Bangkok,<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s tourism body has said in a statement that it \u201cstrongly opposes any form of sex tourism\u201d as it hopes to welcome a record number of holiday-makers this year.<\/p>\n
Known for its beaches, Buddhist temples and world-famous cuisine, Thailand is consistently voted one of the world\u2019s top destinations. It expects to welcome a record 37.55 million tourists this year.<\/p>\n
But it is also known for sex. Although prostitution is illegal in Thailand, it is tolerated and brothels frequented by Thais and foreigners can be found in most major cities.<\/p>\n
Thai police on Monday arrested a group of 10 Russians who were running a sex training class for their compatriots in the seaside town of Pattaya, and have charged them with working in Thailand without permission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) ensures that its marketing strategy and policy to move Thailand forward as the \u2018Quality Destination\u2019 has stepped in the right direction … and strongly opposes any form of sex tourism,\u201d the TAT said in a statement late on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Signs offering \u201csoapy massages\u201d – bubble baths given to brothel clients that usually end with sex – and go-go bars have helped to bolster Thailand\u2019s reputation as a sex destination.<\/p>\n
There are around 1,23,530 sex workers in Thailand, according to a 2014 UNAIDS report.<\/p>\n
Thailand and sex tourism have become so synonymous that last month British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson alluded to the issue during a Brexit speech.<\/p>\n
\u201c… more than a million people … go to Thailand every year where our superb consular services deal with some of the things that they get up to there,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Thailand\u2019s then-tourism minister said she was pushing to rid the country of its ubiquitous brothels and wanted Thailand to be about \u201cquality tourism\u201d. That pledge was followed by police raids on some of the biggest establishments providing sex services in the capital Bangkok.<\/p>\n
But experts say ridding the country of an industry that is so entrenched will be extremely difficult.<\/p>\n
The TAT statement this week follows tension between Thailand and Gambia after Gambia\u2019s tourism minister was reported to have told tourists last month to go to Thailand for sex rather than visit the West African country.<\/p>\n
That prompted Thailand\u2019s foreign ministry to file a formal letter of protest with consular offices representing Gambia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangkok, Thailand\u2019s tourism body has said in a statement that it \u201cstrongly opposes any form of sex tourism\u201d as it hopes to welcome a record number of holiday-makers this year. Known for its beaches, Buddhist temples and world-famous cuisine, Thailand is consistently voted one of the world\u2019s top destinations. It expects to welcome a record […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23435,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23430\/revisions\/23435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}