SEX TOURISM

Sex Tourism

Sex tourism

Introduction

Sex tourism is as old as the prostitution and tourist industry. Sex tourism is the term which links with the activities of commercial sexual relations between tourists and residents of that destination (Graburn, 1983, pp. 438). The sex tourism has gained a considerable amount of concerns in the world since 1990s. Issues like depicting sexual imagery in the marketing of tourism programs, the involvement of young people in the sexual activities in holidays, cases of sexually transmitted diseases among people, like HIV and Aids from tourist's locations. Further the role of tourists sectors in accelerating the sex tourism business in the developing and underdeveloped countries.

Moreover, the introduction of several legislations all around the world on account of sexual exploitation of children and women are some of the most significant issues that have become the challenge for the world governments, non-profit organizations for children and women, public health and tourism authorities and the tourism industry itself to eradicate this misery of human trade (Clift & Carter, 2000, pp. 2).

Notwithstanding these hurdles, sex tourism, is not widely discussed and addressed due to its sensitive and emotive nature (Hall, 1994, pp. 142). Sex tourism can be on the domestic level that is travelling into the parts of the same country or on the international level that is to travel the international frontiers. Sex tourisms can be found in almost all continents of the world, and the preferred destinations for the sex tourisms include Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Colombia, and Thailand (Enloe, 2002, pp. 22; Hall, 1994, pp. 144).

Overview

Asia-pacific is becoming one of the attractive regions for the sexual tourism. The South East Asia is the region, which highly commercialized with the sex tourism and tourists generating regions that partially motivates by prostitution business too. Several studies reported the practical significance of sex tourism in impacting the sexually transmitted diseases, race relations issues, the role of sex tourism in international crime and exploitation of the cultures (Oppermann, 1999, pp. 256). It is a multi-billionaire industry and a major part of systematized foreign business. Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand are some of the Asian countries that considered being the greatly flooded with the sex tourism.

The worst fact about the sex tourism is that it involves in the child prostitution, which along with the illegal is immoral and unacceptable too. The non-consensual or child trafficking are some of the forms of the child prostitution that exploited by through the sex tourism. According to the UNICEF (2004, http://www.unicef.org), There are around 2 million children in the world who exploited through the sex tourism. Further, according to the Asia Pacific (2012, http://wvasiapacific.org), the children who live or work on the streets of the tourist destination are more vulnerable to the sexual activities. Several laws have passed to combat this growing problem, and code of conduct issued to the several countries that involved in the vast ...