As same-sex marriage approaches, Thailand companies chase ‘pink baht’ | LGBTQ

Bangkok, Thailand – For three decades, Dujruedee Thaithumnus presided over symbolic weddings between same-sex couples on the white sand beaches of Thailand’s Samui island.

As Thailand prepares to legalize LGBTQ weddings, Dujruedee is looking forward to officiating legally recognized ceremonies for the first time – and cashing in on the “pink baht”.

“Samui has all the necessary ecosystem to organize weddings, the island is a one-stop shop. I have no doubt that once the bill is approved, we will be on the world map as an LGBTQ wedding destination,” Dujruedee, who charges between $1,000 and $50,000 for her beach packages, told Al Jazeera.

“There are no words to describe how emotional I am,” Dujruedee said.

After years of failed attempts, Thailand’s marriage equality bill last month cleared its final parliamentary hurdle.

To become law, the bill still needs to receive royal assent – ​​a step that is widely seen as a formality.

Once the law is in place, Thailand will be one of only three places in Asia where same-sex couples will be able to marry, along with Taiwan and Nepal.

Campaigners hope the first same-sex marriages will take place as early as October.

As the law finally catches up with Thai society’s widely accepted attitudes toward sex and gender, countless businesses, from wedding planners to hotels, shopping malls, medical institutions and mortgage brokers, are poised to benefit.

In addition to opening up new income streams for event planning companies, the law will grant LGBTQ couples legal recognition of joint ownership of property, mortgages and insurance plans for the first time, bringing a new stream of consumers into the financial services realm. long denied to them.

Ploy Rahong, a real estate agent on Samui Island who plans to marry her girlfriend in October, said the legal change has made her think about how to target home sales, island getaways, assisted living and retirement communities in the LGBTQ community. .

“We want to create something special on the island, specifically for these couples,” she told Al Jazeera.

Although government estimates vary, Thailand’s LGBT Pride month, which has its most visible presence in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang Mai, is estimated to generate up to $120 million in tourism and additional spending.

In a flurry of rainbow flags and floats, Bangkok on Sunday brought down the curtain on festivities for Pride month, considered by Thai authorities to be the biggest of its kind in Asia, with parades, drag catwalk competitions, art exhibitions , pop-up markets and concerts.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin strongly supported the law, seeking a rare political victory and an economic boost for Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which has struggled to match the post-pandemic recoveries of its regional peers.

Thailand’s central bank expects the economy to grow a tepid 2.6 percent this year, up from 1.9 percent in 2023 but still behind neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia.

“The government is ready to support the Pride Festival… to boost the country’s economy, especially when it comes to stimulating tourism,” Srettha said at the start of the closing “Love Pride Parade” on Sunday.

At the end of July, Thailand will formally submit its bid to host World Pride in 2030.

Thongnakarin Sukvatanachaiwongs, co-founder of Prism, an EDM festival aimed at LGBTQ patrons, said he estimates festivals held in Thailand aimed at the community are currently worth about $10 million a year.

“It’s likely to be a lot more when we also attract the global community,” he told Al Jazeera.

“If done well, the pink economy has a lot to offer. Look at Taiwan Pride, it gets bigger every year and it’s boosting the economy… we’re moving in that direction.”

Still, the growing commercialization of Thailand’s relatively liberal LGBTQ scene is not without its skeptics.

“It is natural for all shopping centers in Thailand to adopt this Pride trend,” a brand manager at one of the kingdom’s largest retail groups told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“At the same time, for malls to survive, they can no longer just do sales and promotions, they also need to be discerning about global issues, they need to be empathetic and loved by their customers.”

Still, many entrepreneurs are confident that the future is rosy.

At the Pink Power Up Business Forum in Bangkok last month, speakers highlighted Thailand’s selling points as a global market for everything from LGBTQ-focused film production to medical and beauty services.

“Thailand is already one of the top destinations for the LGBTQ community,” Manatase Annawat, president of Thailand Privilege, a company under the Tourism Authority of Thailand that aims to attract expatriates to settle in the country, told Al Jazeera.

“Imagine that after we pass the law, Thailand could become the center of the world for the community.”

Nikki Phinyapincha, a trans businesswoman who founded Thailand’s first and only diversity, equity and inclusion agency, said there is a growing understanding that growing tolerance in society extends to consumers as well.

“I believe Thailand can become the first pink tiger nation… a global destination of equality.”