Arguably called the sex tourism capital of the world, Thailand is now deliberately using the family tourism label to shed the sex destination tag, a Thai diplomat said on Friday.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event organised in Panaji to promote Thailand as a tourism destination, Tomwit Jarnson, the Thai consul general in Mumbai, said family tourism would eventually edge Thailand away from the slur of 'sex tourism' in the years to come. "We are trying to project Thailand as a family tourism destination. We are slowly changing the perception of Thailand to the rest of the world," Jarnson said.

"We are slowly developing facilities in Thailand which will attract family tourism. We have a lot of Indian families who travel to Thailand," Jarnson said. He further said that the Thailand tourism authorities were trying to project Phuket - which, along with Bangkok and Pattaya, is regarded as the prime sex tourism area in Thailand - as a family tourism destination.

Although banned by law, prostitution is common place in the tourism districts of Thailand, which nearly 14 million tourists visit annually a large chunk of these are single males or male groups of tourists seeking sex or sex-oriented fun. A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report has pegged the number of female prostitutes in the country at 2 lakh.