Forums

Thanks for reminding me of the "Man-To-Man guide" in the Netherlands. Published by Rob from Amsterdam. May he rest in peace. 

Please be careful to avoid the sakura blossom season. Japan is beautiful at that time but everything is a good deal more expensive - hotels in particular. And the main sakura viewing sites like Ueno Park and Shinjuku Park in Tokyo are often packed.

Trump threatens to impose 25% tariff on ALL countries that dont support his "STEALING" of Greenland.   The Trump regime is governing by THREATS..... Time to cut the head off the SNAKE !    before a Democratic USA becomes nothing more than a distant memory..... and Facist stronghold.  A lot CAN and WILL happen before the midterms, IF there will be midterms ?      I cant imagine Trump will let his power slip away with free & fair elections.    He has way too much to LOSE now, and he KNOWS it.    Watch out for the craziest, most illegal shit yet...

As usual @macaroni21 has hit the proverbial nail on the head. Advertising and marketing really is vital and with 46 years of visiting and living in Thailand, I can say with confidence that this has almost always been way more than lousy - it has usually been non-existent. Why expatriates (and i believe bar owners usually are exaptriates, at least in Pattaya) decide to open up bars to while away their retirement without in some way making sure they are going to have not just customers but a regular flow of customers totally beats me. Little wonder more than a few give up and some of these have no doubt lost quite a bit of cash. The one time when there was advertising - of a sort - was around the 1990s and early 2000s when several different magazines were published and distributed free to gay venues. Each had not only advertisements for specific gay venues, some - especially those in Thai - had interviews with owners, boys etc. One published by an expat in Chiang Mai tried to become a more generally based gay magazine and even had in one issue an exclusive interview with Sir Ian Macellan. Its publisher returned to the UK and it ceased publication. Each magazine had maps at the back with the main venues listed. That was a particular help to quite a number of first timers. But getting that information absolutely 100% correct was never a possibility unless the magazines had reporters on the ground following each movement of the shifting gay sands. I recall reading endless comments on gaythailand.com about a certain bar or other not being positioned correctly. That it might have been 50 meters away was of no consequence to them. If they had to do as they do now and find out for themselves, I doubt if they would have been so picky!! Japan has a large gay publication market. Advertising there would be ideal, but far too expensive for what is likely to be a limited clientele. Hong Kong also used to have a free gay publication but I am not sure if it still exists. Various chat rooms exist elsewhere, including one in Singapore with a travel section. One thing is sure, though. Advertising requires some cash. Fly out a journalist from one of the international gay magazines - or better still, persuade them to use a local stringer - to aggressively promote your bar, is about the only suggestion I have. Whatever, the old song had it right in my view -   

I can see how my comments could be misinterpreted. My point is not that social media does not work. It clearly can, when it is used well. But I do think that places like Gus Bar, Sunee, or M Bar are busy mainly because of what they offer. That is an inference from observation, not a claim of hard data. There are also good examples of social media being used responsibly in the girly bars, such as Buzzin Pattaya or Mr Egg Thailand. They create engagement without putting random customers on display. When customers appear, it is with consent. That is the point aligned with the OP. Social media can work in this scene without indiscriminately filming identifiable guests. Once that line is crossed, privacy becomes part of the marketing discussion. I agree with @macaroni21 on this. And in practice, YouTubers tend to be the worst offenders here. Unlike bar owners, they have little to lose if customers feel uncomfortable, while the bars carry the long-term consequences. But let me also point out my own hypocrisy. The months before I came to Thailand, I would absorb every YouTube video I could about the scene in Thailand.