Sex Tourism Essay ⋆ Criminal Justice Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The term sex tourism refers to the development and expansion of industries providing sexual services to tourists. These industries—which include not just the establishments that provide sex shows and prostitution, but also travel agencies, hotels, and other businesses—have developed to cater primarily to Western and Japanese men who travel for business and leisure activities. Consider the growth of sex tourism in Thailand alone, which is a common destination for sex tourists. In 1981, Thailand received two million international tourists a year; by 1996, this number had more than tripled to seven million. Most notably, the vast majority of tourists in Thailand—five million in 1996—were unaccompanied men, with a significant portion of them being sex tourists.

Experts link the growth of sex tourism to broader patterns of tourist growth. According to the UN World Tourism Organization, by the year 2000, tourism was the single most important global economic activity. Tourism has been promoted extensively as a developmental strategy for third world countries. Local governments have actively promoted tourism as well, as it has become increasingly important in sustaining their economies. Worldwide, tourism is approximately a $3.5 trillion industry.

Sex tourism is well documented in a number of countries, including Thailand, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the Dominican Republic. It has been especially pronounced in Asia, and its roots are linked to the impact of the U.S. military presence there in the middle of the 20th century. Though prostitution has a long history in the region, sex tourism is a direct outgrowth of U.S. military bases and “rest and recreation” centers established in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. These centers were created to provide sexual services to American GI’s serving in the region and relied on the sexual labor of local women. In fact, prostitution regularly flourishes during wartime, with the tacit or explicit approval of military leaders and with little concern for harms caused to the women involved. It is often justified as a means of channeling men’s presumed sexual “needs.” In Southeast Asia, the early growth in international tourism—made possible by the expansion of commercial airlines and other leisure services—occurred around the same time as the placement of American troops in the region. The infrastructures put into place to serve American military personnel were well suited to the expansion of sex tourism after military withdrawal.

The structure and operation of the sex tourism industry continues to be shaped by Western imperialism, colonial legacies, and racialized notions of sexuality. For instance, sex tourism is often promoted as beneficial to both third world economies and individual sex workers and their families, thus encouraging sex tourists to see their exploits as “beneficial.” Moreover, the promotion of tourism and sex tourism— which includes package sex tours—advertises the sexual availability of young women and girls to tourists, highlighting the notion that Asian women are submissive, exotic, and thus sexually desirable. In these ways, sex tourism can be considered to be built on the idea of male entitlement to sex, to cast men’s involvement in a paternalistic framework, and to hinge on race-based images of the feminine characteristics and sexual availability of girls and women in the third world. Moreover, these images can be considered as not simply based on notions of racial difference, but also on racial hierarchy.

In Thailand, for example, an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 women work in commercial sex, with the vast majority in Bangkok. A third are believed to be minors. If these estimates are accurate, upwards of 10% of all young women in Thailand between the ages of 15 and 25 are involved in the sex industry. Thailand is a common destination country for trafficking in Asia. Young women and girls are trafficked into Thailand from countries such as Burma, Laos, the Philippines, China, and Hong Kong because of Thailand’s well-developed sex industry, including its heavy emphasis on sex tourism. In addition, young women from impoverished rural villages within Thailand are trafficked or migrate to Bangkok to work in the sex industry to support their families. Often these young women are the primary breadwinners in their families. Many young women are sold—outright or into debt bondage—in exchange for money paid to their families. Other young women willingly migrate to work in the sex industry, though often without full knowledge of the circumstances under which they will work. It is estimated that about 5% of sex workers in Thailand are fully enslaved. However, the distinction between forced and voluntary prostitution is a complex issue.

Both stable and changing features of local cultures help sustain the sex industry, including sex tourism. For instance, growing consumerism in developing countries is a factor; families in rural areas able to purchase consumer goods from the profits of their daughter’s labor often receive status within their communities. Young women’s sense of obligation to their families, and in some cases the economic benefits they receive, often result in their acceptance of the circumstances of their work. Religion and the cultural devaluation of women also provide important justifications. For example, like most major religions around the world, Thai Buddhism regards women as distinctly inferior to men and as impure, carnal, and corrupting. Moreover, Thai Buddhism also teaches as a core principle acceptance and resignation to pain and suffering. The concept of karma, another key religious principle, teaches Buddhists that the pains they endure in this lifetime are the result of their actions in previous lives; in fact, simply being born female may be indicative of failures in past lives.

Gender inequality and the cultural devaluation of women help explain why prostitution itself has proliferated and why the brunt of the industry is born by young women. However, global capitalism and its push for profits may be equally at the root of why these young women have become commodities. Prostitution is often recognized as a means of increasing foreign revenue to a country. For example, a recent study in Thailand suggests that prostitution is the country’s largest underground industry, generating between 10% and 14% of the country’s gross national product. In a review of the accounts of just one brothel in Thailand, a study found that the net monthly profit was $88,000. The result is tacit acceptance and encouragement of the industry by local officials, combined with the criminalization of sex workers. Consequently, while women and other providers of sexual services are stigmatized and face law enforcement sanctions, the infrastructures of the industry—and those who profit from it—often remain untouched.

Bibliography:

Bales, K. (1999). Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Enloe, C. (1989). Bananas, beaches and bases: Making feminist sense of international politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kempadoo, K., & Doezema, J. (Eds.). (1998). Global sex workers: Rights, resistance, and redefinition. New York: Routledge.
Lim, L. L. (Ed.). (1998). The sex sector: The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Phongpaichit, P. (1982). From peasant girls to Bangkok masseuses. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Truong, T. (1990). Sex, money and morality: Prostitution and tourism in Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books.

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