Sex tourism

According to Female Sex Trafficking in Asia: The Resilience of Patriarchy in a Changing World by Samarasinghe, cultural attitudes towards sex tourism in Asian countries are complex.[23] Families in poor rural areas commonly sell their children to human traffickers, who take the children to large cities in order to perform sex work.[23] The people in these communities are generally aware of what they are committing their children to, but consider the rewards of increased financial return to be greater than the consequence for their children.[23] Additionally, this is a common practice among rural families, and children are often enticed by the prospect of moving to a large city.[23]

Attitudes towards sex work in general is a complex issue.[23] Samarasinghe states that many women in Asian countries such as Thailand support husbands visiting prostitutes.[23] This is because prostitution is seen as an alternative to men taking on mistresses, whom they would be obligated to support financially, drawing funds away from the wife and children.[23] Thus, opposition to prostitution does not gather a great deal of support within receiving countries of sex tourism.[23]

The countries where tourists come from tend to have harsher attitudes towards prostitution.[24] Men who travel seeking to pay for sex may do so because it is much harder to engage in sex work in their home countries. Conversely, in receiving countries such as Cambodia, commercial sex work is generally accepted as a common behavior for men, and sex with minors is often accepted as well. Lawmakers as well as law enforcement often do not place priority on policing prostitution and sex trafficking.[24]

University of Leicester sociologists studied this subject as part of a research project for the Economic and Social Research Council and End Child Prostitution and Trafficking campaign. The study included interviews with over 250 Caribbean sex tourists.[25] Amongst their findings were:

• Preconceptions about race and gender influenced the tourists' opinions.
• Economically underdeveloped tourist-receiving countries are considered culturally different so that (in the Western tourist's understanding) prostitution and traditional male domination of women have less stigma than similar practices might have in their home countries.

However, despite a great deal of interest in sexual tourism amongst theorists, methodologically thorough and detailed studies remain rare,[26] despite the increasing accessibility of such groups for study in the past three decades.[27][28]

McPhee notes that one of the central challenges to addressing sex tourism is the differing laws and norms regarding normal sexual behavior in sending and receiving countries.[24] Because sex tourism is a transnational issue, it must be addressed beyond the domestic level.[24] Sex tourism also has economic implications for all nations involved.[24] Sex tourism is encouraged by the tourist sector of destination countries, because it draws individuals from wealthier nations with greater amounts of disposable income into poorer nations. This stimulates the economy of these poorer nations. These economic reinforcements are part of the reason sex tourism continues to exist.[24]

In an article published by the University of Chicago, Vrushali Patil argues that tourism in general has changed with economic policies in recent decades.[29] Patil states that the promotion of tourism caters to tourists in both Western and Eastern countries by emphasizing racial/ethnic and gender differences.[29] In order to appeal to tourists from Western countries, travel agencies may emphasize a stereotypical, exoticized portrait of the people in the destination country.[29] This, in turn, can reproduce colonial and traditional attitudes toward race and gender, reinforcing inequality between groups.[29] According to Patil, the state plays a vital part in this interaction, meaning that governments create barriers to formation of new policy.[29]

In an article for International Family Planning Perspectives, Mahler describes the economic conditions that lead to sexual exploitation of children.[30] Young girls and adolescent women are sold into slavery or transported across national borders to work in the commercial sex industry.[30] Mahler states that the rate of child prostitution is higher in countries where girls marry at very young ages.[30] Additionally, prostitution of children is highest in countries where young girls are expected to carry some of the family's financial burden, such as in Thailand.[30] 80% of prostitutes in Thailand send money home to their families.[30] Sex work yields higher wages than work in the formal sector, and remittances from a relative in the sex industry allows poor families (especially in rural areas) to achieve a much higher quality of life.[30]

Sex tourism is also encouraged by cultural attitudes.[30] In Thailand, for example, prostitution is very common, and is socially reinforced by the high value placed on sexual experience for men combined with the high value placed on sexual purity for women.[30] The social restrictions placed on women create high demand for commercial sex workers, and this ensures a consistent supply of prostitutes.[30] The high number of prostitutes and widespread cultural acceptance of prostitutes in Thailand is one of the factors that promotes sex tourism to this country.[30]

The sex tourism industry offers a flourishing submarket for gay, bisexual and bicurious tourists. Existing studies suggest that gay sex tourism has similar motivations as non-gay sex tourism, with the added element of being able to connect to one's gay sexual identity.[31] As these studies present, "leisure activities and holidays have a particular significance for gay men as they provide the most significant opportunity for constructing, confirming and/or changing their sexual identity."[32] Gays may find their home communities not to be as gay-friendly as other travel destinations may be, therefore allowing them opportunities to find other gay identifying individuals to explore their identity with.

Popular gay sex tourism markets in "Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Sardinia, Sicily and Fire Island have been journalistically described as holidays where gay sexual activity is widely possible".[33] Just like in heterosexual sex tourism markets, some arrangements may be monetary and some may not. Different places have different ways of identifying their interest in such arrangements. For example, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for example, gay sex tourism has become a popular niche hosting a racially diverse market. The workers there are called "Michês" and stand out by wearing bright blue towels and often work in saunas (bath houses).[34]

Adult-only sex-friendly resorts have become more popular as younger travelers want to experience consensual sex abroad while avoiding ethical issues of prostitution. Those resorts are characterized as the safe, consensual space of adult and sex-positive nature where all expressions of gender, orientation, and relationships are free of any pressure.[35] Largely in Mexico and the Caribbean, they can include clothing-optional resorts with spaces where travelers can meet others and make use of "playrooms".[35] Nudist resorts however are not intended to be places for overt sexual activity.

Some people travel to engage in sex with child prostitutes in a practice called child sex tourism. While it is criminal in most countries, this multibillion-dollar[36] industry is believed to involve as many as 2 million children around the world.[37]

"Child sex tourists may not have a specific preference for children as sexual partners but take advantage of a situation in which children are made available to them for sexual exploitation. It is often the case that these people have travelled from a wealthier country (or a richer town or region within a country) to a less-developed destination, where poorer economic conditions, favourable exchange rates for the traveller and relative anonymity are key factors conditioning their behaviour and sex tourism."[38]

In an effort to eradicate the practice, some countries have enacted laws to allow prosecution of their citizens for child abuse that occurs outside their home country, even if it is not against the law in the country where the child abuse took place, for example, the United States Protect Act.[39] The Code of Conduct for the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism is an international organization composed of members of the tourism industry and children's rights experts with the purpose to eradicate the practice of child sex tourism.

Brazil is considered to have the second-worst child sex trafficking record, after Thailand.[40]

UNICEF notes that sexual activity is often seen as a private matter, making communities reluctant to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation.[41] These attitudes make children far more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Most exploitation of children takes place as a result of their absorption into the adult sex trade where they are exploited by local people and sex tourists.[41] The Internet provides an efficient global networking tool for individuals to share information on destinations and procurement.[41]

In cases involving children, the U.S. has relatively strict domestic laws that hold accountable any American citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. who travels abroad for the purpose of engaging in illicit conduct with a minor.[41] As of 2009, sex tourism and human trafficking remain fast-growing industries.[41]

De Wallen, Amsterdam's red-light district, offers activities such as legal prostitution and a number of coffee shops that sell marijuana. It is one of the main tourist attractions.

Regulations and government involvement prove to have a positive impact on the sex industry. By decriminalizing prostitution, a government can protect sex workers under labor laws accessible by workers in other fields.[42]

In the Netherlands, prostitutes have access to unlimited free STD testing.[42] Criminalization of sex-related jobs increases workers' vulnerability to HIV by escalating stigma and discernment. Not only does the judgment sex workers feel within the healthcare community keep them from seeking timely treatment, it also adversely affects self-esteem and informed health choices.[42]

From the documentary Ukraine Is Not a Brothel. Feminist activist group Femen protest against the increase in sex tourism into Ukraine.

One of the primary sources of opposition to sex tourism is with regard to child sex tourism, internationally defined as travel to have sex with a person under 18 years of age. This occurs when tourists from wealthy countries taking advantage of legal prostitution, lower consent ages, and the lack of extradition laws in order to engage in sex with minors in foreign countries.[43] Developed nations with more conservative views of sexuality provide a steady stream of tourists who feed the sex tourism industry. Some feel that they may be attempting to subvert laws in their home country.[43] Human rights organizations and governments argue that this pattern creates an incentive for trafficking of children and violation of children's human rights.[20]

Oppositions to sex tourism also stem from concerns around the trafficking of women. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime targets the trafficking of women and children as a central concern in their approach to transnational crime.[20] The United Nations Global Report on Trafficking in Persons states that women "comprise the vast majority" of human trafficking victims for sexual exploitation across the world.[21] They also note that women make up a relatively large portion of human trafficking offenders—about 30% of convicted human traffickers are women.[21] Samarasinghe argues that women who become involved in human trafficking were once victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation themselves.[23] The only way for these women to gain economic security and freedom is therefore to participate in the trafficking system as well.[23] These factors all contribute to the debate on human rights and their relations with sex tourism. In The Prostitution of Sexuality, Barry argues that the growing sex tourism industry reflects a global increase in sexual exploitation, and a lack of concern for the rights and dignity of sex workers.[44] Barry states that sex tourism, as well as the growing international porn industry, indicate a normalization of prostitution and an increase in the exploitation of women.[44] Additionally, Barry argues that sex tourism and prostitution directly contribute to gender inequality, and that general feminist political action should be expanded to include active opposition to prostitution.[44]

The legality of prostitution and of enforcement of such laws varies considerably around the world.

• 
  Prostitution in North America
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  Prostitution in Central America and the Caribbean
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  Prostitution in South America
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  Prostitution in Europe
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  Prostitution in Asia
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  Prostitution in Africa
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  Prostitution in Oceania