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When John Thompson's second marriage plummeted into divorce, the 49-year-old Hawaiian graphic designer had doubts he would ever meet the right American woman.
On an impulse, while vacationing in Thailand, he signed up with Sweet Singles, a company that promised unlimited introductions to eligible Thai women.
A year later, he married a 23-year-old Thai factory worker who could barely speak English, which had forced him to bring along a dictionary on their dates.
But despite the communication problems, Thompson said he found the right woman. "It felt good from the very start," he said.
"She cared about me and about us rather than just being concerned with herself like my previous wives."
For Tai Laysuwan, her American husband is a real-life prince.
"He is so nice," she said. "He opens the cab door and helps me carry things. I feel like a princess."
Once a fringe industry, Thailand's matchmaking business has gotten a boost from the Internet and booming tourism. Every year, thousands of men from around the globe - from Australia to Pakistan to the United States - are marrying Thai women.
The men seek out women who enjoy a reputation for beauty, grace and good-naturedness. Many of the women look to foreign husbands as a gateway out of poverty.
Fees range from US$15 (euro12) per introduction to US$3,000 (euro2,360) for a year's membership with a dating agency.
Rising demand has spurred a surge in new dating agencies, and sister enterprises have also begun sprouting in countries like the U.S., Australia and Britain.
"There are many, many more people doing it now because they all think they can make lots of money," said Lawrence Lynch, owner of one agency, Thai Professionals Introductions, which has offices here and in Britain. He said he faced few competitors when he set up shop in 1997.
A 1998 U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services report, "The Mail-Order Bride Industry,"
describes the growth of these agencies as phenomenal. In March 1998 there were 153 listings but less than two months later the number had shot up to 202, the report said.
Demand from American men is strong. From 2002 through 2004, more than 88,000 fiance, or K1, visas were issued by the Department of Homeland Security, with half going to Asian women.
Western men also show interest in Russian, Vietnamese and Filipino women. Mail-order bride activities have been illegal in the Philippines since 1986, but women there regularly defy the law and post matrimonial ads on the Web.
Chinese men seem to be new entrants in the bride search. Anne Clibborn-Dyer, owner of Thai No. 1 Connections, said she arranged a marriage between a Chinese man and a Thai woman this year - a first
for her - and has since signed up a few more Chinese males as customers.
A 2005 research paper by Rattana Boonmathaya of Bangkok's Mahidol University focused on a village in northeastern Thailand where one-third of the 330 women aged 20 to 59 had chosen to marry a foreigner. Ninety-six percent of them had Swiss husbands.
Boonmathaya's research found most Thai women seek foreign men as a means of escaping poverty.
John Howard, an expert on gender studies at King's College in London, considers the phenomenon to be exploitative.
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