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"Sex Tourism - liminal behaviour club 18-30. Only young participants in sex tourism?"

"Sex Tourism - liminal behaviour club 18-30. Only young participants in sex tourism?"
Author: Magdalena Berus
2 Commentries
Sex Tourism
Tourism, romance, love, and sex have been relaxed bedfellows for a long time. People travel away from home and they have required the unusual, extraordinary, and different. Apart from seeking to view exciting natural landscapes and visiting manifestations of exotic cultures, the tourists urge to experience uniqueness quiet naturally includes seeking out romantic and sexual opportunities that may not be available to them at home. (Cliff and Carter, 2000).
There are some positive and negative aspects of sex tourism. For the most part, the relationship between sex and tourism it is positive, involving consenting adults engaging in an equally gratifying, and often relationship - reinforcing activity. But there is also a dark side to sex and tourism as tourism- related sexual activities can be exploitative and damaging. (Bauer and McKercher, 2003).

Relationship between sex and tourism.
There are a three dimensional model of the relationship between tourism and sex. The first dimension it is the concentricity of the pursuit of sex or romance, be it to join a commercial sex tour, or to participate in singles cruise. The second dimension is the nature of the relationship. At the end it can be commonly satisfying, and relationship building, while at the other extreme it can be exploitative and damaging. The third dimension is the role that tourism plays as a facilitator of sex, love, or romance. (Bauer and McKercher, 2003).

Liminal behaviour.
According to Pearce, (2005) the most important role that tourists, as a phenomenon, plays in the sexual relationship is that it offers a liminal environment away from the constraints of home, which reduces inhibitions and provides increased opportunities for sex. Liminality is a condition that allows people to escape from their normal day to day lifestyle and let them to break down their boundaries. During holiday periods tourist meet the settings and conditions which encourage liminal and bohemian style behaviour, encourage an escape from one's strangled life, a chance to become another person temporarily, or engage in another lifestyle (Bauer and McKercher, 2003).
Behaviour of young tourist on Club 18-30 holidays has come under much debate in the last decade with the 'excess of youth tourism'. Liminal behaviour on these types of holidays can mean an excessive amount of drinking and drug abuse, fighting in the streets and vomiting. All of these are forms of antisocial behaviour which cause the trouble not only to other tourist but to local residents. (Ryan and Kinder, 1996).

As a good example of sex tourism and antisocial behaviour of young people it can be stag party. According to Simon Boazman (2008) the British stag party has changed in the past 10 years. The drink down the pub with the parents or friends it is gone. It has been replaced with three or four nights in a foreign city. And that is often much more than a visit to a strip club. For a large number of stags, visiting a prostitute has also become part of the ultimate lads' weekend.
One of good examples of stag parties place it is Prague, which has 70 brothels and numerous strip clubs. Another very popular destination for stag party it is Amsterdam. It is estimated that more than 3 million British people go on stag and hen parties each year, with more than 70% of them going overseas. Amsterdam is the most popular British stag party venue. (Simon Boazman, 2008).

Club 18-30 holidays to sun, sea, and sand destinations turns to sex holidays. However, not only club 18- 30 have access to sex tourism. Also older men's and women's participate in sex tourism. Even though male sex tourists massively outnumber the female counterparts and are more visible (Herold et al. 2001)
Usually term sex tourism evokes the image of Western man, often older and less than perfect shape travelling to Thailand or the Philippines in order to pay for sex with local prostitutes. As sex tourism refers to prostitute-use, and usually prostitutes are assumed to be females, it is difficult to imagine female sex tourism (Sánches Taylor, 2006)
Female sex tourism is described to be more about the feelings than sex itself. This can be explained with the fact that the system of prostitution only exists for men. Male sex tourism is based mainly on older men going to brothels and choosing the woman they want to have sex with, tourist women are picked up by the beach boys. (Jeffreys, 2003)
In the 70s and 80s beach boys in the Caribbean were mainly having sex with male tourists for money. This has changed as there has been such an increase on arrivals of older women tourists in the 90s who are willing to give money. Further, they receive more money from female tourist than from male tourist (Herold et al. 2001).
Women's are enjoying "romance" with local beach boys while men are having only physical sex with local prostitutes. Previously this kind of behaviour was called purely prostitution, whereas sex tourism was more about other tourists engaging sex with other tourists in a holiday destination. In today's world the term sex tourism seems to describe all this behaviour. (Herold et al. 2001).




References
Bauer, T. and McKercher, B. (2003) Sex and Tourism: Journeys of Romance, Love, and Lust. London: Haworth Hospitality Press.

Herold, E. Garcia, R. DeMoya, T. (2001) Female Tourists and Beach Boys Romance or Sex Tourism? Annals of Tourism Research, 28(4), pp.978-997.

Jeffreys, S. (2003) Sex Tourism: Do Women Do It Too? [online][Accessed 19Apr 2010].Available at :< http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=3&hid=106&sid=b0dfd524-b5ca-43f6-a30b-0956e6a195cf%40sessionmgr103>.

Pearce, P.L. (2005) Tourist Behaviour. Themes & Conceptual Schemes. Clevedon: Channel View Publications.

Ryan, C and Kinder, R (1996) Sex, tourism and sex tourism - fulfilling similar needs? Journal of Tourism Management, 17(7), pp.507-518.

Sánches Taylor, J. (2006) Female Sex Tourism: a Contradiction in Terms. Feminist Review, 83, pp. 42-59.

Simon Boazman (2008) Stag Weekends: The Dirty Secrets.[online][Accessed 19 Apr 2010]. Available at:<www.bbc.co.uk>.

Stephen Clift and Simon Carter (2000) Tourism and Sex - Culture, Commerce and Coercion. London, Wellington House.

"Sex Tourism - liminal behaviour club 18-30. Only young participants in sex tourism?"
Author: Laura Niinikoski
I chose to comment on this paper because it is partly covering the same issues that my (the topic: To behave or to misbehave? Examining the young tourists' behaviour) paper does.

The paragraph that covers the sex tourism concept seems a bit contradictory to me as there are also referrals to sex and tourism concept. For me it seems that there would be confusions with the next paragraph that explains the relationship between sex and tourism.

The author managed to describe the condition of liminal behaviour very clearly. Liminality is a condition that allows people to escape from their normal day to day lifestyle and let them to break down their boundaries. I think this is one of the most fundamental statements for the purpose of this paper. However some individuals do not feel free to misbehave outside of their societal boundaries. These are the ones who do not reach the liminoidal state in the tourism environment. However those who reach the state may neglect the rules of the society and may feel free to come up with own rules for the holiday (Currie, 1997). Since the author concentrates on sex tourism it is clear that it is assumed that the liminal behaviour is linked to every tourist.

Since the title mentions about 'Club 18-30' and 'the young participants in sex tourism' I assumed there would have been more discussion about them. It was good the author mentioned that: Liminal behaviour on these types of holidays can mean an excessive amount of drinking and drug abuse, fighting in the streets and vomiting. All of these are forms of antisocial behaviour which cause the trouble not only to other tourist but to local residents. This statement describes well the young tourist's behaviour in many cases. According to Selänniemi (2003, p. 25) the behaviour of a person may vary on holiday; it can be the anti-self that drinks, misbehaves and forgets safe sex or on the other hand the ideal self that socializes, is responsive and creative that appears on holiday. Seeing irresponsible behaviour as acceptable on holiday environment has been noted by many researchers (Josiam et.al, 1998). During the holiday the relations to the environment differ from what they are in everyday life (Selänniemi, 2003, p. 23).

The part of the paper which gives an example of the stag parties seems a bit irrelevant considering the topic. Instead there could have been more links to Club 18-30 holidays. Club 18-30 (2010) mentions on its web pages that "Ibiza isn't just a must visit for the serious clubbers. Whatever you're looking for, the Club 18-30 experience can provide." The author mentions that Club 18-30 holidays turn into sex holidays. Although this may be the case for some tourists it assumably is not the main purpose. The tourism industry has to take responsibility for what kind of images do they create for young tourists (Josiam et.al, 1998).

The link between sex tourism, behaviour differences between genders and prostitute-use is clearly explained. The author has made really good points but still I wished to read more about the topic that the title of the paper mentioned.

References

Club 18-30. (2010) Destinations, Ibiza [online] Available at: http://www.club18-30.com/destination/ibiza/ [Accessed 21 April 2010]

Currie, R.R. (1997) A pleasure-tourism behaviors framework, Annals of Tourism Research 24 (4), pp. 884-897

Josiam, B.M. et.al. (1998) An analysis of the sexual, alcohol and drug related behavioural patterns of students on spring break, Tourism Management 19 (6), pp 501-513

Selänniemi, T. (2003) On Holiday in the Liminoid Playground: Place, Time, and Self in Tourism, in Bauer, T, G and McKercher, B (eds) Sex and Tourism: Journeys of Romance, Love and Lust, London: Haworth Hospitality Press
Sex Tourism, Impact of Age and Motivation
Author: Benjamin Dickinson
Ive chosen to comment on this paper, because of the emphasis on age and sex tourism. My own paper considers the differences between the motivations of youth and older tourists.

The point being made by the author with regards to sex tourism highlights the fact that sex tourism is a diverse experience or product which is undertaken by large groups of people, the paper highlights the fact that sex tourism is available in a number of different forms and it is highlighted how these differ between the age groups.

The club 18-30 holidays are clearly associated by the travel industry and by tourists with consumption of large volumes of alcohol and numerous sexual experiences. Older men travelling to Thailand as noted by the author are generally related to travel for sexual purpose and Amsterdam, like other cities provides opportunity for participation in varied sexual experience. These groups of travellers or sectors of the tourism industry, all meet the motivations of the tourist, despite their age. This is highlighted by my own piece.

The matter of club 18-30 holiday makers being the only "sex tourists" is disrespected by the definition of liminality. As Pearce (2005) notes "liminality is a condition that allows people to escape from there normal day to day lifestyle and let them break down their boundaries" as my own research notes, the motivation of youth and older tourists is similar, and like Pearce mentions they wish to escape the 'norm' and to relax.

As mentioned, Tourism allows for increased experiences and for education on a range of subject, Bauer et al notes that tourism is a facilitator of sex, love or romance. Arguably sex, love and romance are Maslow's psychological needs, the basic needs for survival, suggesting that these needs to be met by people of all ages and genders. And this would be the reason for people of all ages to participate in sex tourism. Whether this is part of a youth package holiday, a stag party or independent travel to places such as Thailand.

The point made with regards to women as sexual tourists is interesting and they are not always considered within academic research as this type of tourist. However the sex tourist could be difficult to define, as there are no clear guidelines as to whom or what makes a sex tourist.

My thoughts are that extensive research would need o be done with regards to how to define a 'sex' tourist. The point being made that people of all ages make up this sector of he tourism industry. The paper lacks to highlight how different ages participate within the sector but does provide clear insight into how extensive this sector of this industry is.

Bauer, T & Mckercher, B (2003) Sex and Tourism: Journeys of Love, Romance and Lust. London: Haworth Hospitality Press

Maslow, A (1943) ' A Theory of Human Motivation', psychological review, 50 370 - 396

Pearce, P (2005) Tourist Behaviour, Themes and Conceptual Schemes. Clevedon, Channel View Publications.