Sex tourism

Sex tourism is travel to a different locale for the sake of sexual activity, particularly with prostitutes. The World Tourism Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, defines sex tourism as "trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary purpose of effecting a commercial sexual relationship by the tourist with residents at the destination".

Generally, people who travel to engage in sexual activity, including with a prostitute, are subject to prostitution laws of the destination jurisdiction. When the sexual activity involves children, is non-consensual or involves sex trafficking, it is often illegal, both in the destination country and in the individual's home country.

Domestic sex tourism involves travel within the same country, while trans-national sex tourism involves travel across national borders. Sex tourism is a multibillion-dollar industry that globally supports a workforce estimated in the millions, that also benefits service industries such as the airline, taxi, restaurant and hotel industries.

A number of countries have become popular destinations for sex tourism, including Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands (particularly Amsterdam), Kenya, Colombia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Cuba, and Indonesia (particularly Bali). The countries popular for female sex tourism include Southern Europe (mainly in Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal); the Caribbean (led by Jamaica, Barbados and the Dominican Republic); Brazil, Egypt, Turkey, and Phuket in Thailand); and the Gambia, Senegal and Kenya in Africa. Other popular destinations include Bulgaria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, Fiji, Colombia and Costa Rica.

Motivations

According to The Ethics of Tourism: Critical and Applied Perspectives by Lovelock and Lovelock, romance (in general) and sexual encounters (more specifically) are a key factor in world travel. Tourist markets have exploited this motivation for travel through prostitution. This industry of sex work is extremely profitable, and the tourist market's role in sex tourism raises questions about its moral and legal standing. Key factors in the issue of sex tourism are child sex tourism and the trafficking of women and girls for use as prostitutes.

Sex tourism can be formally or informally arranged, and local sex workers in the tourist destination are often migrants. These migrants can be either voluntary migrants, or trafficked sex workers. Sex tourism is characterized by a disparity between the motivations of the tourist and the sex worker—the tourist has disposable capital which can be used to pay for sexual services as well as a number of other experiences associated with travel and tourism (leisure, recreation, sightseeing, etc.); conversely, the sex worker is usually living in poverty and providing sexual services because it is the best option available to them.

Demographics

The most common type of sex tourism is of men seeking women. Less common forms include female sex tourism (women seeking men), men seeking men, and adults seeking children. Sex tourists generally come from developed nations in Europe as well as the United States. Asian countries, especially Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Nepal are common destinations for sex tourists, as well as countries in Central and South America.

A study conducted by ProCon (a nonprofit, nonpartisan public charity which provides different opinions on controversial issues) estimated the percentage of men who had paid for sex at least once in their lives, and found the highest rates in Cambodia (between 59 and 80% of men had paid for sex at least once) and Thailand (an estimated 75%), followed by Italy (16.7–45%), Spain (27–39%), Japan (37%), the Netherlands (13.5–21.6%), and the United States (15.0–20.0%). Studies indicate that the percentage of men engaging in commercial sex in the United States has declined significantly in recent decades: in 1964, an estimated 69–80% of men had paid for sex at least once. This indicates growing stigma against prostitution in the United States. Nations with higher rates of prostitution clients, or "johns", display much more positive attitudes towards commercial sex.

Opposition

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. 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. Human rights organizations and governments argue that this pattern creates an incentive for trafficking of children and violation of children's human rights.

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. 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. They also note that women make up a relatively large portion of human trafficking offenders—about 30% of convicted human traffickers are women. Samarasinghe argues that women who become involved in human trafficking were once victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation themselves. The only way for these women to gain economic security and freedom is therefore to participate in the trafficking system as well. 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. 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. 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.