kinds, taboos and unfamiliarity can spur false presumptions. Thais largely accept katoeys, but there’s less understanding of butch toms (women partnering ladylike dees) or straight-acting men-who-like-men. Some confuse saunas with prostitution despite them being the opposite: cheap yet opulent refuges where men can socialise specifically without buying a partner. Most problematic is inaccurate equating of tourism for gays with the bogeyword ‘sex tourism’.

LOVE, ACTUALLY
The catch-all term ‘sex tourism’ unleashes defensive emotions that can fuel a hysterical conflation of innocuous holiday romance with disturbing but marginal instances of exploitation. Most criticism seems reserved for the many elderly tourists finding Thai hospitality preferable to the ageism back home. As one Pattaya restaurateur remarks, “Thais are very nice to the older generation, whereas in Europe and America they think old people at nightclubs are almost immoral.” The nascent global trend in health-assisted housing for gay retirees will surely boom in Thailand.

Of course, travel has always led to cross-cultural relationships, proven by how few degrees of genetic separation relate all humanity. Provincial governors in Isan encourage the economic benefits of non-Thai spouses. Inward investment from Thai-foreign gay partnerships is just as profound. Travel agents report high visitation of Isan by gay tourists and long-term support of families there.

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Fortunately, reputable gay travel operators observe professional ethics, avoid sleaze, and earn endorsement from organizations like ILGTA (International Lesbian & Gay Travel Association). By the same token, destinations not meeting globalised gay standards can lose income overnight.

When Singapore liberalized its laws to tempt the lucrative new niche of nightlife tourism – which overlaps gay tourism — it lured custom from Bangkok during its social order crackdown. But when Singapore banned the massive gay Nation festival, post-tsunami Phuket welcomed Nation partygoers. According to Nation organizers Fridae.com, the last Singapore party generated US$5.8 million. Now Thailand gets that revenue. “We were 100 percent full,” Phuket’s Crowne Plaza hotel spokesman told Bloomberg News. “There are a lot of high-end gay tourists, and I think Asia-Pacific slowly but surely is discovering this.”

ONE GAY DAY
In growing its gay market share, Thailand doesn’t need to institute attractions, rather to facilitate conducive conditions, so that unwary organizations don’t inadvertently alienate the market. Nightlife rules and police briefings are two examples, festivals another. Gay magnets from Sydney and San Francisco to Berlin and Brighton base marketing around pride parades, which the wider public can enjoy. Pattaya and Patong officially support their gay parades with big success. However, Bangkok Pride is perennially hampered by lack of consensus, so organisers baulk at investing more in floats and festivities.

A delicate balance must be struck. Inappropriate promotion could ironically endanger qualities that gays prize in Thailand: privacy and sensitivity. Gays delight in the alternative character of their subculture, a cachet lost in even positive media glare. Constantly singled out at home — whether for oppression or commercialization – gays relish time spent in Thailand without intrusion or labelling, ensuring a more liberating and carefree holiday than the majority population would imagine.

If Thailand’s deserves its fame as a “gay paradise”, it’s because to many gays “paradise” is being treated normally.

RESEARCH SOURCES
Note: statistics cited are for 2005
Time magazine
EchelonMagazine.com
MarketResearch.com
PlanetOut.com
TourismIntelligenceInternational.com
Utopia-Asia.com
Bloomberg.net
Index Mundi  

Gay Thailand Listings
GLBT is a common acronym for Gay, Lesbian, Bilingual and Transgender.

GLBT Thai Festivals

October 28 - November 5, 2006
8th Bangkok Pride Festival
www.pridefestival.org

October 28, 2006
Tennis tournament at Silom Club

October 29, 2006
Bowling tournament

Pride Seminar
November 1, 2006, 12.00 – 16.00 hrs
Pride in the Park, fair day in Lumpini Park
November 4, 2006
Pride Parade, loops round Narathiwat Ratchanakharin, Silom,
Rama IV and Surawong roads
November 5, 2006, 16.00 hrs

November 29 - December 2, 2006
6th Pattaya Gay Festival
www.pattayagayfestival.com
Charity fundraising events culminate in a gay parade on World Aids Day (December 1, 2006).

March 29 - April 1, 2007
8th Phuket Gay Festival
www.phuketpride.org

October 26-29, 2006
5th Annual Straits Games 2006
Gay sports event including volleyball, basketball and bowling

October 14-16, 2006
Gay diving trip to Koh Phi Phi, run by Rainbow Scuba
Weekly trips on Saturdays and Sundays
www.beachpatong.com/gaypatong

October 20-22, 2006, Phuket
6th Nation Party
www.fridae.com
Thousands of gay Asians and other international partygoers will gather for the Nation VI dance party, behind held for the second year in a row on Phuket. Hilton Hotels won a PlanetOut Award for its gay friendliness and the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort will be the HQ and is one of eight official hotels, though others will likely get filled too. Events include four dance parties, a beach party, a pool party and a fundraising opening function in aid of Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand. Attendees can also join different sightseeing or activity trips each day.

Gay Friendly Travel Agencies

BANGKOK
A & F Tour
In and outbound air ticket, hotel, and tour service for Thailand and the region from this gay-friendly agency.
Kasemkij Building, Silom Road (between Patpong Sois 1 and 2)
Tel: +66 (0) 2266 5105-6
Fax: +66 (0) 2-267-0364
Web site: www.aandftour.com

Gay Booking Tour
One stop gay-friendly tour operator covering all major destinations.
24/7 Nakniwat Road, Lad Phrao Soi 71, Bangkok
Tel: +66 (0) 2932 5177
Fax: +66 (0) 2932 5683
Web site: www.gay.bookingtour.com

Gay Guide in Thailand
Gay managed provider of professional, individualised TAT-registered guides for gay travelers, focusing on culture, traditions and lesser-visited sights.
Tel: +66 (0) 5936 9409, 08 6773 2696
Web site: www.gayguideinthailand.com

Kinnara Tours
Gay-friendly travel outfit
Tel: +66 (0) 2671 3863
Fax: +66 (0) 2240 044
Web site: www.kinnaratours.com/gay

Lesbian Adventures Thailand
Licenced, lesbian-friendly tour firm specializing in women travellers
171/60 Rattanakosin Island Condo, Pin Klao Rd, Bangkok Noi
Tel: +66 (08) 6215 1629, (08) 9501 5306)
E-mail: lathailand@gmail.com
Web site: www.lathailand.com (under construction)

Naga Rainbow Tour
Gay-friendly package tours around Thailand and Indo-China region
Tel: +66 (0) 2381 6323
Fax: +66 (0) 2712 9020
E-mail: info@nagarainbow.com
Web site: www.nagarainbow.com

Oriental Escape
Full service travel agency for Thai destinations with personal guiding option, including some gay guides specifically for gay customers.
757/84 Soi Riverside, Ratchavithi Road, Bangkok
Tel: +66 (0) 2883 1219
Web site: www.orientalescape.com

SOUTH
Fah Samui
Gay-aware travel agent, tour operator and Internet café in Samui’s principal beach resort. Also hires vehicles, organises diving/snorkelling trips and ‘land safaris’, offers Thai massage and runs Fah Samui Bar.
Soi Al’s Hut (opposite Starbucks), Chaweng, Samui
Tel: +66 (0) 77-414-419
E-mail: fahsamui@hotmail.com

Lost Horizons
Environmentally-oriented operator of trips and accommodation in the South sensitive to gays. Runs Golden Buddha Beach eco-resort on Koh Phra Than in Ranong, and Our Jungle House lodge by Khao Sok National Park, Surat Thani.
Tel: +66 (08) 1850 3632(to be replaced by land line v soon)
Web sites: www.losthorizonsasia.com, www.goldenbuddhabeach.com

Samui Dream Holidays
Wholesaler for resorts and hotels in Thailand that can arrange all travel need for a gay-friendly holiday
Bangrak Village
Tel: +66 (0) 7748 4686
Fax:+66 (0) 7748 4683
E-mail: samuidreamholidays@hotmail.com

SBY Leisure Tour and Travel
Situated in the gay-oriented Paradise Complex, this gay-owned travel agent can meet all hotel, tour and airfare needs, and has a bar called SBY SBY (as in sabai sabai – relax, relax).
133/15 Paradise Complex, Patong Beach, Phuket
Tel: +66 (0) 7634 4831
Fax: +66 (0) 7634 4826
Web site: www.sbyphuket.com

PATTAYA
Image Golf & Image Limousine
Two linked gay-friendly businesses offering golf packages on the East Coast and luxury transfer services to/from Bangkok airport to Pattaya and Hua Hin with CD player and English-speaking drivers.
406/20 Jomtien Plaza Condotel, Nongprue, Banglamung, Chon Buri
Tel: +66 (0) 3875 6658
Fax: +66 (0) 38251 521
Web site: www.imagegolf.net, www.imagelimo.com

NORTH
Bird Tour Guide
A gay-managed guide service for almost a decade, dedicated to bird-watching in the North. English speaking, with local and expert knowledge. Licensed by TAT and the Chiang Mai Professional Guide Association.
Tel: +66 (08) 1883 1297
Fax: +66 53-904-771
E-mail: birdvacation@yahoo.com

Northern Thai Tours
Guided driving trips exploring Lanna provinces, tailored to customers and showing sensitivity to gay tourists
Tel: +66 (0) 5387 2121, (0) 9854 1621
Web site: www.northernthaitours.com

Web sites

Utopia
www.utopia-asia.com
Lauded by Time and other media, the original community and listings site for gay Asia has extensive coverage of Thailand.

Dreaded Ned
www.dreadedned.com
Up-to-date online listings guide.

Fridae
www.fridae.com
Online guide to gay Southeast Asia, based out of Singapore. Extensive listings, news and activities, like the Nation parties (see Festivals, above).

Lonely Planet: The Thorn Tree
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com
This online travellers’ journal from the guidebook publisher has a gay section for advice, news, reviews and stories of gay travel in the region.

Travel Associations

ILGTA (International Lesbian & Gay Travel Association)
www.iglta.org
Organisation based in the USA that offers accreditation to professional gay tourism companies, services and tourist offices.

Travel Guide Publications
Following the lead of Time Out and Rough Guides, most leading guidebook brands include listings and advice for gay travelers.

The Men of Thailand
This long-standing guidebook is the strongest on cultural context.

Utopia Thailand
www.utopia-asia.com
Downloadable gay guides to Asian countries, including Thailand.

Thai for Gay Tourists
The leading phrasebook publisher Paiboon released this audio/book guide with specific vocabulary.

GLBT Organisations

Anjaree Group & Asian Lesbian Network
PO Box 322, Ratchadamnoen, BKK 10200 (recorded event calendar 0 2668 2185).
Pioneering site for toms and dees, with newsletter, social events and campaining work that also advocates the interest of gay males.

Lesla
www.lesla.com
Lesbian website in Thai, which runs social events.

Long Yang Club
www.longyangclub.org/Thailand
Local chapter of the international network for Asian cross-cultural networking. Offers a ewsletter, trips and regular social events.

Rainbow Sky
www.fasiroong.org
Community website in Thai. Work includes HIV/AIDS awareness.

Bangkok Venues
Aside from the following main nightlife areas (all non-host venues), there are gay bars, saunas and discos dotted around Ratchadaphisek Road, Sathorn Road, Soi Ngam Duphlee, Lad Phrao, and the Soi Aree/Sutthisarn area. Royal City Avenue has a female only nightclub called Zeta. All bars and some entire sois insist you show government-issued picture ID.

Silom Soi 2
Silom Subway, Saladaeng BTS
A covered cul-de-sac filled only with gay venues attracting heaving crowds of foreigners and international-minded Thais, with a broad range of ages and interests. Outlets include a three-floor disco, several bars and a cabaret lounge. Bag cloakroom at front of soi. Near the mouth of Soi 2, Coffee Society café acts as a popular meeting spot.

Silom Soi 2/1
Silom Subway, Saladaeng BTS
Short semi-covered cul-de-sac with fewer gay venues now that Freeman Dance Arena has temporarily shut.

Silom Soi 4
Silom Subway, Saladaeng BTS
Bangkok’s original trendy bar soi was made famous in the 1970s by now-defunct Rome Club, and still fills at weekends. Half the soi’s venues are gay, such as Bangkok’s longest running gay bar Telephone, alongside Balcony, Café 4, the restaurant-bar Sphinx (with Pharaoh karaoke upstairs, and the gay-oriented gallery Art at Play. Body Star shop caters to gay clothing tastes, as do some outlets in Silom Centre mall opposite.

Soi Sarasin
Ratchadamri BTS
One of Bangkok’s oldest bar strips recently gained gay cachet among trendy young Thais, with crowds especially thronging 70s bar. The karaoke iChub is a friendly spot for ‘bears’, chubbies and their fans of all ages.

Kamphaengphet Road
Kamphaengphet subway
The bar strip running west of Chatuchak Weekend Market culminates in five bars packed with hip young Thais. It’s not really a Westerner’s scene, but some Asian visitors enjoy the fun, unpretentious atmosphere.

Ramkhamhaeng Road/Lad Prao
Sois around the massive Ramkhamhaeng University, including that end of Lad Prao Road, harbour many bars, discos and saunas catering to the local student clientele, which are little visited by outsiders.

Bangkok Gay One-Nighter Events

Bed Supperclub
Nana BTS
Generally friendly to gays anyway, this upmarket dance club holds dedicated Pink Night parties for gays every Sunday with DJs and a cabaret show. Bed also hosts some of the Gyent club parties.

Gyent
www.gyent.com
A newly founded elite multicultural club for A-gays, Gyent stands for Gay Entertainment. It runs periodic parties, trips, networking events and other activities for members.

Time Out Bar
Royal City Avenue
A dance bar on this nightlife street holds a gay night every Thursday. It demands foreigners bring passports which makes it a very Thai scene.

Chiang Mai Venues
Gay venues are dotted all around the city, except for a couple of bar beer zones on the soi behind the Night Bazaar.

Pattaya Venues
Gay bars, hotels, cafes and other services are mostly based around Pattayaland Soi 3, where the mainstream venues are scattered amid the town’s archetypal bar beers and adult bars. Another group of gay cafés, bars restaurants and services can be found near the section of Jomtien called Don Tan Beach favoured by gays. Among Pattaya’s internationally renowned ladyboy cabarets are Alcazar and Tiffany.

Phuket Venues
Phuket’s gay venues and hotels are concentrated in Patong, where ladyboys perform nightly at Simon Cabaret and a lively scene of bars, clubs and restaurants surrounds Paradise Complex.

Samui Venues
A gay scene is just developing on Samui, but Chaweng is home to a couple of pink-oriented restaurants and several bars, some with cabaret shows.

All rights reserved. Text Copyright Tourism Authority of Thailand News Room