Dixon Edwards
October 26, 2010
Sex Tourism
Sex tourism is the act of tourists traveling to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes that are residents of the destination. A sex tourist is an adult that travels in order to have legal consensual sexual activities with another adult for gifts and most often money. By using existing tourism methods of travel these activities have become easily feasible for any individual looking to explore this sector of tourism. Creating a normal vacation with the intention of having sexual relations is a simple process. Sex tourism benefits every sector of the travel industry including: airlines, taxis, restaurants, and hotels. Some regions of the world, that have already developed a market for tourists, are building upon this opportunity to bring in more traffic to their destination by constructing new resorts. These new found “hot spots” are worldwide and are gaining popularity by all types of people.
Although consensual sexual relations between adults for money are legal in some places, child sex tourism is illegal (in most places) and regarded as sexual abuse. Child sex tourism is part of a multi-billion-dollar global sex tourism industry and is estimated to victimize two million children around the world. (US State Department 2008) The main groups of people who exploit this unethical sector are pedophiles, which makes combating child sex tourism a challenge because these people aren’t worried about consequences rather than a personal gain or temporary satisfaction. Several governments are now beginning to protect citizens enacting such bills as the 2003 US PROTECT Act, which enables stronger regulations and communication about sexual offenders. Another group of laws called Megan’s law, named after seven year old Megan Kanka who was raped and killed by a known child molester who had moved across the street from her family without their knowledge, strived to established two major information services the
Cited: "The Facts About Child Sex Tourism". Fact Sheet. US Dept of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. February 29, 2008. http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/08/112090.htm. Megan’s Law information from the California office of the Attorney General http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/sexreg.aspx Sex Tourism: When Women do it, it’s called romance traveling http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/sexreg.aspx “The Project.” n. pag. Web. 26 Oct 2010. http://www.streetwomen.org/the%20project.htm. “Amsterdam Red Light District”. Web. Amsterdam Red Light District Info (2009) http://amsterdam-red-light-district.info/ “I Am Frequently Asked?” Web. Copyright. Dec 2009. http://www.sexwork.com/coalition/whatcountrieslegal.html