During recent visits to Dream Boys, it seems that the bar is now focusing on Chinese tourists who come to see the gross and boring shows.
The place has a few stunningly handsome guys, but why is the management ignoring the interests of gay males?
During recent visits to Dream Boys, it seems that the bar is now focusing on Chinese tourists who come to see the gross and boring shows.
The place has a few stunningly handsome guys, but why is the management ignoring the interests of gay males?
"why is the management ignoring the interests of gay males?"
It isn't. It's just focussing on Chinese gay males.
I was talking to the German owner when I was in Bangkok on my last trip He said he had long given up on catering for farang. He told me he would have gone under had it not been for the Chinese.
Well, according to Wiki, in 2015 27% of all international visitors to Thailand were Chinese.
They are expecting that to increase by almost one million more Chinese in 2016.
As far as Westerners go, Russia accounts for 6.5%, UK accounts for 3.7%, Australia accounts for 3.4%, and US accounts for 3.1%.
So from gay bar owners perspective you have no choice but to cater to the Chinese or go out of business.
The trend has been very obvious for the last 2 - 3 years and the only surprise is that the other bar owners have taken so long to follow suit. And since the Chinese so far take the boys off far less frequently than the farang do, booze prices have had to go up to compensate for the reduction in off fees. I still reckon that more than one of the Soi Twilight go-go bars will close its doors within the next 12 months. The business just isn't there any more.
Well I used to visit the shows...but last 3 years NO...Most of the Chinese Tourists in these places are NOT gay..just men and women laughing and making it not comfortable for me...just me I guess...I want to be in the place that is for gays, not husbands and wifes who are straight....I do get that the bars need to make money therefore this is now the norm..anyway, first visit for me to the shows fantastic...2nd and 3rd..nice...but now,,,even the shows are a bore....so I don't go...
The Soi Twilight bars are now mostly similar to the large rip off jewellery stores, souvenir shops and others. They are short stops on organised tours where the Chinese are given a slice of Thai life and their group leaders get commissions at every turn. Obviously some farang, Thais and Asian gays still visit, but they are a dying breed.
When the businesses in So I Twilight are open, the place is practically a living museum for gay life in Bangkok.
Certainly a tourist attraction for visitors to Thailand.
Our hotel in Chiang Mai is always 90% plus Chinese and the one we used in Bali in June was much the same- so it's not just Thailand.
Yes, some of the Chinese tourists at Dream Boys are gay men, but there are also quite a few gawking and screaming straight couples, as well as a few straight women groping and occasionally offing the guys.
Yes, I suppose Dream Boys must make money; shows do pull in the Chinese tourists. Maybe it is best for gay males to go before or after the shows and avoid the crowds of tourists.
Maybe a stupid question but how does it show they cater to Chinese gay males? Have Chinese gay males different tastes in boys? So Farang don't find anything to their liking anymore in a go go bar, so stay away? Or do Chinese gay males have a taste for extremely loud music in a bar causing Farang to skip the bar?
How does a bar cater to Chinese? I understand maybe they are offering their price list in the Chinese language? But that hardly will keep Farang away if there is an English language version also.
So what is it in catering to Chinese that cause Farang to stay away?