Lord Toad Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 I started this so I had better finish it. The key demographic is the number of male v female tourists and unlike almost any other country of similar business the males vastly outnumber the females. On that basis alone taking ONLY European and USA tourists there are over ½ million more males than females in 2007. The TAT figures give the average spend per day at about 4000 Baht and the average stay of about 13 days. That alone would means $775 million is spent. The total we need, to get to 2% of GDP, is $1297 Million. As to black market of course most earnings are excluded but they will trickle back into the economy elsewhere. What you give the girl is spent on food, mobile phones, motorbikes etc. That is assuming those ½ million are sex tourists: that does not mean they are in Soi Cowboy every night. How many businessmen make a point of coming to Bangkok and then staying an extra day or two to sample the nightlife? I have certainly met plenty over the years. Then who else should we include: what about Stickman and his site. That site started as, and has been popular for explaining the wiles of Thai ladies and the nightlife: income from that down to nightlife? Of course it is: and many other publications etc. As I have said hotels benefit: talk to any manager of a big hotel and they will admit they have to let in the girls (whatever they say) or lose business. And I am only talking about the Western business: I am ignoring the local and the Asian business and we all know how big that is. The more I look at it I think 2% is a conservative figure. I am in a rush or I would provide more info If you want to play with numbers try looking at: Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiHome Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 I started this so I had better finish it..... The total we need, to get to 2% of GDP, is $1297 Million. ... I think your 2% of GDP number is off by a almost a factor of 4. I posted a link to the 2008 GDP numbers. Perhaps you should take a look. You would have to go back to 1990 GDP to get a number of 1.2 billion being 2% of GDP. You did say it was many moons ago you did the calculation. Maybe you have missed some of Thailand's growth in the last 18 years. TH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 The key demographic is the number of male v female tourists and unlike almost any other country of similar business the males vastly outnumber the females. On that basis alone taking ONLY European and USA tourists there are over ½ million more males than females in 2007.The TAT figures give the average spend per day at about 4000 Baht and the average stay of about 13 days. That alone would means $775 million is spent. The total we need, to get to 2% of GDP, is $1297 Million. To assume that all males arriving without females in Thailand are Sex Tourist, is a inappropriate simplification! you will find hardly any country, in which female arrivals are higher than male arrivals. there is a high percentage of males among business people, visitors of exhibitions and conventions, golf tourists etc.etc. you also multiply with the full average daily spending of 4000 THB; even sex tourists spend on accommodation, food, shopping etc. which is not going into nightlife Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimDidMeGood Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 To assume that all males arriving without females in Thailand are Sex Tourist, is a inappropriate simplification! I suspect that many were not sex tourists on arrival but became some during the stay :content: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 Reading some of the posts on NP over the years, it occurs to me that some of us lead fantasy lives as : a. LOS bar owners b. bargirls / dancers Somehow, despite the endless tales of financial and emotional ruin accompany both professions, some of us keep writing these scripts where the girls and the bars are making a killing. I'm sure that there *are* bars and girls that do very well, but does anyone here seriously believe that its more than the top 10% or so ? Even the girls who do make it back to the province with a few baht dont like the high life - its the equivalent of a retired hooker in the West living in a two-storey bungalow in the bush : does anyone really care how much gold jewellery she wears ? Its almost 12 months to the day since I got on that plane for my two month stay in BKK, and I remember thinking that some of the board members here were too cynical. 12 months on and I have to wonder if we are cynical enough. This is pure fantasy - you see the girls on a good night and assume that they are raking it in : after family, boyfriends and fucked up lifestyles, a lot of them will go home with bus fare and a few clothes. I'm not playing a violin here - they made their choices - but lets not make calculations based on the income of a stunner in high season. If there is an issue for me, its whether anyone in Thailand pays income tax, and whether that money will ever break the cycle in places like Isaan. Oh, and world peace, of course ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Toad Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 If only you knew - fortunes have been made in gogo land! U may not want to believe it but............. Also read the numbers...compare with other countries....Thailand is the only one with those demographics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 LT, I am not arguing that 'fortunes have been made' : what I object to is the implication that this is, in any way, the norm. The few bar owners that I know personally have been anything but upbeat for the last 12 or so months - granted, they dont have bars in Cowboy, but I have seen that place on nights where the 'wow' factor is more like 'OMG - where's the funeral ?', and I suspect that most of the expats/regular visitors have similar stories. Maybe P4P in Thailand has turned a corner recently, but the mood on this board has been 'how long can this low season last ?' for quite a few months. For us, its all academic - for the people involved, its not. Again, I'm not dragging out a violin - I know that some girls make more in a night than their sisters do toiling in the factory for a month - but I do get firsthand accounts of how dead it is in restaurants that cater to the Farang tourist/Thai middle class (in BKK and Hua Hin), and none of that news appears to be positive. I'm not in Thailand right now, so I'm always happy to hear that it has turned around and the streets are paved with gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkoktraveler Posted May 13, 2009 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 The real money is in the houses the farangs buy for the women. This is not included as part of the GNP nor is most of the income derived from the 'fun' industry. One woman maybe supporting 10 or more family members from her 'under the table' activities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimDidMeGood Posted May 13, 2009 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 The real money is in the houses the farangs buy for the women. Are there so many farangs doing that? I would have thought it was really marginal exceptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiHome Posted May 13, 2009 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 The real money is in the houses the farangs buy for the women. This is not included as part of the GNP nor is most of the income derived from the 'fun' industry. One woman maybe supporting 10 or more family members from her 'under the table' activities. But when they spend the money, doesn't that show up in the GDP? The money you keep going on about is only real to the people directly connected to it, and they make up an extremely small part of the population and in the overall Thai economy it is but a fraction of a percent. TH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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