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Sex tourism is travelling for sexual intercourse with prostitutes or to engage in other sexual activity. 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".

Sex tourism can be used to describe sexual entertainment activities, for example sex tourists may travel to observe live sex shows, sex museums, or tours of red light districts.

Often the term "sex tourism" is mistakenly interchanged with the term "child sex tourism". A tourist who has sex with a child prostitute possibly commits a crime against international law, in addition to the host country, and the country that the tourist is a citizen of. The term "child" is often used as defined by international law and refers to any person below the age of consent.

The United Nations opposes sex tourism citing health, social and cultural consequences for both tourist receiving and sending countries, especially in situations exploiting gender, age, social and economic inequalities in sex tourism destinations.

Destinations

National destinations for sex tourists include: Germany, The Netherlands, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Cuba, Thailand and Cambodia. Since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic have also become popular destinations for sex tourists. In many of those destinations, sex tourism is still only a small percentage of overall prostitution, with most prostitutes serving local men; however, in Cuba, because of economic issues, sex workers usually serve only foreign tourists, as very few nationals can afford them.

Individual cities or regions can have a particular reputation as a sex tourist destination. Many of these coincide with major red-light districts, and include Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya in Thailand and Angeles City in the Philippines.

In the United States, where prostitution is largely illegal, with the exception of rural areas of the state of Nevada; these have become a sex tourist destination for some Americans. To a lesser extent, several other large cities in the U.S. are also domestic sex tourist destinations despite legal sanctions on prostitution.

The primary destinations for female sex tourism are Southern Europe (mainly Italy, former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece and Spain), the Caribbean (led by Jamaica, Barbados and the Dominican Republic), the Gambia and Kenya in Africa, Bali and Phuket in Thailand. Lesser destinations include Nepal, Morocco, Fiji, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Female sex or romance tourism differs from male sex tourism, in that women do not usually sign up for tours or go to specific bars. Women sometimes give clothes, meals, cash and gifts to their holiday boyfriends, but not all (especially in Southern Europe) expect compensation.

Criminality and controversy

Tourism involving sex with minors

While most sex tourists only engage in this activity with other adults, some actively look for child prostitutes, while others are not very selective either way, regarding age. Many countries have ratified international law or implemented domestic law making sex with children a serious criminal offence, for their nationals or inhabitants including when practised abroad regardless of whether it is forbidden by the laws of the other country. Singapore has been criticized for having no such law, in spite of being adjacent to the sex tourism destination of Batam in Indonesia, which has many underage sex workers, many of whom have been forced into prostitution. In 2004 Canada started to prosecute individuals under the sex tourism law. The first individual charged in Canada under this law was Donald Bakker.

Legal issues in the United States

Federal law (see PROTECT Act of 2003) prohibits United States citizens or permanent residents to engage in international travel with the purpose or effect of having commercial sex with a person under the age of 18, or any sex with a person under the age of 16; the age of consent and facilitating such travel is also illegal. Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are becoming common, however prosecutions under this law are still very rare.

As of 2005, there has been one effort to prosecute a sex tour operator: Big Apple Oriental Tours of New York was prosecuted for "promotion of prostitution" by the New York State Attorney General after lobbying by feminist human rights groups, however the case has been thrown out twice. HR 972, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 reauthorizes the 2000 law, but it also gives U.S. law enforcement better tools to study human trafficking within the United States and to prosecute those who purchase sex acts. The measure authorizes $50 million for grants to state and local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute persons who engage in the purchase of commercial sex acts.

Servaty scandal

In 2005 it was reported that Philippe Servaty, a newspaper columnist for Le Soir, travelled to Morocco where he persuaded women to engage in sexual activity by promising to marry and bring them to Belgium. He then posted photos online to boast of his conquests, but when his explicit materials were circulated back to Morocco many of the women were arrested, had their lives ruined, committed suicide or disappeared.

Terms used for sex tourists

A term that sex tourists oftentimes use to describe themselves is "mongerers," and traveling for sex as "mongering." This apparently derives from the word "fish monger" or "whoremonger."

One term sometimes used for a sex tourist is "sexpat". Its derivation is from expat (expatriate) and did not originally refer to tourists per se, but rather those with similar motivations who have actually relocated to such a location, either as workers or as retirees. The word has since come to be used, at least loosely, in both contexts.

Trivia

The 2005 film Heading South describes the experiences of a group of middle-aged women in the late 1970s, who travel to Haiti for the purposes of sexual tourism. In South Park Chef joins the Super Adventure Club which travels the world having sex with children.

References

^ U.N. World Tourism Organization Statement on the Prevention of Organized Sex Tourism
U.N. Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI) Gender Mainstreaming Mandates
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
Sex tourism
'Asia's sex trade is 'slavery' - BBC
Sex tourist fact sheet
Full copy of HR 972
Avenging Muslims Seek to Kill Belgian Journalist, The Brussels Journal, 13 July 2005

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