Sex tourism

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Offers for tourists in Pattaya / Thailand

Sex tourism describes trips that are primarily undertaken in order to establish sexual contact with the locals of the countries visited. Since these are mostly prostitutes , the term prostitution tourism is often used. Sex tourism on the scale that can be observed today has only existed since the second half of the 20th century, due to the increasing prosperity of certain regions of the world (in particular Western Europe , North America , Japan and certain countries in the Arab world) and the possibility of relatively cheap and quick travel to distant countries to be able to travel.

Motives of the sex tourists

There are different groups of men and women who travel as “sex tourists”; the transitions between the individual groups are fluid and preferences can also change in the course of the trip and especially during repeated stays. A large number of suitors seek brief sexual relationships for a night or a few days; and cheaper than at home. Some also specifically seek sex without a condom .

The second large group is those who are looking for a relationship for the duration of their stay and want to have the feeling that they are not paying for individual sexual services, but rather support the prostitute or their relatives (so-called girlfriend sex ). This form of sex tourism is z. B. common with Thailand or Brazil travelers. Some of the sex tourists are primarily looking for the " exotic " in their sex partners.

Another reason for sex tourism is the legal situation in the countries of origin of clients who, in order to avoid punishment by the judiciary in their home country, seek out prostitutes in countries where prostitution is legal or at least tolerated (e.g. clients from the USA in neighboring Mexico or Brazil, suitors from Sweden in European countries, especially in the Baltic States). In these countries, children are often sought specifically for sexual contact (see also pedophilia ).

Homosexual men sometimes see sex tourism as an opportunity to live out their homosexuality freely without having to openly acknowledge it at home.

Sex tourists

In relation to the number of male sex tourists, the number of women who travel for this reason is currently still comparatively low, but is increasing continuously.

Since there are hardly any of the destinations male counterparts to "bar ladies" or street prostitutes , the line between prostituting men and those who see a sexual relationship with vacationers as a kind of sport, as sex with local women and girls, is sometimes difficult outside of stable relationships is often hardly possible for them. In addition, women are more inclined than men to keep their vacation relationships secret or to present them to the outside world as a "relationship" with real feelings. They are also more likely than men to look for “suitable” partners in terms of age and appearance. Payment is usually not as direct as it is for male sex tourists. Sometimes they buy the partner a vehicle or allow him to open a business with start-up capital. Sex tourists do not see payment as payment, but as help. Women do not see themselves as guilty or as exploiters.

In East Asia, as in Thailand, there is a trend that is geared towards female sex tourists and so there are more and more clubs in Bangkok where women can get sex for money.

In the centers of prostitution tourism, however, you can also find older women from affluent countries with (very) young men from holiday countries.

It has been observed since the 1970s that women first traveled to the Caribbean (especially Jamaica ) for the purpose of prostitution tourism , and later to Asia such as Thailand , Indonesia ( Bali ), then Kenya , Gambia , Tunisia , Egypt and Turkey .

The boundaries between “normal relationships” and sex tourism are fluid and therefore not always clear.

Gisela Wuttke writes in child prostitution, child pornography, tourism. An inventory (see literature ): “ With regard to gender, it can be said that prostitution tourism is a predominantly male domain. […] Overall, however, one can say that female prostitution tourism has received disproportionate attention in the media (compared to its real status). "

Countries of origin and travel destinations

A characteristic of prostitution tourism is that the customers come predominantly from relatively wealthy countries (so-called first world ); mainly from North America and Western Europe as well as Australia . In addition, the number of sex tourists from these countries has increased since the political and economic upheavals in the states of the former " Eastern Bloc ". The Southeast Asian locations are also visited by men from the People's Republic of China , Malaysia and Japan .

Most common travel destinations for male prostitution tourists are

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain , the border regions of the Czech Republic , Hungary , the Ukraine , the Baltic States and Poland have also become the destination of short prostitution tourism visits, especially by German and Austrian men.

Women from affluent countries most often visit Kenya and the Arab countries on the Mediterranean Sea ( Morocco , Tunisia , Egypt ); In recent years the seaside resorts on the Red Sea in Egypt and Jamaica have also increased .

The primary unifying characteristic of the travel destinations is the economic situation of the local people. Prostitution tourism lives off the lower price and wage levels in the countries visited. In general, workers in these countries are paid far less than in the countries of origin of the (sex) tourists. Sexual services are also usually offered at much lower prices. Since there are usually few financially attractive job opportunities for women in these countries, working as a prostitute often offers significantly better earning opportunities than other professions.

The biographies of prostitutes in non-European sex tourism destinations are often similar: there is little or no school education. It often affects people who have got into emergency situations, for example single women and / or who have to care for a sick family member. Another argument besides the need to earn money is that women do not want their own daughters to end up in prostitution. In fact, in many of these countries (see also emerging countries ), working in the factory alone, whose wages are sometimes the equivalent of one to three euros a day, cannot finance proper schooling or adequate medical treatment. In addition, poor or indebted families in rural regions often sell daughters to bars or clubs in cities and tourist centers.

South East Asia

A first wave of "sex tourists" in Southeast Asia were the US soldiers who, during the Vietnam War, spent their vacation time on the beaches of Thailand , especially Pattaya , and the Philippines , where prostitutes were supposed to serve their diversion.

From the 1980s, the countries in the region, especially Thailand and the Philippines, became increasingly popular long-haul travel destinations for tourists from North America and Europe as well as Australia because of the cheap flights and the political and economic stability. With the ordinary tourists soon came the sex tourists, attracted by the comparatively cheaply available “exotic” sexually exploitable, sometimes still child-like, poverty prostitutes .

Pattaya , in particular , as well as Bangkok (Patpong), Chiang Mai and the island of Phuket have developed into centers of sex tourism in Thailand . Especially in Thailand, however, the proportion of tourists in the total number of prostitutes' customers is relatively low. Around 4.6 million male Thais visit the estimated 1.5 million prostitutes each year. The largest group of foreign men are Malays with around one million; they especially visit the brothels in the south of Thailand like in Hat Yai or directly behind the border . Americans make up the largest group of long-distance sex tourists, followed by the British and Germans.

Although prohibited by law, prostitution is a profitable industry in Thailand: the “red light” industry has an annual turnover of around 27 billion dollars and, according to an estimate by the UN labor organization ILO, generates around 14% of GDP . About 28% of the income in northern Thailand comes from women who work as prostitutes in the cities and tourist centers. The Thai government has been trying for a number of years to improve the country's reputation in tourism and to take action against prostitution (which is prohibited by law). But given the fact that prostitution not only earns a relatively large amount of money, but also that the police and civil servants are involved in the business and benefit from it, official attempts to push it back are not crowned with success.

The number of women in prostitution in the Philippines is estimated at around 500,000. The proportion of children and adolescents is significantly higher than in other countries that are visited by sex tourists.

In Cambodia , too, sex tourism has increased disproportionately and continuously since the end of the civil war in the late 1990s. Abuse and prostitution of children is increasing here especially after Thailand has tightened the laws and controls against child prostitution and the (pedophile) clients are moving to the poorer neighboring country.

The prostitution business first became more widespread in the early 1990s when the country was administered by the UN . At that time, many UN soldiers were customers of the newly created bars and brothels . Today in Cambodia not only tourism, which is mainly attracted by the cultural monuments in Angkor , is flourishing , but also prostitution in Phnom Penh and the tourist centers of the south coast.

Caribbean

The Dominican Republic , Cuba , Jamaica and other islands in the Caribbean are not only popular travel destinations for “ordinary” package tourists . As in all the countries mentioned so far, the bleak economic situation is pushing girls, women and men into prostitution. An increasing number of children are being prostituted and abused by foreign guests. The prosecution of these crimes has increased.

The unemployment rate for women in the cities of the Dominican Republic is about twice that of men. In addition, many men, when they separate from their wives, no longer financially look after their children; In practice, maintenance payments are difficult to enforce for single mothers. Professions in the service sector (e.g. service or cleaning staff in hotel complexes) are usually so poorly paid that it is hardly possible to finance survival for the women and their families. Often it is also women from the much poorer neighboring state of Haiti who work as prostitutes.

In socialist Cuba there is also the fact that many goods can only be obtained on the black market for convertible currency; Prostitution is one of the easiest ways to get dollars here.

Africa

The most popular travel destinations for sex tourists in Africa are Kenya , Gambia , Madagascar and Malawi . As in the countries of Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, which were already developed for tourism, prostitution tourists soon followed the general tourism here. The conditions were and are the same: poverty, lack of career prospects and unemployment. For the sex tourists from the affluent countries of North America and Europe, the sexual services are cheap and easy to get, for the prostitutes sometimes the seemingly only way out. However, sex tourism is dangerous in some countries in southern Africa (e.g. South Africa , Namibia , Zimbabwe ): They have the highest HIV infection rates in the world.

Germany

Germany is a popular destination for sex tourists across Europe. This is mainly due to the permissive prostitution laws. Many tourists come to Germany, especially from France and the Scandinavian countries, as prostitution is forbidden in their homeland. Saarbrücken is particularly known for this, where there is one of the highest density of prostitutes in Germany. The reason is the proximity to the border with France. Many homosexual sex tourists also come to Germany because the gay bar is often forbidden or not tolerated.

Many prostitutes also come to Germany to earn more money here than in their home country (mostly Eastern Europe ) or because prostitution is prohibited in their home country. The fact that these are still cheaper than Western European prostitutes also attracts many suitors from Europe and the USA. Important destinations for sex tourists are Berlin , Hamburg and Saarbrücken . Because of the well-known red light district and the trade fair tourists, there are also sex tourists in Frankfurt and Hanover .

HIV

Unprotected sexual intercourse , which is a reason for travel for some sex tourists, contributed and still contributes to the worldwide spread of the HIV virus . This became clear in the example of Cambodia. The country was practically cut off from the outside world since the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge regime and the civil war that followed. HIV and AIDS were largely unknown. The disease was only brought into the country with the UN soldiers, who were also entertained by newly established brothels. At the beginning of the 2000s, Cambodia had one of the highest infection rates in the world. The spread of the disease is also facilitated by the tremendous demand for paid sexual services among local young men. Premarital intercourse is taboo in Cambodia and the men often cannot afford marriage because of the high dowry. Many young men have their first sexual contact with a prostitute.

Child prostitution

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
Note text

In addition to adult prostitution, child prostitution is a special form of sex tourism. According to UNICEF estimates , around 3 to 4.6 million young people (under the age of 18) and children worldwide are forced into prostitution. The ILO estimates the number of six to fourteen year olds affected worldwide to be at least 1 million. The number of underage workers or sexually exploited children is particularly high in the Philippines. Pedophiles see sex tourism as an opportunity to exercise their pathological tendencies supposedly free from the danger of criminal prosecution, far away from the domestic authorities. Most of the victims come from poor rural regions. The girls in the Thai clubs, for example, often come from the northern parts of the country (“ hill tribe ”), Myanmar or the Chinese province of Yunnan and are sold to brothels and agencies by their families.

New legal regulations in Europe facilitate and require criminal prosecution, even if the child abuse took place abroad. This enables aid organizations to investigate leads to foreign sex tourists for the purpose of tracking down and detaining the perpetrators. This is one of the reasons why the number of sex tourists who have been incarcerated for decades for child abuse has increased significantly since the end of the 1990s, although there is also a risk of false suspicions.

Sociology and Ethnography of Sex Tourism

The Israeli sociologist Erik Cohen was the first to study the social structure of sex tourism, particularly in Thailand. In contrast to prostitution in Western societies, tourist-oriented prostitution in Thailand follows different rules of the game, since it is not completely “professionalized”. The transitions between unpaid sexual interaction and sex work are fluid. Therefore, “open-ended prostitution” can be observed as a not uncommon phenomenon - a term Cohen uses to describe the fact that originally prostitution contacts turn into real love relationships. Often, however, the relationships between Thai women and Western tourists, which are sometimes extended beyond direct contact through letters, are characterized by financial interests on the part of women and romanticizing, exotic longings on the part of men. Furthermore, most of the contacts did not come about in brothels, but rather in pubs and go -go bars - another characteristic of the incomplete professionalization. The sociologist Heidi Hoefinger, who works in Thailand, coined the term “professional girlfriend” for this special group of Southeast Asian female prostitutes in her study Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia. (Routledge, 2013).

literature

Studies

Nonfiction books and magazine articles

  • Heidi Hoefinger: Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia: Professional Girlfriends and Transactional Relationship. Routledge 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-62934-8 .
  • Erik Cohen: Thai tourism: hill tribes, islands and open-ended prostitution. White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2001, ISBN 974-8496-67-8 .
  • Astrid Becker (editor). Strategies against prostitution tourism and international trafficking in women. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-86077-175-2 . (on-line)
  • Dieter Kleiber, Martin Wilke: AIDS, sex and tourism. (= Series of publications by the Federal Ministry of Health. Volume 33). Nomos, Baden-Baden 1995.
  • Lon: I was only 13: the real story of Lon. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89602-798-6 .
  • Ron OGrady: Broken Roses. Child prostitution and tourism in Asia . J. Horlemann Verlag, Unkel 1998, ISBN 3-927905-51-8 .
  • Andrea Rothe: Men, prostitution, tourism . Westphalian steam boat, 1997, ISBN 3-89691-408-1 .
  • Gisela Wuttke: child prostitution, child pornography, tourism. An inventory . Nachw. V. Christa Dammermann. LAMUV 1998, ISBN 3-88977-531-4 .
  • Sabine Minninger: Tears don't heal the wounds. Child prostitution in tourism . EED, 2004.
  • Conrad Stark: love schnapps death. True stories from the Thai island of Phuket . Conrad Stein Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-89392-511-2 .
  • Gisela Wuttke: From sex tourism to child pornography. In: From Politics and Contemporary History. Volume 50, No. 17–18, 2000. (online)
  • Jürg von Ins: Show me your spear. In: Weltwoche. No. 18, 2002. online ( Memento from May 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  • Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor: Female sex tourism: a contradiction in terms? In: Feminist Review. No. 83: Sexual Moralities. 2006, pp. 42-59. JSTOR 3874382
  • Jacqueline Sánchez Taylor: Dollars are a Girls' Best Friend? Female Tourists' Sexual Behavior in the Caribbean. In: Sociology. Volume 35, No. 3, pp. 749-764. (on-line)
  • Ekkehard Launer (Ed.): Sex tourism. Göttingen 1997.
  • Susanne Lipka: Happiness for sale in Southeast Asia. Marriage trade and sex tourism. Munster 1989.

Fiction

Movies

  • In the south (Original title: Vers le sud) French-Canadian film drama from 2005
  • This Is Love - Film drama about the liberation of an Asian girl from prostitution by Matthias Glasner from 2009
  • Human Trafficking US-Canadian two-part series about human trafficking in women from the Czech Republic and Ukraine and child prostitution in the Philippines.
  • Paradise: Love , Austrian film by Ulrich Seidl about a sex tourist in Kenya, 2012
  • Ladybar 1 (English title: No flowers in Thailand) , French drama comedy by Xavier Durringer about sex tourists in Thailand, 2006

Web links

Wiktionary: Sex tourism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ Ladies Night in Bangkok [2]
  3. ↑ Steven E. Barkan, George J. Bryjak: Thailand 2009 - Volume 3 by Mark Teufel
  4. ↑ Fundamentals of Criminal Justice: A Sociological View.
  5. ↑ Sandra Wengertsmann, Annette Graf: Social Responsibility in Tourism- The Psychological Causes and the ...
  6. ^ Prostitution: Why Germany is a paradise for sex tourism. In: ZDF Info Documentation. June 22, 2019, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Germany: the puff of Europe - do we need a prostitution ban? ARD , July 5, 2019, accessed on April 20, 2020 .
  8. ^ Prostitution in Saarbrücken. Taff , 2013, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  9. ↑ SEX TOURISM at the French BORDER - Germany's border areas | PART 2. In: YouTube . Taff , 2017, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Always in summer: poverty tourism and prostitution in Berlin. RT Deutsch , July 31, 2019, accessed on April 20, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Child sex case dropped, but a life still left in ruins. In: Bangkok Post. 11/10/2015.