Sex tourism
Sex tourism refers to travel primarily undertaken for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity, often involving interactions with local sex workers. This industry is estimated to generate billions of dollars annually and includes millions of sex workers around the globe. Destinations popular for sex tourism encompass both developing and developed countries, such as Brazil, Thailand, the Netherlands, and Japan. Factors influencing travel to these locations include the availability of legal prostitution, lower costs for services, and a sense of anonymity.
While the majority of sex tourists are men seeking encounters with women, there is a growing trend of female sex tourism, often involving women from developed nations looking for romantic or sexual relationships. Disturbingly, child prostitution is a significant aspect of sex tourism, particularly in regions like Mexico, India, and Cambodia, with millions of children reportedly involved. Efforts to combat child exploitation in sex tourism have led to legislative measures in various countries, aiming to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions abroad. Organizations such as UNICEF and ECPAT International advocate for stricter laws to protect vulnerable populations and address the complex socio-economic factors that contribute to the proliferation of this industry.
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Subject Terms
Sex tourism
Travel for the primary intention of engaging in sexual activity is known as sex tourism. Sex grosses billions of dollars each year, and there are estimated to be millions of sex workers worldwide. The sexual activity associated with such tourism may be with adults or children, opposite-sex or same-sex, and legal or illegal, but the sex workers are usually locals of the destination. Typically, these trips are organized utilizing formal commercial tourism networks and resources. Thus, hotel, airline, and restaurant industries also are indirect beneficiaries of sex tourism. The most popular destinations for sex tourism include Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Kenya, Mexico, Panama, and Colombia. However, the industry is not limited exclusively to developing nations; the Netherlands and Japan have become favorite destinations of sex tourists as well. Social mores about race and culture allow some sex tourists to engage in acts that would be stigmatized in their home countries.
Overview
There are a number of factors that contribute to a location becoming a destination for sex tourism. First, sex tourists look for locales where they have access to legal prostitution or where the communities are lax about enforcing laws governing sex work. The low costs of services performed by sex workers also draw tourists to specific locations. Many sex tourists appreciate the relative anonymity of soliciting prostitutes in other countries. Finally, some sex tourists seek to engage in child prostitution, which, if caught doing so in their home countries would lead to disastrous consequences. It is estimated that there are over two million children working as child prostitutes in sex tourism circles. It is especially widespread in Mexico, India, Brazil, Thailand, Colombia, and Cambodia. Whereas some sex tourists travel to certain countries because they have a proclivity to pursue sexual relationships with children, others do not harbor an expressed preference for children, and merely take advantage of the heavy availability of child prostitutes and the lax enforcement of local laws.
The occurrences of female sex tourism generally are significantly lower than male sex tourism, but these rates have been increasing. Generally, female sex tourists are students, businesswomen, and women of some financial means from developed countries. Because they often are interested in romantic activities as well as sexual relationships, they are sometimes called romance tourists. The preferred destinations of female sex tourists include Jamaica, Barbados, Morocco, Fiji, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Portugal, and Spain, in addition to some of the nations that cater to male sex tourists.
Child prostitution has become sufficiently prevalent that some nations have passed laws that allow perpetrators to be prosecuted for engaging in acts in other countries. In the United States, the PROTECT (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today) Act of 2003 makes it illegal for any US citizen to solicit child prostitutes, even in countries where it is legal. Other legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives to expand Megan’s Law’s community notification provisions for convicted sex offenders to an international scope. Advocacy groups like UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) and ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) have lobbied governments for stricter laws to limit sex tourism, especially where it concerns children. Sex tourism is an issue complicated by the fact that it generally involves participants from economically disadvantaged countries—often the financial gain from engaging in the sex industry is sufficient to remove any moral or ethical objections a participant, or family members of a participant, might have.
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