Sex Tourism

Abstract

Sex tourism at its most basic definition is travel for the purpose of engaging in sexual relations. Tourism researchers note that pleasure and the possibility of sex are part of the overall marketing of tourism, and that it can be hard to separate “sex in tourism” from sex tourism. Attention to the study of sex tourism to address sexual health and HIV prevention became important in the 1990s after the emergence of the disease in the 1970s and 1980s. Destinations with an erotic tourism image, such as Las Vegas, Amsterdam, the Caribbean, Brazil, Africa, and Southeast Asia, also have thriving entertainment and hospitality industries in which sex tourism is embedded. This includes nightclubs, bars, hotels, and resorts supported by a growing alcohol industry that provide a jumping‐off point for sex tourism. Most of the literature on sex tourism frames the issue within the context of commercial sex, with purchasers primarily being white, middle‐aged, or older heterosexual males from the Global North traveling to the South, but research has also explored female sex tourism, gay sex tourism, and the perspective of migrant workers.