Discuss "sex tourism." What is it, who is involved and how do they get involved? In what ways is it like prostitution as well as global industries. How does it advertise?

Question

Describe its prevalence as well as the involvement of some countries or areas of the world. How do factors such as unemployment and traditional attitudes about women influence this industry? How does sex tourism relate to the relative wealth and poverties of countries in the world?
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Sex tourism is an industry in which wealthy men pay for sex with strangers in foreign countries. In some respects, sex tourism represents the globalization of prostitution. Like other global industries, well-organized groups direct the flow of the "consumer" (wealthy men) to the "commodities" (poor men and women). Like prostitution, there is far less "choice" on the part of the locals and far more coercion than typically meets the eye. Poor people in poor countries are lured by traffickers to destinations all over the world with promises of high-paying legitimate employment, only to end up as prostitutes and "rent boys." Sex tourism uses the internet to advertise. In some countries young girls and boys are abducted or lured to cities to serve as sex slaves, paying off debts incurred in transporting them to their new homes. Globally, about 1.2 million women are sold or bartered as sex slaves every year; over half of them are from East Asia and South Asia. Thailand is a popular destination for sex tourism; it got involved with this as a "recreation" area for soldiers stationed in Vietnam. Proprietors take advantage of high unemployment and traditional attitudes about women to ensure a steady "supply" and use the exoticism of the "Orient" and traditional stereotypes about docile and compliant Asian women to ensure a steady "demand" from their heterosexual customers. Sex tourism thus expresses the unequal relationships between the poor countries that "sell" sex and wealthier countries that can "buy" it, as well as the inequalities between men and women, both globally and locally.