razil’s northeast coast has a perfect climate for a booming tourism industry.

The
beaches are unspoiled, the people are friendly, and the area required only a
small amount of infrastructure development to create a haven for tourists. While
not a formal part of this design, sexual tourism has been an integral part of this
boom. Though organized prostitution (through brothels or pimping) is not legal in
Brazil, individual prostitution for one’s own sake is legal. This gray area of law is
not limited to Brazil, but is in fact prevalent in many countries around the world.
As Arreola (1996) points out in his article Border-City Idee Fixe, prostitution is not
considered legal in Mexico either but “tolerated” in zonas de
tolerancia (tolerance zones) along U.S. and Mexican border towns from Tijuana to
Brownsville, Texas. (363)

According to the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism (2004), sexual tourism leads to

child exploitation and human trafficking. Groups continue to fight against child
prostitution fiercely in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, but adult prostitution is still
legal. Non-governmental organizations, the Brazilian government, churches and
international groups are abundant throughout the city of Fortaleza and in 2006
and 2007 were willing to try and fix the problem of child prostitution, however
adult prostitution was still not criminalized. In 2005, posters and pamphlets were
placed in airports in over twenty Brazilian cities by the World Tourism
Organization to combat sexual tourism involving children and teenagers. One-
minute videos were played on television and aboard international flights. The
Ministry of Tourism (2004) set aside US$1.09 million in its budget to push the
campaign against child exploitation. This of course begs the question: If both
non-governmental organizations and the Brazilian federal government blame
sexual tourism for child exploitation and human trafficking, why is prostitution
still legal?

Sexual tourism has recently become a hot topic in political science research.
Cities known for participation in sexual tourism range from Bangkok, Thailand to
De Wallen, Amsterdam. In an increasingly globalized world, with the proliferation
of the internet and growing access to international travel, sexual tourism is
becoming more frequent. In the following analysis, while avoiding claims of
sexual tourism being either good or bad, I examine the reasons a country might
be supportive of such tourism, or at least not actively oppose it by making adult
prostitution illegal. After collecting data through a series of in-depth interviews,
short surveys in both Brazil and Mexico, and analyzing existing statistics, I infer
that government support of sexual tourism stems from the belief that it provides
stimulus to the economy. Rational choice theory is used as a framework for
explaining this government support.

Defining Sexual Tourism

Sexual tourism involves travel across national or international borders in order to

take part in a non-reproductive sexual encounter. The sexual encounter may be
with an adult or minor, man, woman, transsexual or transvestite. It must involve
an exchange of money or material goods for a sexual act. The area becomes
gray when defining who is involved in sexual tourism as Meaney and Rye (2007)
explain in their article The Pursuit of Sexual Pleasure. If a businessman meets a
prostitute while in the city on a business trip, does he count as a sexual tourist? If
a woman works as a hairdresser but has foreign “boyfriends” on the side, does
she count as a prostitute? If a college student engages in a sexual activity with
another college student from a different university while both are in Cancun
during Spring Break, is this considered sexual tourism? Opperman (1999) agrees
in his article Sex tourism that the tourist-prostitute relationship is complicated
and colorful. Though many people may take part in a sexual encounter while
traveling abroad, few would claim to be “sexual tourists.” (255) In Clancy’s
(2002) article The Globalization of Sex tourism and Cuba: A Commodity Chains
Approach, he says many travelers consider themselves the current
boyfriend/girlfriend or “friend” of their sexual partner for the few weeks of their
visit. Many tourists claim to be more of a situational sexual tourist who took
advantage of an open situation or prefer to tell tales of “romance” encountered
during their travels. (72) According to the Brazilian Federal Police (personal
communication, June 29, 2007), only if a person enters the city with intent to
engage in a sexual act with a local is he/she considered a sexual tourist.

The Foundation of Children and Family in Fortaleza (Funci/PMF) (personal

communication, July 10, 2007) claims there are two types of tourism: “good”
tourism and “bad” tourism. Good tourism is the tourism that brings in
conferences, family outings and tourists who want to experience the food and
culture of the northeast of Brazil. Bad tourism is influenced by the media and
tourist agencies and portrays the northeast of Brazil as a hot, sensual and exotic
place to visit where the women are promiscuous. Bad tourism attracts
pedophiles, sexual predators and those in pursuit of prostitutes. Little research
has been conducted on “bad tourism”. Statistics do not exist in the area. The
government officials I spoke with claimed the city did not keep statistics.

Though no one would admit to me to being a sexual tourist in Brazil, American

truck drivers on the Mexican border of Laredo, Texas spoke candidly. “Sure,
we’re actual sex tourists. We come over here to Mexican for the sole purpose to
have a good time with liquor and women. Some of the younger ones don’t have it
figured out yet. They think the lovely, young Mexican girl sitting next to them is
their girlfriend. As soon as he climbs back up in that tractor-trailer and takes off,
she’s with another trucker. It doesn’t matter that he’ll be back next week or if he
says he loves her, if he’s paying her bills or even if he marries her. She has to
make money while he’s gone. I figure it’s a service I’m paying for. I don’t have
much time off the road. They get paid and I get what I want. Everybody wins.”
(Personal communication, April 20, 2008).

Similar to adventure tourism in which a person travels to Africa solely for the
purpose of participation in a safari, sexual tourism as defined by the research of
this paper occurs when a man or woman travels to another locale, either foreign
or within one's own country, for the sole purpose of sexual gratification with a
local individual in exchange for money or goods.

Sexual Tourism and Rational Choice Theory

Most research written on sexual tourism embodies a negative, one-sided

argument. There are no benefits and nothing good can come of it. Child
exploitation and human trafficking are used to prove the damage sexual tourism
can bring to a country. Articles such as Graburn’s (1993) Tourism
and Prostitution suggests the forced rape of a third world country by that of a
first world country. Reinhardt’s (1989) German article compares sexual tourism
to a new brand of colonialism. Overall’s (1992) article What’s Wrong with
Prostitution? Evaluating Sex Work claims sex work is “defined by an intersection
of capitalism and patriarchy.” (724)

I found little research relating directly to Brazil. Articles on Cambodia, Thailand,

the Philippines, Cuba, and the Caribbean were more prominent. Anthropologist
Adriana Piscitelli (2002, 2005) and her exhaustive 20+ years of research
following Brazilian and Argentinean prostitutes, who have married their European
clients and moved to Europe, was the most in depth. The Brazilian reporter Eliane
Trindade’s (2005) book, The Girls on the Corner: Diaries of dreams, hurts and
adventures of six Brazilian adolescents, details six daily diaries of prostitutes
caught up in sexual tourism. Opperman’s (1998) book Sex Tourism and
Prostitution: Aspects of Leisure, Recreation and Work and his various academic
articles such as Sex tourism printed in Annals of Tourism Research give clear
explanations as to why the word sexual tourism is considered a grey term and
not necessarily a synonym for prostitution. Taylor’s (2001) article Dollars are a
Girl’s Best Friend? Female Tourists’ Sexual Behaviour in the Caribbean explains
sexual tourism from the perspective of women as the sexual predator. The
common theme of the articles portrays sexual tourism as harmful and villainous.

Again I do not tackle this normative question, but rather I try to understand why
it continues to flourish if it is such a bad thing. Thus I offer an alternative view of
sexual tourism, suggesting that government officials actually support it because
it helps to bring prosperity and economic wealth into an otherwise poor country.
Other articles with similar ideas are Lie’s (1995) article The Transformation of
Sexual Work in 20th –Century Korea. He explores international political economies
involved in prostitution from sexual services provided during war to special
districts set aside in border towns. El-Gawhary’s (1995) article Sex Tourism in
Cairo says sexual tourism takes place in Cairo due to economic and diplomatic
reasons. Truong’s (1990) book Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism
in Southeast Asia looks at sexual labor as a way of producing surplus with the
growth of capitalism. Examples are the services used by U.S. soldiers during the
Vietnam War and the growth of tourism after the war. His book agrees with a
point in Pettman’s (1997) article Body Politics: international sex tourism which
emphasizes the complex issues buried beneath the sex tourism industry, such as
economic policies, international relations, business ethics, racial discrimination,
and corruption. (101)

By bringing wealth to a suffering country, I am suggesting that support for sexual

tourism is best understood through the lens rational choice theory. The rational
choice theory (often used in the language of economics) states that human
beings are rational beings, and will choose their rationalized behavior by using a
cost benefit analysis. Choices will therefore be made in the person’s best
interest, that which will benefit the person the most. Rational theorists also
explain that as a nation, the state is responsible for maintaining order and
preserving the common good by enforcing fit laws. I argue here that it is rational
for governments and government officials to support sexual tourism. In order to
survive economically, nations and officials allow prostitution and sexual tourism
to continue without prosecution.

Methods
First-hand field observation and interviews took place in Fortaleza, Ceara Brazil
between the months of September- December 2005, July- August 2006 and July-
August 2007. Observation and interviews were performed in local tourist
hotspots and bars where sexual tourism was known to take place by city locals.
Interviews and questionnaires were given to 30 prostitutes in the city of
Fortaleza, Ceara Brazil through the Association of Prostitutes of Ceara. Three
federal police officers, two civilian police officers, two legislative representatives,
one member of the Senate of Ceara, three members of city council and eight
non-governmental organizations were given one-on-one interviews. Various
members of the public were given interviews and questionnaires throughout
2005-2007, including but not limited to an occupational therapist, radio
announcers, local and University librarians, documentary film artists, a Federal
government lawyer, University students, aldermen staff, bar tenders, neurologist
technicians, local school teachers, security guards and domestic workers. Nine
interviews were given to individual American truck drivers crossing the Mexican
border to participate in sexual encounters with Mexican women in exchange for
money in April of 2008 at Boy’s Town. Contacts were made during a 2005-2006
study abroad in Brazil and personal truck-driving contacts on the border of
Laredo, Texas. Existing statistics and charts were used from the 2006 2nd Edition
of the Secretary of Tourism of the State of Ceara’s Tourism Study.
The Data

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva legalized prostitution; therefore, the
law must be seen as preserving the common good. This would need to be
interpreted economically, as socially it seems to have a negative impact. The
Institute for Trade, Standards, and Sustainable Development (2005) explained in
their article about U.S. drug patents that Brazil rejected $40 million in U.S.
assistance for the fight against AIDS in May of 2005 due to strings attached by
the U.S. government. Condemning prostitution was one of the stronger strings
Brazil refused to cut. Pedro Chequer, the Brazilian Heath Ministry AIDS program
director called the U.S. conditions “theological, fundamentalist, and Shiite.” (5)
Women, homosexual men and children living in Brazil and Mexico compete in a
male-dominated society. “Girls can work in a job in Mexico and make $50 a
week. If they prostitute, they can make $50 an hour. They do it to support their
kids or for quick money,” a 40-year-old truck driver told me. He was married to a
former prostitute and arranged “tours” for other U.S. truckers by CB radio.
(Personal communication, April 13, 2008.)

“You know, sexual tourism is just a cover. The tour guide introduces you to Boy’s
Town and you think you’re in paradise. You have all these beautiful women and
drinks are pouring. They are the most beautiful women you’ve ever seen and
they all want you. You can have as many as you want, two or three at a time if
you feel like it. You wake up in the morning and you’ve blown your entire
paycheck. After a couple times in Boy’s Town you start complaining about how
much money you’re spending. That’s when they have you where they want you.
The Mexican tour guide says he knows how you can make a quick buck. You just
have to smuggle a few people over in your truck and you can make $1,000’s of
dollars. Of course, everything is split between the bar and the girls. They’re all in
it together.” (Personal communication, April 15, 2008.) “Smuggling people leads
to smuggling drugs, contraband, weapons, terrorists, you name it. The more
dangerous it is, the more money they’ll pay you.” (Personal communication, April
10, 2008.)

Prostitution is a blurred area. Half of the women interviewed in Fortaleza saw

themselves as business women selling sex to men who were easy to exploit.
Many women did not want to be labeled as prostitutes in Brazil and were not
involved in the Association of Prostitutes of Ceara, the local non-governmental
organization who fought for prostitutes’ rights in the state. Most of the
prostitutes interviewed in Fortaleza Brazil did not use prostitution as their sole
means of income. The majority worked as hairdressers, waitresses, in retail, or
were University students. They said they “dated” foreigners because the men
were wealthy and generous and they had a chance of marrying the foreigner and
leaving Brazil.

The Federal Police said this makes it impossible to prove who is and is not
prostituting. The police cannot prosecute. The tourist is not committing a crime.
A civil police officer explained, “Sexual tourism is not a crime. No country has a
law against it, only if caught with a minor can someone be prosecuted.” (Personal
communication, August 27, 2007).
A worker with the NGO Partners of the Americas with USAID (personal
communication, July 29, 2007) said, “Sexual tourism exists because of poverty,
globalization, and machismo. Why does the tourist come looking for sex with a
slave when he could have a healthy sexual relationship with a companion? Why
do the rich come looking to exploit the poor? These are the questions we should
be focused on.”

So, why do people visit Brazil? According to statistics taken from the Secretary of
Tourism in the State of Ceara (2006), 48% of national and international tourists
were influenced by comments of relatives and friends to visit Fortaleza in 2000.
The media influenced over 11%, 18% were revisiting Fortaleza, and travel
agencies influenced over 9%. During the period of 1995- 2000, the number of
international tourists grew from 38,000 to 121,000, showing a 26% increase per
year. In 2000, 62% of visitors had visited Fortaleza more than once and 98%
expected to return. Between the years of 1996- 2003, Fortaleza moved in rank
from number 11 to number 4 of principle cities visited by international tourists.
Seeing the natural attractions of Fortaleza, Ceara was the number one reason for
tourists to visit, followed by business and visiting relatives and friends between
1997-2005. Between 1997- 2005 money spent in bars and restaurants increased,
as did money spent on entertainment and nightlife.

During the time frame of 1996-2006 national tourists increased from 733,038 to
1,794,369 per year and international tourists increased from 40,209 to 268,124
tourists per year. Direct tourist receipts in Brazilian reals spent increased from
R$486,000 million to R$2,300,000 million. Generated income from tourism in
Fortaleza increased from R$651 million in 1995 to R$4,025,800 in 2005. Per
capita spent on a daily basis increased from R$51,66 in 1995 to R$134, 07 in
2006.

In 1997 over 60% of tourists entering Fortaleza were male. In 2006 59% were
male. The men were mainly between the ages of 36 to 50 years old, traveling
alone and married. In 2005 and 2006, the majority of international tourists in
order were: Portuguese, Italian, Argentinean, American, Spanish and French.
“Official numbers do not exist for tourists entering the city of Forteleza for sexual
tourism purposes. “We know they exist and we know who they are, we just can’t
prove it. We see them on the beach. The majority are European, especially
Italians, Portuguese and German,” said a state senator of Ceara. (Personal
communication, August 14, 2007).
Various non-governmental organizations, one state representative and one state
senator claimed that sexual tourism hurt the economy of the city of Fortaleza.
They said families preferred to go to other cities for vacation because the city of
Fortaleza had been tainted as a town of prostitution. Now many of the beaches
that were booming only seven years ago were deserted except for tourists and
prostitutes.

It is impossible to prove if the “good” or “bad” tourism has caused Fortaleza to

grow but these statistics show that tourism in Fortaleza has increased in all
areas. “What we see is a spoiled image of our cities for those that are in search
of actual tourist destinations. Paradoxically, the tourism in the state of Ceara,
including the capitol Fortaleza is one of the sectors of the economy that has
grown the most in the last 20 years,” said a senator of the state of Ceara.
(Personal communication, August 14, 2007). This shows a flaw in the argument
that sexual tourism damages the economy.

Tourists have also discovered how to work the system in their favor. By law, if a
man or woman has a child with a Brazilian, he/she is allowed to stay in the
Country. Bars and restaurants on the beachfront of Fortaleza are owned by
Portuguese, Italian and German men. Many owners are married to Brazilian
women and have a Brazilian child. Foreigners open travel agencies or work by
Internet, often times inviting “friends” to visit and rent out apartments they own.

When asked who benefited from sexual tourism, the majority of locals from
Fortaleza said the tourist agencies, hotels or prostitutes, if anyone at all
benefited from sexual tourism. A lawyer from the federal police department
(personal communication, August 3, 2007) said, “Only the hotels are really
gaining money.” Two aldermen from city council claimed sexual tourism did not
exist in Brazil at all. Those claiming sexual tourism did not bring money into the
city were politicians, or non-governmental organizations active in the fight
against human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. The wealthier and more
educated the community member, the more he/she claimed sexual tourism did
bring money into the city but did not necessarily help the city grow.

The more involved the person was in the sexual tourism industry, the longer the
list they gave. “In one form or another, the city has always survived on sexual
tourism. Of course it brings money into the city, all the way to the taxi driver and
restaurant,” said a working transvestite. (Personal communication, June 20,
2007).

Further Interpretation

Though it was said countless times by various people that sexual tourism did not
bring money into the economy of the city, observation records proved the
opposite. Following tourists throughout the city, I saw money constantly
changing hands. Lingerie, luggage and shoes were purchased in the shopping
mall for scantily dressed, young, local girls. Taxi drivers were paid. Hotel and
apartment bills were settled. Food was purchased at the grocery store. Tips were
given. Bars and restaurant bills were paid. Airline tickets were purchased.
Tourists on the beach bought coconut water and fake tattoos for their female
companions. A large amount of alcohol was paid for. Admission tickets into high-
end clubs were purchased every night of the week. One ticket to Italy for
Christmas vacation was offered.

The American truck drivers in Mexico said they gave the prostitutes money,
diapers, baby formula, or clothes. Sometimes they paid in cash, other times if
they were with a girl on a regular basis and looked at her more as a girlfriend,
they paid her bills or bought what she said she needed. The girls spent money on
taxis, groceries, bills, medicine, make-up or drugs. “The girl attracts the tourist.
The tourist buys the beer. That money goes to the bar and its electricity bills so
the owner of the bar makes money because of the girl. So the bar usually gives
the girl a dollar on every drink you buy for her. She’s selling those drinks. The
more you drink, the more the bar and the girl get paid. The money she gets from
you goes to milk, diapers, food, the government, taxes, local farmers get the
money from food she buys at the grocery store. That money is going somewhere.
How can it not benefit the economy? If it didn’t, the bar would not be open.”
(Personal communication, April 19, 2008.)

I spent a day with a working transvestite called Star. We met at the gay porn
theatre where he worked and I was allowed inside as long as I did not film or take
photographs. A porn film ran on a rolling basis downstairs. The entrance fee was
R$10 to enter and the facility was open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Transvestites and female prostitutes worked at the theatre. Customers entered
and either sat down to watch the film and were approached by prostitutes or
entered and went upstairs to the bar where they were also approached. The
upstairs bar area was well lit with a pole in the middle of the room.

Hidden from view of the bar were small rooms. In the room, a prison-type bed
with a plastic mattress, bare of sheet or pillow was attached to the wall.
Pornography played on the television above the bed. When the door closed, a
sign reading “occupied” in Portuguese let the other customers/prostitutes know
the room was taken. The sex workers could work as long as they liked. Star said
he only wanted to work long enough to buy a new purse.

Star and I left the theatre two hours later in the middle of the day and had lunch
at a local café. He said eating after anal sex made him sick so he only had juice.
On the way home, Star stopped and bought the purse he had been looking at all
week. He also purchased bus fare with the money he earned and fresh bread and
milk from the local bakery for an evening “coffee break”. He didn’t have a set
income every week. He worked when he needed to and always had money. “I
don’t have to ask anyone for money. I do this because I want to. I have a
teaching degree in geography, you know. It’s just I make so much more money
doing this. And I like it much better.”

He waved at the neighbor’s on the streets and stopped to talk with everyone he
knew. “I’ve lived in this neighborhood my entire life. I “came out” when I was 17
and that’s also when I started prostituting. Everyone knows what I do. They
might not like it but they accept it.”

Star was in his early 40’s but lived at home with his parents. “My parents don’t
want me to live out on my own because of what I do. They’re afraid I’ll get
killed.” He had a small, clean, feminine room. Once inside, Star immediately
checked his e-mail and web site to make sure he didn’t have any new customers.
“Oh, I’ve got two!” He got on the phone and agreed to meet them at a local
hotel after describing his appearance on the phone.

Star had silicone injected into his buttocks, hips and breasts five years ago, an
extremely dangerous surgery used in Brazil by many transvestites in order to
attract more customers. From a distance with his long, straight hair, he looked
like a curvaceous woman and received constant whistles as we walked to his
house. He lived in his parent’s middle-class home. They owned two cars, a
computer and both his parents worked. His 25-year-old brother also lived in the
house and worked as a physical education teacher. Though he called his brother
Star he refused to refer to him as “her”.

“Prostitution was legalized shortly after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva was elected into office. If prostitution was illegal, 1,000 tourism doors would
close,” said a federal police officer that worked with human trafficking. (Personal
communication, July 21, 2007). “Since the election of 2004, I haven’t seen much
improvement, not one specific politician has addressed the problem of sexual
tourism in Ceara,” claimed a state representative. (Personal communication, July
19, 2007). The interviewees claimed that corruption within the police department
and the federal government would never allow prostitution to become illegal.
“Many times the judges and the police are involved in prostitution. Do you think
they are going to create a law that will make prostitution illegal? They are
involved in it,” another federal police officer said. (Personal communication, July
21, 2007). Clancy says in his article about Cuba that in order for sexual tourism
to flourish, government inaction or approval must take place.

A state representative said, “Our culture is permissive and anything goes. There
is an acceptance of prostitution, of child labor here. This mentality has to end or
the situation will not improve, no matter how many laws there are.” Many people
said politicians, police and the public turned a blind eye to what was going on.
“The motto is what I don’t see, I don’t know about,” said a librarian. (Personal
communication, August 31, 2007).

U.S. State Department of Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (2006)

show the Joint Parliamentary Investigative Commission indicted politicians,
aldermen, police officers, mayors, and legislators in 2005 throughout 22 states in
Brazil for the sexual exploitation of children and teens. A rape and pandering
charge of seven girls was later dismissed against former Goias mayor Boadyr
Veloso.

Throughout the interviews, the same concepts were repeated. The laws and
legislation are solid, enforcement is lacking and the judicial process drags its
feet. The legislative branch blamed the executive. The executive blamed the
judicial branch. The laws were sound but often not carried out or applied when
they should have been. Though the laws are the same for the local Brazilian or
the tourist, the difference is where the foreigner is punished.
If the foreigner is sent back to his country usually nothing happens to him. The
process does not continue once he/she leaves Brazil. The victim often does not
give a testimony, witnesses are paid off and the judicial branch in turn does not
prosecute. There are no special rules or processes for the person being deported.
The judicial system is slow. Once arrested, the perpetrator has eight days to
leave the country. If the perpetrator does not leave, Brazil must pay for his/her
deportation. Brazil does not have the money to pay and the perpetrator often
stays illegally for years continuing to commit crimes. If the perpetrator is
sentenced, he/she will go to prison, as would the Brazilian local. The chances of
being sentenced is much less however if one is a foreigner.

A state representative (personal communication, July 19, 2007) said, “The jail
system here is not effective. Even if the police put the pimps in jail, they can’t be
kept there for very long and the impression is that the laws aren’t working. Our
jail system is extremely ineffective. This is common knowledge among the
people that the laws don’t work so people do what they want, knowing they
won’t be punished.”

Conclusion

From the observation and interviews conducted, review of written academic

research on sexual tourism in Brazil, and based on the economic statistics of the
growth of tourism in Fortaleza, one can conclude that the lack of anti-prostitution
legislation in Brazil fits the rational choice theory. Economically, sexual tourism
appears to aid the city of Fortaleza.

“Brazil isn’t going to want a fight over this with other countries," stated another
federal police officer. "There’s too much coming in financially from these other
countries. We’re not going to fight about something as small as prostitution,
which isn’t even illegal in the first place and lose the support of that country,
whose dollar or Euro is strong. The money the President and huge corporations
are bringing into the government would be at risk,” adding, “With children and
adolescents it is a fight but with adults it isn’t that important because for one, it’s
legal and for two, it will cause problems with other countries”. (Personal
communication, July 21, 2007).

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Female sex tourism is travel by women, partially or fully for the purpose of having sex. The
practice differs from male sex tourism in that women do not typically use the structures of the sex
industry (e.g. strip clubs, sex shows and organised tours) to meet foreign partners. Women's trips
may be referred to as "romance tourism." They typically involve sex with locals from the holiday
destination country, as opposed to sex with other tourists.

The phenomenon has been explored by French Novelist Michel Houellebecq in his
novel Platform and in the non-fiction book Romance on the Road. These works support the idea
that sex tourism by both men and women reflects serious problems in the tourists' home
countries, including a "dating war", or profound disharmony between the sexes.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Destinations

• 2 History

• 3 Reasons

• 4 Depictions

• 5 Risk of diseases

• 6 See also

• 7 Major academic publications

• 8 References

• 9 External links

[edit]Destinations

The primary destinations for female sex tourism are Southern

Europe (mainly Italy, Turkey, Greece, Armenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Israel, Slovenia, Spain, Port
ugal, Ukraine, Azerbaijan,Kherson, Crimea); also Lebanon; the Caribbean (led
by Jamaica, Barbados and the Dominican Republic); Southeast Asia,
(Bali in Indonesia[1] and Phuket in Thailand); Dubai; andGambia, Senegal and Kenya in Africa.
[2]
Lesser destinations include Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Fiji, Ecuador and Costa Rica.[3]

Indonesia, Thailand, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are exceptional in that both male and
female sex tourists use these countries.
An estimated 650,000 Western women have engaged in travel sex since 1980, many of them
multiple times.[4] By some estimates, 80,000 North American and European women travel
to Jamaica for sex every year.[5]

Lesbian sex tourism is nascent but evident in Lesbos (Mytilini) in Greece, Bangkok and Pattaya in
Thailand. The men used by tourist women are termed kamakia (“fishing harpoons,”
Greece), galebovi (“seagulls,” Croatia), гларуси (glarusi) (“seagulls,” Bulgaria), sharks (Costa
Rica), rent-a-dreads, rent-a-rastas, rent-a-gents and the Foreign Service (Caribbean)[1], Kuta
Cowboys or pemburu-bule (“whitey hunters”, Bali), Marlboro men (Jordan), bomsas or "bumsters"
(the Gambia), "sanky pankies" (Dominican Republic), jinetero in Cuba, "gringahunter" or caza-
gringas in Ecuador and brichero in Peru. "Beach boys" is a more generic term.

Male prostitutes may in general be referred to by various terms and euphemisms. Some of these
men can be considered gigolos, for instance.

"A holiday fling" or "a holiday romance" may refer to either sex tourism (having sex with a local) or
an affair with a fellow holidaymaker, possibly from one's own country or indeed package tour.
Either may be called "fun in the sun".

[edit]History

Barring some isolated cases of women traveling for sex among North American Indian tribes,
female travel sex (involving American and English women) began in Rome in the late 1840s, at
the same time as first wave feminism, which encouraged independence and travel.

Affairs and intrigues, particularly between American heiresses and impoverished European
aristocrats, continued steadily until World War I, inspiring a whole genre of literature such
asHenry James's Daisy Miller, Joaquin Miller's The One Fair Woman, and much of the early
output of E.M. Forster.

Female sex travel declined from the time of the Depression until the 1960s.

Coincident with the explosion of leisure travel in the 1960s and second wave feminism, sex
tourism by women re-ignited, first via French Canadian women travelling to Barbados and
Swedish and Northern European women to India, Spain, Greece, Yugoslavia and the Gambia.
Female sex travel became ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean, from the tiniest islands through
the big destinations of Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Barbados.

Today, many other destinations are popular, including Morocco, Nepal, Thailand, Ecuador, Costa
Rica, Mexico—everywhere with beaches (or in Nepal's case, mountains) and a surplus
of underemployed men.
[edit]Reasons

Female sex tourism's first and second waves coincided not only with feminism but with Victorian
era man shortages that began in England and later occurred in continental Europe and the United
States.

Social reasons for women seeking promiscuous and no-strings-attached sex abroad include
the dating war, as typified by extreme competition between the sexes in schools, the workplace,
while dating, in marriages, and even in contentious divorces. The dating war appears especially
to drive sex tourism by Australian and Japanese women, and to a lesser extent, German and
Scandinavian female tourists.

The changing theme of pop culture in the wake of the feminist heyday in America and elsewhere
cannot be ignored. From the 1970s onward, the emergence of stronger, independentcharacter
roles for women in film, music and television doubtlessly influenced the expectations of ordinary
women viewers everywhere in the western world.

See also: Hypergamy

The men may do it for the money, or for other unresearched reasons. Women usually give
clothes, meals, cash, sex, and gifts to their male prostitutes. In some destinations, there are
"going rates" for male companionship, ranging from $50 to $200. In other destinations, especially
in Southern Europe, Turkey, and the French Caribbean, men do not expect to be compensated.

[edit]Depictions

Non-fiction books include Anne Cumming's The Love Habit and The Love Quest, Fiona Pitt-
Kethley's The Pan Principle and Journeys to the Underworld, Cleo Odzer's Patpong
Sistersand Lucretia Stewart's The Weather Prophet.

Female sex tourists have been notoriously difficult to find and interview on the record (see de
Albuquerque, 1998, in "Major academic publications" subheading, below). Thus some observers
have turned to film and fiction to examine the motivations of women who travel for sex, love and
affection.

Movies include Heading South (Vers le Sud), with Charlotte Rampling, which depicts three
Western tourists in Haiti in the 1970s, taking their pleasure with local men. Earlier film depictions
include How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Shirley Valentine. Stella led to a quantifiable
increase in trips by women to Jamaica.[6] Important works of fiction include, in addition to Michel
Houellebecq's Platform, Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, which coined or popularised the term
"zipless fuck".
[edit]Risk of diseases
HIV/AIDS infection rates are among the highest in the world in the Caribbean, second only to
those of sub-Saharan Africa: 5.6% of the adult population in Haiti, 3.2% in Trinidad and Tobago,
3% in the Bahamas, 2.5% in Guyana, 1.7% in the Dominican Republic, 1.5% in Barbados, and
1.2% in Jamaica.[7]

Those rates are much higher than in Canada (0.3%) or the U.S. (0.6%). Even so, female sex
tourists in the Caribbean are not especially preoccupied by the risk.[8]

[edit]See also

 Feminism
 Prostitution

[edit]Major academic publications

 Bloor, Michael, et al. "Differences in Sexual Risk Behaviour between Young Men and
Women Travelling Abroad from the UK." [Contains only random survey of young sex
travelers.]The Lancet 352 (1998): 1664-68.
 Cohen, Erik. "Arab Boys and Tourist Girls in a Mixed Jewish-Arab
Community." International Journal of Comparative Sociology 12 (1971): 217-233.
 de Albuquerque, Klaus. "Sex, Beach Boys and Female Tourists in the
Caribbean." Sexuality & Culture. Ed. Barry M. Dank. Vol. 2. New Brunswick, N.J.:
Transaction, 1998. 87-111. 2.
 de Albuquerque, Klaus. "In Search of the Big Bamboo: How Caribbean Beach Boys Sell
Fun in the Sun." The Utne Reader, Jan.-Feb. 2000: 82-86.
 Gorry, April Marie. Leaving Home for Romance: Tourist Women’s Adventures Abroad.
Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1999. Ann Arbor: UMI 9958930,
2000
 Herold, Edward, Rafael Garcia and Tony DeMoya. "Female Tourists and Beach Boys:
Romance or Sex Tourism?" Annals of Tourism Research 28.4 (2001): 978-997.
 Meisch, Lynn A. "Gringas and Otavaleños: Changing Tourist Relations" [a description of
sex and romance tourism in Ecuador]. Annals of Tourism Research 22.2 (1995): 441-62.
 Pruitt, Deborah, and Suzanne Lafont. "For Love and Money: Romance Tourism in
Jamaica". Annals of Tourism Research 22(2): 422-440.
  Thomas, Michelle. "Exploring the Contexts and Meanings of Women’s Experiences of
Sexual Intercourse on Holiday."
 Clift, Stephen, and Simon Carter, ed. Tourism and Sex: Culture, Commerce and
Coercion. London: Pinter, 2000. 200-20.
 Vorakitphokatorn, Sairudee, et al. "AIDS Risk in Tourists: A Study on Japanese Female
Tourists in Thailand." Journal of Population and Social Studies 5.1-2 (1993–94): 55-84.
 Wagner, Ulla. "Out of Time and Space — Mass Tourism and Charter Trips." Ethnos 42.1-
2 (1977): 39-49. (This article describes sex tourism in the Gambia, West Africa, as does a
followup article: Wagner, Ulla, and Bawa Yamba. "Going North and Getting Attached: The
Case of the Gambians." Ethnos 51.3 (1986): 199-222.)

[edit]References

1. ^ Bali gigolos

2. ^ Clarke, Jeremy (2007-11-25). "Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists". Reuters.

Retrieved 2007-11-30. "Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate

that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex."

3. ^ Women going on sex tours look for big bamboos and Marlboro men, Pravda.Ru

4. ^ Sex tourism: When women do it, it's called 'romance travelling'

5. ^ Martin, Lorna (July 23, 2006). "Sex, sand and sugar mummies in a Caribbean beach

fantasy". The Guardian (London). Retrieved May 2, 2010.

6. ^ Michele Faul's Associated Press article, 12/6/1998, “ ‘Stella’ the Movie Attracting Single

Women to Jamaica.”

7. ^ HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%) 2007 country rankings - Flags, Maps, Economy,

Geography, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, ...

8. ^ "Sex tourism as economic aid". The Sydney Morning Herald. July 12, 2003.

[edit]External links

 Romance on the Road: Traveling Women Who Love Foreign Men

 Book review of female sex tourism history Romance on the Road
 Rose Kisia Omondi: Gender and the Political Economy of Sex Tourism in Kenya
 Dominican Republic Sanky Panky, dr1.com
 Emily Monroy, Interracial Sex #5: The White Woman Abroad, Interracial Voice,
July/August 2002
 Sex tourism as economic aid
 CAPE VERDE: Sex tourism on the rise?
 Kenya Cracking Down on Beach Boys, Gigolos Serving Tourists
 Jamaican beach boys a tourist temptation
 Women who travel for sex: Sun, sea and gigolos
 Sex, sand and sugar mummies in a Caribbean beach fantasy; Sex tourism in
Jamaica, The Observer, Sunday, July 23, 2006
 Sex tourism: When women do it, it's called 'romance travelling'
 Sex tourism in full boom, Ottawa Citizen, Monday, January 8, 2007
 Women going on sex tours look for big bamboos and Marlboro men
 "Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists" by Jeremy Clarke, Reuters, November 26,
2007.
 The Jordanian Desert's Other Delight: Sex Tourism
 Senegal Draws Tourists with Sun, Sea...and Sex
ex tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity 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".[1]

While sex tourism can refer to a variety of commercial sexual activities, agencies and
academics[who?] sometimes distinguish between adult sex tourism, child sex tourism and female
sex tourism to refer to different kinds of sex tourism. Attractions for sex tourists can include
reduced costs for services in the destination country, along with either legal prostitution or
indifferent law enforcement and access to child prostitution.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 General

• 2 Female sex tourism

• 3 Child sex tourism

• 4 Destinations

• 5 Academic study

• 6 Opposition to sex tourism

• 7 Documentaries

• 8 See also

• 9 External links

• 10 References

[edit]General

Generally, an adult can travel and engage in a sexual activity with an adult prostitute, in similar
circumstances as would apply to local prostitution. However, when the sexual activity
involves child prostitution, is non-consensual or involves sex trafficking, it is generally illegal, both
in the participating country and sometimes in the individual's home country.

Sex tourism includes domestic sex tourism, which is travel within the same country,
or international sex tourism, which involves travel across national borders. It is a multibillion dollar
industry that supports an international workforce estimated to number in the millions.[2] It has been
argued by some people that sex tourism benefits not only the sex industry but also the airline,
taxi, restaurant and hotel industries.[3] Human Rights organizations warn that sex tourism
contributes to human trafficking and child prostitution.[4]

[edit]Female sex tourism

Main article: Female sex tourism

Sex tourism by women also exists. It is estimated that 650,000 Western women have traveled to
engage in sex since 1980, many of them multiple times.[5] By some estimates, 80,000North
American and European women visit Jamaica every year for sex.[6]

The main destinations for female sex tourism are Southern

Europe (mainly Italy, Turkey, Greece, Croatia , Armenia, Montenegro and Spain),
the Caribbean (led by Jamaica, Barbadosand the Dominican Republic), parts of Africa
(Egypt, Tunisia, Gambia, Kenya [7]), Bali,[8] and Pattaya or Phuket in Thailand. Other destinations
include Nepal, Morocco, Fiji, Peru and El Salvador.[9]

[edit]Child sex tourism

Main article: Child sex tourism

Child sex tourism is a criminal (most countries) multi-billion-dollar industry believed to involve as
many as 2 million children around the world.[10] In an effort to eradicate the practice, many
countries have enacted laws to allow prosecution of its 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 US Protect Act.[11]

Some people travel to other countries to engage in sex with children. Child sex tourism has been
closely linked to poverty.

Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil and Mexico have been identified as countries where child
sexual exploitation is prevalent.[12] In Thailand, though the exact numbers are not known, it has
been estimated that children make up 40% of prostitutes in the country.[13] In Cambodia, it has
been estimated that about a third of all prostitutes are under 18.[14][15] In India, the federal police
say that around 1.2 million children are believed to be involved in prostitution.[16] Brazil is
considered to have the worst child sex trafficking record, after Thailand.[17]

UNICEF notes that sexual activity is often seen as a private matter, making communities reluctant
to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation.[18] 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.
[18]
The Internet provides an efficient global networking tool for individuals to share information on
destinations and procurement.[18]

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.[18] However, child pornography, sex tourism and human
trafficking remain fast-growing industries.[18] Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ recently introduced H.R.
1623, the "International Megan's Law". Similar to the domestic Megan's Law, which provides for
community notification when a sex offender is living in the area, H.R. 1623 would alert officials
abroad when U.S. sex offenders intend to travel, and likewise encourage other countries to keep
sex offender lists and to notify the U.S. when a known sex offender may be coming to the United
States for sex tourism.[18]

[edit]Destinations

Several countries have become preferred destinations for sex tourists. These include Brazil,[19]
[20]
Costa Rica,[21][22] Cuba,[23][24] the Dominican Republic,[25][26] Russia, Kenya,[27] theNetherlands,
the Philippines, and Thailand.[28]

[edit]Academic study
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.[29][30] Among their findings:

 Preconceptions about race and gender influenced their opinions.

 Economically underdeveloped tourist-receiving countries are promoted as being 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.
[edit]Opposition to sex tourism
Human Rights organizations warn that sex tourism contributes to human trafficking and child
prostitution.[4] The U.N. opposes sex tourism citing health, social and cultural consequences for
both tourist home countries and destination countries, especially in situations exploiting gender,
age, social and economic inequalities in sex tourism destinations.[1][31][32]

[edit]Documentaries

Canadian film makers have been active at reporting on sex tourism. Documentary titles include:

 Falang: Behind Bangkok's Smile by Jordon Clark (2005) (this title at the Internet Movie
Database), set in Thailand
 CBC series the Lens episode "Selling Sex in Heaven" (2005) (this title at the Internet
Movie Database), set in the Philippines.
 Channel 4 Cutting Edge episode "The Child Sex Trade" (2003),[33] set in Romania, Italy
 Sex Tourism on Talking Points from Channel4.com[34]
 Channel 4 My Boyfriend, the Sex Tourist (2007) (this title at the Internet Movie
Database), looks at sex tourism around the world

[edit]See also

 Prostitution by country
 Legality of prostitution
 Cuban jiniterismo
 Prostitution in Thailand
 Prostitution in the Philippines

[edit]External links

 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Deena Guzder, "The Economics of Sexual

Exploitation" http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/untold_stories/2009/08/the-economics-of-
commercial-sexual-exploitation-in-thailand.html#more

[edit]References

1. ^ a b "WTO Statement On The Prevention Of Organized Sex Tourism". Adopted by the

General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization at its eleventh session - Cairo (Egypt), 17–
22 October 1995 (Resolution A/RES/338 (XI)). Cairo (Egypt): World Tourism Organization. 17–22

October 1995. Retrieved 2006-12-20.

2. ^ http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/53

3. ^ Kenya Tourism Exploitation, Chapter Two - Tourism, sex tourism and the economy

4. ^ a b Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Deena Guzder, "The Economics of Sexual

Exploitation" http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/untold_stories/2009/08/the-economics-of-

commercial-sexual-exploitation-in-thailand.html#more

5. ^ Sex tourism: When women do it, it's called 'romance travelling'

6. ^ How sex tourism became the basis of a Royal Court play | Travel | The Observer

7. ^ Clarke, Jeremy (2007-11-25). "Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists". Reuters.

Retrieved 2007-11-30. "Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate

that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex."

8. ^ Kuta Cowboys: The rodeo is in town everyday in Bali

9. ^ Women going on sex tours look for big bamboos and Marlboro men, Pravda.Ru

10. ^ Janet Bagnall work=Montreal Gazette (2007). "Sex trade blights the lives of 2 million

children; Canada is not doing enough to fight the international scourge of sex tourism".

11. ^ Chaninat & Leeds. Sex Laws in Thailand US Sex Laws Abroad, the Long Arm of Uncle

Sam. Thailand Law Forum, September 2009

12. ^ [1]

13. ^ [http://www.unicri.it/wwd/trafficking/minors/docs/dr_thailand.pdf T Trafficking in Minors

for Commercial Sexual Exploitation - Thailand]

14. ^ [2]

15. ^ [3]

16. ^ "Official: More than 1M child prostitutes in India - CNN.com". CNN. 2009-05-11.

Retrieved 2010-05-23.

17. ^ [4]

18. ^ a b c d e f Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Deena Guzder, "Local Thai NGOs Discuss

Efforts to End Commercial Sexual

Exploitation"http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/untold_stories/2009/08/the-politics-of-commercial-

sexual-exploitation.html#more

19. ^ "Brazil". The Protection Project. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved

2006-12-20. "Brazil is a major sex tourism destination. Foreigners come from Germany, Italy, the

Netherlands, Spain, Latin America, and North America ..."

20. ^ Gentile, Carmen J. (2006-02-02). "Brazil cracks down on child prostitution". San

Francisco Chronicle (Chronicle Foreign Service). Retrieved 2006-12-20. "... young prostitutes strut

in front of middle-aged American and European tourists ..."

21. ^ Kovaleski, Serge F. (2000-01-02). "Child Sex Trade Rises In Central

America".Washington Post Foreign Service (Washington Post Foreign Service). Archived from the

original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-12-20. "... "an accelerated increase in child prostitution" in

the country ... blamed largely on the unofficial promotion of sex tourism in Costa Rica over the

Internet."

22. ^ "Costa Rica". The Protection Project. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20.

Retrieved 2006-12-20. "...has come to rival Thailand and the Philippines as one of the world’s

leading destinations for sex tourism."

23. ^ "Cuba". The Protection Project. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved

2006-12-20. "Cuba is a popular destination country for sex tourists from Canada, the United

States, and Europe."

24. ^ Zúñiga, Jesús. "Cuba: The Thailand of the Caribbean". The New West Indian. Retrieved

2006-12-20.

25. ^ "Dominican Republic". The Protection Project. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20.

Retrieved 2006-12-20. "The Dominican Republic is one of the most popular sex tourism

destinations in the world, and it is advertised on the Internet as a "single man's paradise.""

26. ^ Scheeres, Julia (2001-07-07). "The Web, Where ‘Pimps’ Roam Free". Wired News.

CondéNet Inc. Retrieved 2006-12-20.

27. ^ Hughes, Dana. "TSun, Safaris and Sex Tourism in Kenya". Travel. ABC News.

Retrieved 2008-10-25. "Tourists Gone Wild: 'They Come Here They Think "I Can Be Whatever I

Want to Be" and That's How They Behave'"

28. ^ Cruey, Greg. "Thailand's Sex Industry". About: Asia For Visitors. About, Inc. (The New

York Times Co.). Retrieved 2006-12-20. "Nowhere else is it so open and prevalent. Individual

cities or regions have acquired a reputation as sex tourist destinations. Many of these have

notable red-light districts, including de Wallen in Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Zona

Norte in Tijuana, Mexico, Boy's Town in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Fortaleza and Rio de

Janeiro in Brazil, Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket in Thailand,"

29. ^ Sex Tourism in the Caribbean by Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, University of Leicester.

Chapter for Tourism, Travel and Sex, eds. Stephen Clift and Simon Carter, 1999

30. ^ The New West Indian Sex tourists: survey

31. ^ U.N. Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women

(OSAGI) Gender Mainstreaming Mandates

 32. ^ U.N. Congress On The Prevention Of Crime And The Treatment Of Offenders Press

Release New Global Treaty to Combat Sex Slavery of Women and Girls

33. ^ The Child Sex Trade Hardcash Productions

34. ^ Sex Tourism Talking Points from Channel4.com

Indian media have been publishing exposés documenting the foul behavior of
Gulf Arabs in the southern Indian town of Hyderabad. "Fly-by-night
bridegrooms" by R Akhileshwari in the Deccan Herald and "One minor girl,
many Arabs" by Mohammed Wajihuddin in the Times of India are two
important examples. Wajihuddin sets the stage:

They are old predators with new vigour. Often bearded, invariably in flowing
robes and expensive turbans. The rich, middle-aged Arabs increasingly stalk
the deprived streets of Hyderabad like medieval monarchs would stalk their
harems in days that we wrongly think are history. These Viagra-enabled Arabs
are perpetrating a blatant crime under the veneer ofnikaah, the Islamic rules of
marriage.

(I have silently corrected some typos). Wajihuddin then specifies the problem:

Misusing the sanctioned provision which allows a Muslim man to have four
wives at a time, many old Arabs are not just marrying minors in Hyderabad, but
marrying more than one minor in a single sitting. "The Arabs prefer teenage,
virgin brides," says Jameela Nishat, who counsels and sensitises young women
against the malaise.

The Arabs usually "marry" the girls for short periods, sometimes just a single
night. In fact, Wajihuddin reports, marriage and divorce formalities are often
prepared at the same time, thereby expediting the process for all involved.
Akhileshwari notes that "their girl children are available for as little as 5,000
rupees to satisfy the lust of doddering old Arab men." Five thousand rupees, by
the way, equals just a bit over US$100.

An Indian television program recently reported on a show-casing of eight

prospective brides, most of them minors, at which they were offered up to their
Arab suitors. "It resembled a brothel. The girls were paraded before the Arab
who would lift the girls' burqa, run his fingers through their hair, gaze at their
figures and converse through an interpreter," recalls one of Nishat's assistants.

Wajihuddin also offers a specific case history:

On the first of August, forty-five-year-old Al Rahman Ismail Mirza Abdul

Jabbar, a sheikh from the UAE, approached a broker in these matters, seventy-
year-old Zainab Bi, in the walled city, near the historic Char Minar. The broker
procured Farheen Sultana and Hina Sultana, aged between thirteen and fifteen,
for twenty thousand rupees [DP comment: that equals US$450]. Then he hired
Qazi [DP comment: an Islamic judge, usually spelled qadi in English]
Mohammed Abdul Waheed Qureshi to solemnise the marriage. The qazi,
taking advantage of an Islamic provision, married the girls off to the Arab.
After the wedding night
with the girls, the Arab left
at dawn.

So much for that

"marriage."

Sunita Krishnan, head of an

anti human-trafficking
organization, Prajwala,
makes the only too-obvious
point that girl children are
not valued. "If a girl child is
sold or her life ruined, it is
not a national loss, that's
why this is a non-issue, both Sunita Krishnan of Prajwala.
for community and to
society." With the exception of Maulana Hameeduddin Aqil, the head of
Millat-e-Islamia (a local organization, apparently not connected the notorious
Pakistani terrorist group), who speaks out against these sham marriages ("They
are committing a sin. It's notnikaah, it's prostitution by another name"), the
Islamic authorities in India are almost all silent about this travesty of the
Shari'a.

For their part, Muslim politicians in the city of Hyderabad apparently could
care less. "It's not on the poll agenda of any politician," says Mazhar Hussain,
director of a social welfare organization, the Confederation of Voluntary
Associations. The Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslameen, the main party of Hyderabad's
Muslims, is blissfully unconcerned: "You cannot deny that the fortunes of
many families have changed through such marriages," MIM's president, Sultan
Salahuddin Owaisi, cheerfully points out.

Comments:

(1) Ironically, the girls thus proffered appear all to be Muslim – no Hindus or
others need apply.

(2) The behavior of Arabs in India in some way parallels that of Japanese and
Westerners in Thailand, with the notable difference that the Indian case
involves marriage, an emphasis on virginity, and local authorities seemingly
pleased with providing their minor girls for sex tourism.

(3) Arabian sex tourism is not exclusive to India but also takes place in other
poor countries.

(4) This trade in persons is merely one dimension of a problem that prevails
through Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states (for another dimension, see "Saudis
Import Slaves to America").

(5) Concubinage, forced labor, indentured servitude, slavery – these deep

problems are nowhere near being addressed in the Gulf region, much less
solved. Indeed, one prominent Saudi theologian has gone so far as to state that
"Slavery is a part of Islam" and whoever says it should be abolished "is an
infidel." So long as such attitudes can be articulated publicly, without censure,
abuses are certain to continue.

(6) The hypocrisy of this trade is perhaps its vilest aspect. Better prostitution,
frankly acknowledged, than religiously-sanctioned fake marriages, for the
former is understood to be a vice while the latter parades as a virtue.

(7) Wajihuddin compares the Arabian men to "medieval monarchs" and the
analogy is apt. These transactions, involving Muslim minors and conducted
under the auspices of Islamic law, point yet again to the dominance of
premodern ways in the Muslim world and the urgent need to modernize the
Islamic religion.

_________

Oct. 7, 2005 update: A bibliography of my writings on "Sex and gender

relations" provides background to the problem described here. See especially
"Female Desire and Islamic Trauma."

Oct. 8, 2005 update: See my weblog entry, "Arabian Sex Tourism Updated,"
for more recent information pertaining to this topic.

Related Topics: Saudi Arabia, Sex and gender relations, South AsiaRECEIVE THE LATEST BY EMAIL:
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The commercial sexual exploitation of children affects millions of children each year, in
countries on every continent. One form of this exploitation is the growing phenomenon of Child
Sex Tourism (CST). Persons who travel from their own country to a foreign country to engage
in a commercial sex act with a child commit CST. The crime is fueled by weak law
enforcement, the Internet, ease of travel, and poverty.

Tourists engaging in CST typically travel from their home countries to developing countries.
Sex tourists from Japan, for example, travel to Thailand, and Americans tend to travel to
Mexico or Central America. “Situational abusers” do not intentionally travel to seek sex with a
child but take advantage of children sexually once they are in country. “Preferential child sex
abusers” or pedophiles travel for the purpose of exploiting children.

Global Efforts Made to Address the CST Phenomenon

In response to the growing phenomenon of CST, intergovernmental organizations, the tourism

industry, and governments have begun to address the issue.
• World Congresses Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation convened in Stockholm and
Yokohama in 1996 and 2001, drawing significant international attention to the issue.
• The World Tourism Organization established a task force to combat CST and
promulgated a Global Code of Conduct for Tourism in 1999.

Over the last five years, there has been a worldwide increase in the prosecution of child sex
tourism offenses. Today, 32 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow the prosecution of
their nationals for crimes committed abroad, regardless of whether the offense is punishable in
the country where it occurred.

Combating Child Sex Tourism

Several countries have taken commendable steps to combat child sex tourism:
• France’s Ministry of Education along with travel industry representatives developed
guidelines on CST for tourism school curricula, and state-owned Air France allocates a
portion of in-flight toy sales to fund CST awareness programs.
• Brazil implemented a national and international awareness campaign on sex tourism.
• Italy requires tour operators to provide information regarding its extraterritorial law on
child sex offenses.
• Swedish tour operators have signed a code of conduct agreeing to educate its staff
about CST.
• Cambodia established police units focused on combating child sex tourism and has
arrested and extradited foreign pedophiles.
• Japan prosecutes its citizens caught having sex with children in other countries.

Operation Predator

The United States strengthened its ability to fight child sex tourism last year through passage
of the "Trafficking Victim Protection Reauthorization Act" and the "PROTECT Act". Together
these laws enhance awareness through the development and distribution of CST information
and increase penalties to up to 30 years for engaging in child sex tourism.

In the first eight months of "Operation Predator" (a 2003 initiative to fight child exploitation,
child pornography, and child sex tourism), U.S. law enforcement authorities arrested 25
Americans for child sex tourism offenses.

Overall, the global community is awakening to the horrific issue of child sex tourism and is
starting to take important initial steps.

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BOSTON — The arrests this week of 28 "beach boys" in Indonesia — accused by the authorities of
selling sex to female tourists — highlights a surging global phenomenon.
GlobalPost correspondents and editors have observed this brand of female sex tourism in many
corners of the world, including Jamaica, Jordan, Senegal,Ukraine and elsewhere. There is a
growing body of work by film documentarians and authors chronicling what appears to be a
thriving subculture. At resorts, beach communities and tourist attractions from Egypt to
Indonesia, women with disposable incomes are negotiating with local men who are in the
business of offering the service of convenient coupling for female tourists on holiday.
The recent arrests, on the island of Bali, coincided with the release of a documentary on the
resort's "gigolos." The film, "Cowboys in Paradise" — which contains candid interviews with local
men and the foreign women who fall for them — had gone viral on the internet but has since been
removed from the official website by its makers. Here's a YouTube trailer.

It's by no means the first attempt to describe a phenomenon that, according to Jeannette
Belliveau, author of a book exploring the subject — "Romance on the Road" — is "going on
everywhere from Fiji to Peru, well outside of the Caribbean and Africa and southern Europe."
GlobalPost correspondents Tom A. Peter in Jordan and Anne Look in Senegal report that
business for the local men — and in many instances boys — who seek out foreign women, usually
on vacation, has never been better.
Peter, based in Amman, traveled to Jordan's south, where many foreign women — particularly
Europeans — test the definition of tourism by becoming sexually, even romantically, involved
with local guides and other tourism industry workers.
Look, meantime, found the beaches of Senegal to be rich pickings for European women "of a
certain age" who proposition young men, invariably trapped in a cycle of relentless poverty, for
sex in exchange for "gifts" like electronics and often cold, hard cash. Many of these women claim
they're just doing what middle-aged men have been doing for centuries: taking up with someone
half their age and giving them an all-expenses-paid ride in exchange for sex.
Female sex tourism, though certainly less pronounced than the male equivalent — and arguably
more taboo — has provoked ongoing debate as the subject of writers, filmmakers and researchers
for decades.
J. Michael Seyfert in his recent cult hit film "Rent-a-Rasta," follows the lives of Jamaican men
who offer their "services," be it companionship or sex, to foreign women in exchange for money,
gifts or even the promise of a better future abroad. The 2006 film's opening even quotes a popular
1980s American movie, "How Stella Got her Groove Back": "Sex tourism, a product of
slavery, is not new to the Caribbean. Every year, over 80,000 middle-aged women flock to
Jamaica to get their groove back."
The 2006 film "Heading South," focuses on a group of middle-aged American
and European women who visit dirt-poor Haiti in the late 1970s and link up with local boys (few
are out of their teens) eager to provide sex to middle-aged female guests who lavish them with
money and gifts. In the film, the 55-year-old American "Ellen" speaks matter-of-factly about the
practice: "I always told myself that when I'm old I'd pay young men to love me."
The reasons Western women travel and engage in liaisons, brief or otherwise, with local men are
also the subject of non-fiction. In "Romance on the Road," Baltimore native Belliveau pulls
together an impressive array of statistics and writes of her own and other women's experiences as
single travelers.
"I look in my book ... at how conquering soldiers through time have taken local women as part of
the spoils of that clash of encounters. Today, the conquering hero is the Western woman who has
a good job as a nurse or professional or writer or whatever. And she can have her pick of men,"
she said. "The transaction isn’t just simple money for sex at all. I’m 1,000 percent sure none of the
women I talked to [for her book] paid for anything. "Their story was: 'I made love with a Fijian
guy in the surf in Maui.'"
Laughing, she continues: "It was always in water. Another was in a bathtub with a Maori in New
Zealand. A third one was in the Red Sea in Egypt.
"And it was all very much heat of the moment. It wasn’t, 'I’m going to the Dominica Republic to
pay Pablo the going rate.'"
Dance bars in Mumbai may have been closed down due to public and political
pressure, but in Pondicherry porn is still big business.

While the chief minister insists that nothing illegal is happening in the city, an NDTV
investigation discovered strip shows at several hotels.

For decades Pondicherry has attracted tourists searching for a spiritual experience
but now it hosts a very different kind of customer.

Sex tourists are making a beeline for the city. Over the weekend it is impossible to
get a room here as clients descend from all over south India and even as far as
Mumbai.

Read More

As the above link is not working/ or the link has been removed, i am adding an
additional list from a different site

http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/...d0ac7d889.aspx

Full news is here....( pasted from actual article )

Pondicherry, Feb 17: Dance bars in Mumbai may have been closed down due to
public and political pressure, but in Pondicherry porn is still big business.

While the chief minister insists that nothing illegal is happening in the city, an NDTV
investigation discovered strip shows at several hotels.

For decades Pondicherry has attracted tourists searching for a spiritual experience
but now it hosts a very different kind of customer.
Sex tourists are making a beeline for the city. Over the weekend it is impossible to
get a room here as clients descend from all over south India and even as far as
Mumbai.

Brisk business: The Mass Hotel is owned by Bala Subramanium, the sitting MLA from
Muthialpet in Pondicherry.

Tickets here cost between Rs 250-300 depending on the day of the week. Women
emerge through a small door at the end of the hall as a live band builds up the
tempo.

But clearly music is not all that is driving the evening. Egged on by the 300 strong
high-spirited crowd, the women begin shedding their clothes.

Each day some of the hotels hold three shows at 6:30 pm (IST), 8:30 pm and 10:30
pm. In an hour and a half, these hotels manage to pack in 200-300 customers and
earn close to Rs 1.5 lakh a day.

The next stop for the NDTV team was the Blue Star Hotel. Being a weekend, the
hotel is packed with many more customers than usual.

Inside it is a similar set up as the women parade on stage.

Little option: NGOs in the city say most of the women have been trafficked from
Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and are held against their will.

Once inside this world, leaving is not an option and the strip clubs end up being a
front for a highly organised sex trade.

"There is no way that the women can leave. They often take loans which they have
to pay back and also there are physical threats to deal with," said Shyamala,
Member of an NGO working with sex workers.

Pondicherry is fast turning into a haven of crime. With cheap alcohol available, many
head to the city over the weekend and it has become a focal point for the sex trade.

Nude dances by women are completely illegal in India but these clubs end up being
centres of prostitution where every year thousands of women are forcibly sold off.

Crackdowns by the police have been stalled as these clubs managed to get a stay
from the Chennai High Court on grounds that they were only holding Kalaedchees or
traditional and cultural shows.

But in a state with a population of just 10 lakh, it seems there are few secrets.

"This used to happen in the Mass Hotel. Philo Hotel had it too. But it was shut down.
Nude dances do take place. But I have not seen any," said a local.

Govt aware: Chief Minister N Rangaswamy however, seems blissfully unaware of the
emerging industry.

"There is no sex tourism here," he said.

The porn industry is clearly big money and with politicians directly involved in the
trade, it may be difficult to crackdown on the growing menace.

------------------------

The same evening, NDTV showed footage of a life strip tease show. There is a room
with about 200 - 300 men. From a small door, women enter wearing shawl around
them. Then, they play cheap local tamil music - called peta music or gaana paatu
( tamil version of bollywoods item number ). The women do a dance for this, and
once in a while take off the shawl around them.

There are 3 shows in most hotels - Philo, Mass and Blue star at pondicherry - 6.30
pm, 7.30 pm and 9.30 pm..it think. For all these 3 shows, each hotel earns about 1.5
L per day.
__________________

THAILAND: GAYNESS, BAR BOYS

AND SEX TOURISM
PETER TATCHELL looks at the myths and realities of the country
that many call a gay paradise.

There are no laws against homosexuality in Thailand. The capital,

Bangkok, boasts over 60 gay bars and sex establishments. It's not
uncommon to see gay men walking arm in arm in the street. No-one
seems to bat an eye-lid.

This, together with the abundance of beautiful Thai youths, has led
many westerners to describe the country as a "gay paradise."

The reality is, alas, somewhat different and more complex. In the
opinion of Noi, a 24 year old male nurse at a Bangkok hospital:
"European gays are mesmerised by all the pretty boys and night-clubs.
They mistakenly assume that this means there is equality for
homosexuals in Thailand. In fact, the social integration of gay people is
quite ambiguous, even precarious. The toleration of so many gay bars
has as much to do with maintaining the profits of the tourist industry as
with the social acceptance of homosexuals."

The idea that Thai society has a somewhat contradictory attitude

towards homosexuality is echoed by Chuan, a gay university lecturer:

"In Thailand, the distinction between heterosexuality and homosexuality

is more blurred and tenuous than in the West. Our culture is very gentle.
Thai men are much less macho. A lot of them are open to homosexual
experiences and these are fairly well tolerated by our society."

"Yet there's little public discussion about homosexuality or awareness of

lesbian and gay issues. It's a curious mixture of tolerance, ignorance
and evasion."

On a personal level, these conflicting attitudes are most directly

experienced within family life. The prevalence of homosexuality, and the
pattern of large families, means that almost every Thai family has a gay
son. ''They're generally accepted," claims Chuan, 'but their gayness is
never talked about." This contradiction, between the acceptance and
avoidance of homosexuality, suggests that tolerance is not always
based on full acceptance and that it probably has more to do with the
Thai tradition of family loyalty than with a liberal sexual morality.

In the view of one of Thailand's leading gay activists and AIDS

campaigners, Natee Teerarojjanapongs: "The problem for lesbians and
gay men in Thailand is not one of direct state repression. Rather, it is a
question of subtle negation through invisibility and a lack of social
awareness about homosexual people."

"There's very little overt discrimination against lesbians or gay men.

Nevertheless, though many people acknowledge the existence of
homosexuality, they are still not used to the idea of openly gay people.
Even fewer have any understanding of the notion of lesbian and gay
rights."

Quite so. Any attempt at public discussion about homosexual

emancipation is usually greeted with laughter and incomprehension,
even by most Thai gay men. In a society with no history of anti-
homosexual repression, and little public debate about sexuality, the
need for "liberation" is not so immediately obvious as in the West.
As a result, there's no organised lesbian and gay movement in Thailand.
Activity is confined to a fairly small group of individuals and is primarily
focused around campaigns for AIDS prevention; though there are
tentative plans by Natee and his friends to launch a gay rights lobby
later this year.

"Paradoxically, the western-influenced and overseas-educated Thai are

both a source and a solution to the problems of gay people," says John,
a British-born gay man who works for the government health service in
Bangkok, "The upper class Europeanised Thais are inclined to be the
most homophobic, having internalised many of the western prejudices
against gays during their sojourns abroad. In contrast, other Thais who
have had contact with the western lesbian and gay movements are now
in the forefront of the efforts towards greater public visibility. So, for Thai
homosexuals, foreign influences have been a double-edged sword, both
for ill and for good."

For the few lesbian and gay activists in Thailand, their tactics are very
different from the confrontational approach of their western
counterparts. This is largely due to Thai cultural traditions which attach
great value to conciliation and consensus.

"Aggression and anger are deemed to be acutely embarrassing and

very bad manners in our society," according to a 28 year-old designer
named Lek. "It would be counterproductive to adopt the militancy of
western gay liberationists."

The upshot of this view is that most of the Thai gay activists have
embraced the strategy of "the good gay" as a way of winning greater
social acceptance.

In an interview in the Thai gay magazine, Midway, one of the country's

leading homosexual actors, Varayut Milintajinda, advised the gay
community: "Everybody loves good people. So be good people. Do
some good work for society, and society will accept our lifestyles."

In recent years, the taboos on the public discussion of sex have begun
to break down and gay people have benefited from this. There have
been a number of television and newspaper interviews with openly gay
people, notably Dr. Seri Wongmontha. A well-known actor, Seri has
nevertheless been strongly criticised by other Thai gays for the negative
public image he presents of the gay community.
"There's always a pleading and apologetic tone about what he says,"
reports Lek. "He paints a completely negative and depressing picture of
gay life, always focusing on gay people's suffering. Because he never
indicates that homosexuals can lead happy and worthwhile lives, he just
reinforces the attitude that it's bad to be gay. Perhaps that's the reason
he's always being interviewed."

Apparently, like every other positive aspect of gayness in Thailand, the

increasing public profile of gay people also has it's down-side.

Bangkok has a huge and thriving gay scene consisting of five discos,
seven saunas, ten restaurants and more than forty bars.

"Most of this gay scene revolves around bar boy prostitution which
caters for rich Thais and foreign tourists from the West and Asian in
countries such as Japan, South Korea and Malaysia," says John.
"Indeed, in all of Bangkok, there's only one gay bar which doesn't have
men for hire, the Telephone Bar. Even there, a fair proportion of the
Thai gays are freelance 'money boys.' The same freelance system also
operates at discos such as Harrie's Bar and the Rome Club.

At the "sex for sale" bars, there are 20-60 bar boys. Dressed in G-
strings, they take it in turns to dance on an elevated podium; each with
a number for easy identification by interested customers.

Some of the raunchier bars, like the Twilight, also put on "live fuck
shows" and "big cock parades."

According to Eric Allyn, author of the gay guide, The Men of Thailand ,
"There are an estimated 2,000 bar boys in Bangkok, most aged 18-25
and either gay or bisexual. A survey in July 1988 by the Thai gay
magazine, Morakot, recorded that 30 percent of the bar boys are gay,
30 percent straight, and the rest bisexual."

Apart from some of those working at the "live sex" clubs, there's nothing
sordid or trashy about the bar boys. They're clean cut, handsome, and
mostly very warm-hearted. To these men, being a bar boy is a
professional business and they do their job with efficiency, friendliness
and obvious pleasure.

Thai social attitudes towards the bar boys have a distinct class bias.
Well-off professionals are often highly critical of the sex industry. They
can afford to be. Poorer people, while not necessarily approving, are
more likely to have a "live and let live" attitude.

"Bar boys tend to be viewed with shame by many middle class people,"
says Natee. "But the response of the ordinary Thais is usually never
mind." They're more understanding because they realise that most of
the boys have no alternative employment."

In Eric's opinion, though the job of a bar boy is ''mildly stigmatised," a

majority of people accept it as "an appropriate job for the poor." Indeed,
among working class Thais, it is often seen as a "glamorous and
lucrative profession."

For many, being a bar boy is the difference between poverty and a good
standard of living. Most earn around 4,000 Baht (£100) a month. This is
nearly twice the average city wage and three times the typical rural
income of 1,300 Baht. Top bar boys can earn over 10,000 Baht (£250) a
month (nearly twice the salary of a university professor).

The principle reason for working in the sex industry is poverty. "There's
a lot of unemployment and jobs usually pay very little," says Lop, a 20
year old bar boy. "It's a good job and much better than going hungry."

Around three-quarters of the bar boys are from the impoverished

peasant communities in the north of the country near the borders with
Burma and Laos. The Morakotsurvey in July 1988 found that half of
them ended up working in the bars because they couldn't find any other
employment. Most used their bar income to help support their families
and a sixth were using it to fund a college education.

"It's the only way I can afford to go to school to get qualifications,"

reports Jo, a student at Silapakorn University. "My parents could never
afford to send me to college and 1 could never get a job that pays this
well."

For some bar boys, working in the sex industry is also a way of
expressing their gayness. "In my village, there are no gay bars" says
Lop He came to Bangkok from the north-east region near the city of
Udon Thani in 1987. He adds: "There was no chance of meeting other
gay people and having sex. In this job, I meet lots of gay people, have
plenty of sex, and get paid for it."
Natee believes that some of the ostensibly straight men who work in the
gay bars are repressed homosexuals who haven't been able to come to
terms with being gay: "Working as a bar boy is a safe way of legitimising
their submerged sexual desires. They can rationalise having sex with
other men as a purely business arrangement."

Thailand is renowned for sex tourism. The issue generates tremendous

passions, both within the country and abroad; though surprisingly few
Thais, even progressive ones, rush to condemn it out of hand.

"Sex tourism is a complex question," says Natee. "It's bad in principle,

but for the foreseeable future it's vital to the country's economy and
essential to the many poor people who would otherwise have no jobs."

"What choice do the bar boys have?" exclaims the manager of the
Garden Bar. "They don’t want to go hungry or become beggars or
criminals. They have to do this to survive and in many cases their
families also depend on their income. Those who criticise sex tourism
and the bar boys, those rich and educated Thais, they do not
understand the realities of life faced by the poor."

"Either I sell, my body or I live in the gutter," retorts Chai. "It's wrong for
people to condemn me." A nineteen year old who has worked as a
freelancer in the Telephone Bar and Rome Club for the last three years,
Chai says his family know about his work: "They accept it because it's
the only way we can have a better life."

In recent years, the Thai sex industry has been sharply criticised by
many people in the West who see it as exploitative and degrading.
However, according to a journalist on the Bangkok Post: "`What right do
liberal Europeans have to condemn the sex industry? Them telling us
what to do is just plain neo-colonialism. It's up to Thais to sort out our
own problems."

In response to the suggestion that working as a bar boy involved a loss

of dignity, Jo replied curtly: "Where’s the dignity in doing back-breaking
labour seven days a week in a rice field for next to nothing?"

Chuan takes a broader view: "The real problem is not prostitution or sex
tourism but the fact that Thailand is an under-developed country with a
huge gulf between the very rich and the very poor. The sex industry is
merely a symptom of deeper inequalities. Until there is greater
economic development and social justice in Thailand, many poor people
will have to participate in the sex for sale business. There's simply no
other way for them to escape from dreadful poverty."

Chuan sees the bar boy scene as also having another positive side to it:
"It is, to some extent, an expression of the resourcefulness and
determination of poor people to survive in the face of immense adversity
and limited options. Some of the freelancers have shown ingenious
entrepreneurial skills; having used their sex earnings to set themselves
up in legitimate businesses. The importance of sex tourism to the Thai
economy cannot be under-estimated. It's a huge earner of foreign
exchange.

In April this year, when the US Seventh Fleet called at the coastal resort
of Pattaya, it's estimated that in four days American military personnel
spent $US 8 million on sex alone ("A total of 20,000 fucks," according to
one US naval officer) and spent a further US $12 million on hotels,
restaurants and souvenirs.

In the southern city of Hat Yai, John recalls that Muslim religious
pressure led the local authorities to close down all the sex
establishments: "It created economic ruin in the region," he says.
"Eventually, the bars were ordered to be reopened by the Minister of
Tourism because their closure was driving the tourists away and
undermining the economy."

"Are the bar boys exploited?" asks Lek. Answering his own question, he
replies: "Foreign tourists come here, fall in love and leave broken-
hearted. The boys earn a standard of living they could never otherwise
enjoy. So `who’s exploiting who?"

"I don't feel exploited," says Lop. "I offer service which the customers
pay for. I don't see it as any more exploitative that the relationship
between a hotel worker and a foreign tourist."

Looking around the bars, most of the boys certainly appear happy and
full of life. In the Garden Bar disco, about 40 boys work freelance.
There's an atmosphere of exuberance and camaraderie. They dance
and cuddle together with obvious care and affection for each other.
Many share apartments and swap clothes and records.
The club's owners allow the boys to work there free of charge and don't
take a cut from their earnings. They also provide "safer sex" information
and act as "agony uncles", sorting out personal problems.

"Some of the boys are still in school," says the manager. "We
encourage them to get an education and arrange their working hours to
fit in with their studies."

"The bars are like a big extended family," according to Lek. "Life for the
boys is a far cry from the hardships they'd be suffering if they didn't
have these jobs."

John concedes that the gay bar owners make a profit out of the boys:
"But if the boys worked outside the sex industry, their employers would
still make profits out of them. Making profits is a fact of life of any
commercial enterprise. Is making profits out of sex any worse?

Lek feels that compared with the straight sex industry the atmosphere in
the bar boy scene is much better: "There’s no organised crime or
corruption and the boys are treated much better than the girls who work
in the heterosexual establishments."

On the question of exploitation, it's tempting to conclude that there's a

strong element of puritanism in the way some westerners single out sex
tourism for special condemnation. After all, Thailand is a country of
many exploitations, most of which arouse far less wrath. Is sexual
exploitation any more odious than sweatshop labour, the destruction of
tribal communities, or the ripping out of natural resources by multi-
national companies?

John believes not. "The sex industry has to be seen in the context of a
country with many excesses. Thailand is a free market economy at its
most extreme. The huge prostitution business is merely an extension of
free market economics into the sexual sphere. It's just one excess
among many."

Many European gay men who visit Thailand expect to find a western-
style gay scene and end up disappointed. They complain that the bar
boy system has completely screwed up Thai gay life. However, the
scene in Thailand has never been any different. Indeed, it is the sex
industry which has prompted the proliferation of gay clubs.
"It's possible to meet non-commercial Thai guys," says John, "but it's
not easy. Furthermore, because this is a poor country, any relationship
between a European and a Thai is always going to have a hint of
patronage. Truly equal relationships are virtually impossible."

A 32 year old American airline steward, Hugh, who regularly stops over
in Bangkok, argues that there's no reason why westerners should
expect to get sex without payment in Thailand: "We live in a very
unequal world. It's perfectly understandable that poor Thais should
expect financial support from rich foreigners. Why shouldn't we pay for
sex? We can afford it. When I buy sex in Bangkok, or give gifts to the
boys I like I simply put it down as a contribution to the global
redistribution of wealth."

Perhaps the saddest aspect of the sex industry is the way in which
some Thais, despite genuine desire and commitment, are put off having
relationships with Europeans for fear of being thought of as bar boys.
This seems to be a particular problem for gay men from middle class
backgrounds where the social stigma against prostitution is strongest.

A 21 year old student, Thuch, says: "I like western men, but I'm afraid
that if I'm seen with them, everyone will think I'm bar boy. So I end up
staying alone."

A gay paradise? Make up your own mind.

The Men of Thailand guide is available from the Long Yang Club,

BCM/ Wisdom, London WC1N 3XX. Price £14.50.

Gay Times October 1989