As Thailand struggles post-covid to recover its huge international tourist profile, a renewed effort is underway to attract much more of the US$200 billion annual expenditure by gay visitors worldwide. As the tourist director of Chiang Mai explained recently to the New York Times, “We live in a country that is open and pretty liberal – I can’t think of a market that we wouldn’t welcome.” That’s quite a claim.
TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) of late has been sponsoring gay pride events in several Thai cities, not only in Bangkok, and has now expanded its roadshow marketing to gay Muslims in several countries by promoting halal food and spas and publicizing the availability of prayer rooms in public facilities, as well as more quietly including the gay rainbow flag in marketing campaigns. Homosexuality is suppressed in several other south east Asian countries with Muslim majority populations.
Another TAT initiative is to attract wealthy medical tourists. Already, Bangkok’s Bumrungrad International Hospital, a leading provider, has opened a Pride clinic that offers medical and wellness services to the gay international market, including specialist hormone, cosmetic and gender-affirming treatment. As regards gender reassignment, the hospital requires evidence of age (usually at least 20 years, 12 months’ estrogen use, already living “new” lifestyle etc) with costs 420,000 baht up.
In Japan and elsewhere, TAT is promoting gay romance Thai dramas such as “2gether” and “I Promised You The Moon” which are freely available on the internet and proving to be very popular, even with non-gay audiences. They are mostly puppy-love stories which rarely cover adult relationship problems or the everyday issues facing gay men such as financial and employment difficulties. The boys-love dramas seek to capitalize on gay-related soft power with exports now approaching 3 billion baht per year through international business partnerships.
Critics say that TAT’S policy is purely to make money, choosing to ignore the fact that Thailand is well short of being a gay paradise, especially for lesbians who are mostly overlooked in marketing campaigns. Although tourist-orientated cities have a multiplicity of social media contact sites and male-orientated gay bars and clubs – including cabaret shows which employ a sizeable proportion of the transgender community – legal protection is low. In spite of mega-publicity, gay marriage and adoption are still illegal, whilst transgenders can change their names by law but not their genders. Discrimination against gays in employment is largely unprotected by a legal framework. “But,” says the TAT officer, “it’s a wonderful place for a holiday.” Especially for men.
