Thailand -- Bangkok Begins To Fight Its Sleazy, Sex-Tour Image

BANGKOK - Even first-time visitors who barely know the time of day seem to know about Patpong, Bangkok's raunchy red light district.

The area is an "infamous collection of go-go bars, cocktail lounges, live shows, street vendors, pushy touts, and pre-teen hustlers forming a scene straight from Dante's Inferno," says Carl Parkes, an author of southeast Asia guidebooks.

Ever since Thailand became an R&R base for American soldiers briefly escaping the horrors of the Vietnam war, Patpong has developed as a major tourist attraction.

The authorities did little to discourage the growth of the sex business for foreigners, based as it is on a well-established sex industry for locals.

However, the government is now having second thoughts about turning a blind eye to its most infamous tourist attraction.

Its concern has been fueled by growing international criticism, exemplified in a report published recently by Britain's influential Consumer Association describing Bangkok as the "world capital of sleaze."

It ranked the Thai coastal resort of Pattaya as a close second in the sleaze rankings. The association's message to tourists was stay away.

Bangkok's police commissioner Lieutenant-General Viroj Pao-in recently tried to correct the "misconception" that the capital had a thriving sex industry.

"It isn't possible, because the law says there are no brothels here," said Viroj, "and there can't be any brothels because no

policemen accept bribes in Bangkok."

If the police chief is serious, his officers must suffer from a most extraordinary form of myopia, one that prevents them from seeing the hundreds of brothels in Patpong alone, and the thousands of other brothels dotted around the rest of the city.

Other officials are more frank about the situation. "Prostitution is illegal," says Virakit Angkatavanich, the tourism organization's deputy governor for marketing, "but enforcement is not as effective as we want."

Virakit says that media emphasis on matters which Thais would prefer not to discuss is damaging the country's reputation. However, tourism has been steadily growing.

In 1987, when the government launched its Visit Thailand Year, it boosted the number of visitors by almost 24 percent to 3.5 million.

This year the authorities expect 6 million visitors. A significant number can justifiably be described as "sex tourists."

However, talk of the rampant spread of AIDS and other bad publicity is forcing the tourism industry to look for new markets.

"We want to change the image," says Virakit, "and encourage more female and family visitors. We feel that Thailand has enough attractions without the night life."