Economic impact of Merb

[Geller1]

Just before leaving for my latest visit to Montreal I had a chance encounter that got me thinking about the economic impact of a web site like Merb. I was in a hardware store near my home and while standing in the checkout line I heard two men and a woman in front of me speaking French. Where I live this is not a common occurrence. One of the men said hello to me in English and after acknowledging his greeting I asked if they were from Quebec. He looked a little surprised but replied that they were indeed from Quebec City. I told him that I was leaving the next morning for a vacation in Montreal and we had a short conversation about Montreal and its attractions. His last words to me were to spend a lot of money. If he only knew how much I spend. Or maybe he does.

I alone have spent thousands of dollars in Montreal over the last twelve months that I would not have spent without the ladies of Montreal. I have told friends about Montreal and they come and spend more money. Would I come to Montreal without the ladies? Yes, but not as much.

Without a reliable source of information like Merb I might have had a bad experience with the ladies my first time in Montreal and never returned. If a city were trying to promote tourism it seems to me a website like Merb would be a very cost effective way to attract men who have money to spend.

I was wondering if anyone, maybe from a university or an economic research center, has any idea of the economic impact of the adult business in Montreal along with web sites like Merb. I'm sure good data would be difficult if not impossible to collect but it would still be an interesting study.

 

[EagerBeaver]

It occurred to me as well that tourist guides like Fodor's and Frommer's should give listings for both MERB. I don't know if it ever occurred to the owners of these Boards to approach these heavily relied upon American tourist guides or not. In recent years, I noticed that one or both of these travel guides now has a section on "gay friendly" travel - in other words they list nightclubs you can go to or hotels you can stay at if you are gay. If I was Fred Zed or Tom my argument to these travel guides would be hey, if you are going to inform the gay man where he can go for entertainment or information, then you should allow us to be listed as we are a resource for the straight heterosexual American man. Unfortunately I believe many of the very influential publishers, editors and authors of these travel guides are gay themselves, so it is easier to pitch to them the gay friendly stuff than it is to pitch the mainstream sexual tourism.

I don't know if it occurred to these guys to market themselves in this fashion but if it didn't they don't owe me anything for this free advice.

 

[Jman47]

Impact has to be huge.
Count the providers, count the agencies and do the math based on your own guestimation.

Now figure in addition to what the providers get there are hotel, meal and entertaining expenses everytime someone visits.

Measurement would have to be difficult...it is mostly a cash business...think about it. <insert wink smiley here>

 

[IamNY]

G1, I agree that without Merb there is a good chance that first time visitors could have a bad experience with an sp and never return to Montreal. I would also agree that promoting tourism on Merb would be a cost effective way to attract men to this fine city. But, I'm not sure that these concepts would work all that well with the majority of visitors that come to Montreal. I'd be curious to see if there was any data on what percentage of tourists to Montreal came for the sp's only. Count me on that list!

 

[joeblow]

I was wondering if anyone, maybe from a university or an economic research center, has any idea of the economic impact of the adult business in Montreal along with web sites like Merb. I'm sure good data would be difficult if not impossible to collect but it would still be an interesting study.

Interesting idea, Geller. I would add that if we were able to put a credible figure on the value of sex-tourism in Montreal, perhaps there would be more SP-friendly hotels and so on.

For want of a good StatCan survey, there is a way to estimate the value of the business. Let's consider only SPs, and put aside for now other branches of the sex-trade, such as clubs and MPs.

One would have to guestimate an average price per trick, and then estimate the volume of tricks in a year. Volume of tricks can be guestimated from the supply side: number of active SPs, average number of tricks in a year. Of course there will be wide variance across SPs: some do it part-time, others put in overtime.

So merbites, especially SPs and agency operators here, can probably arrive at a pretty good guestimate of the supply. Just to throw out some ballpark numbers to have you guys and gals react:

Do you think the number of active SPs in Montreal (514, not 450) is closer to :
- 100
- 500
- 1000

On average, do you think an SP does, in a year:
- Something like 50 tricks
- or 200
- or 500

And of the total number of tricks, is the percentage coming from out-of-town customers closer to:
- 25%
- 50%
- 75%

Now for the average price. Would the average price that out-of-town customers pay, which presumably go for the higher end of the offering, be closer to :
150 $ per trick
200 $
300 $
(I am subsuming multiple hour tricks into the average price)

Have fun!

 

[Jman47]

Plus...

Interesting idea, Geller. I would add that if we were able to put a credible figure on the value of sex-tourism in Montreal, perhaps there would be more SP-friendly hotels and so on.

For want of a good StatCan survey, there is a way to estimate the value of the business. Let's consider only SPs, and put aside for now other branches of the sex-trade, such as clubs and MPs.

One would have to guestimate an average price per trick, and then estimate the volume of tricks in a year. Volume of tricks can be guestimated from the supply side: number of active SPs, average number of tricks in a year. Of course there will be wide variance across SPs: some do it part-time, others put in overtime.

So merbites, especially SPs and agency operators here, can probably arrive at a pretty good guestimate of the supply. Just to throw out some ballpark numbers to have you guys and gals react:

Do you think the number of active SPs in Montreal (514, not 450) is closer to :
- 100
- 500
- 1000

On average, do you think an SP does, in a year:
- Something like 50 tricks
- or 200
- or 500

And of the total number of tricks, is the percentage coming from out-of-town customers closer to:
- 25%
- 50%
- 75%

Now for the average price. Would the average price that out-of-town customers pay, which presumably go for the higher end of the offering, be closer to :
150 $ per trick
200 $
300 $
(I am subsuming multiple hour tricks into the average price)

Have fun!

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS...

Excellent starting point joeblow but to get the true economic impact you have to factor in the other money spent by the out of towners too including...

• transportation costs (local)
• lodging costs (including my fav the taxes!)
• dining and drinking costs
• entertainment and other costs

Just to mention a few.

 

[joeblow]

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS...

Excellent starting point joeblow but to get the true economic impact you have to factor in the other money spent by the out of towners too including...

• transportation costs (local)
• lodging costs
• dining and drinking costs
• entertainment and other costs

Just to mention a few.

I agree, but only for those johns that travel to Montreal specifically for poon. I would expect that most out-of-town customers are here primarily for business, in which case their travel costs should not be counted. But hey, all this is speculation until we hear from the SPs.

 

[breadman]

I alone have spent thousands of dollars in Montreal over the last twelve months that I would not have spent without the ladies of Montreal. I have told friends about Montreal and they come and spend more money. Would I come to Montreal without the ladies? Yes, but not as much.

Montreal used to be my main vacation destination, when the exchange rate allowed me to see an escort for 85usd per hour...at 175usd per hour its getting a bit pricey. I can pull them out of stripclubs at home for 150 easily and I don't have to pay $100 for a nice hotel room in Montreal. The usd~cad exchange rate has been heading towards par, at the same time the usd~euro has been dropping pretty steadily from 1.50 to 1.35 (just dropped to under 1.35 since last year). I love to talk to the ladies, get the juices flowing before getting into the carnal knowledge...but I hate doing it on my dime. I can give a hot naked babe a full body massage, carress her as much and anywhere I please...make out with her on the couch, then off to the bedroom...and only pay her for the time that we actually fuck...50 euro's or around 67 usd's. If the euro drops a bit past a buck thirty, i'll be able to see 3 times as many in germany as I would be able to in Montreal.