Sex Tourism in Southeast Asian countries

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Introduction

The predominant popularity of sex tourism in South East Asia led to many foreign tourist attractions to their countries. South East Asia, notably Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, and Cambodia all have notorious red light districts promoted in guidebooks as a tourist attraction. Thus, it is not uncommon to sight family groups shopping in the open-air market while sex workers actively drag passers-by into strip clubs and bars that offers sex services on the same street. This paper is concerned with sex tourism and the images that it constructs for particular South East Asian countries. Through this paper we also explore the major kinds of sex tourisms and touch upon the psychological process behind it. Proposed ideas of correcting the negative image of sex tourism are presented for countries that hope for such changes.

Definition

The most widely accepted definition for sex tourism is the act of travelling to a foreign country to procure sexual services (Davidson and Taylor 2). Sex tourism takes place in many parts of the world and is undoubtedly the basis for many ongoing trafficking, physical abuses, and child prostitution. By defining sex tourism as “consisting of people from economically developed nations travelling to underdeveloped countries ‘specifically to purchase the sexual services of local women and men’” it correspond better with the modern sex tourism image (Davidson and Taylor 2). Increasingly more tourists have traveled to South East Asian countries for sexual pleasures, making them the typical sex tourists that nourished the multi-billion dollar industry. Just looking at Thailand alone, about 70% of all tourist men who travelled there came specifically for sex (Green 1).

Question is, who are these people...

... middle of paper ...

... gives a holistic insight to sex tourism. It discuss sex tourism through its definition, its demand population, the rationale, and global contradictions. This study was the most helpful and resourceful information that I used. The explanations were clear and precise.

Prideaux, Bruce, Jerome Agrusa, Jon Donlon, and Chris Curran. "Exotic or Erotic - Contrasting Images for Defining Destinations." Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research 9.1 (2004): 5-17. EBSCO Hospitality and Tourism Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

The article discusses the new images that sex tourism has brought upon to Southeast Asia, especially Thailand. Since Thailand has been one of the most popular destinations in Southeast Asia for prostitution, it has made sex a featured selling point to attract foreigners. Marketing, social, governmental implications are examined in this article.

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