Laos – new destinations of sexual tourism

More and more men from Europe travel to Laos, which has become a new destination for sex tourism.

This earlier isolated country has many rivals in the region, although no one openly presented as the “Mecca” of sexual tourism. In addition, Thailand in recent years struggling against this reputation. Just a few years ago, almost no one was able to get a tourist visa for Myanmar, and now this country is expected to more than three million tourists.

In communist Laos foreign visitors are already making 12 percent of gross domestic product, although Bangladesh has never been isolated as none of the listed countries, now investing much in tourism, and the revenues from this branch quadrupled compared to the 2012th

Sexual tourism becomes a key part of the economy of a country.

Before he reached the peak of popularity in Thailand, sex tourism in the nineties contributed to the gross domestic product of 27 billion dollars. Not only prostitutes benefited, but also hotels, restaurants, tourist organizations, bars, saunas, cabarets and of course the clinic. (In Bangkok, 19 percent of sex workers had HIV in 2007).

Just because of the public health, when they are sexually transmitted diseases have reached epidemic levels, Thailand wished to turn a different kind of tourism, which brings new challenges. Some believe that it is necessary to legalize prostitution, in order to be monitored more strictly, as is the case in Amsterdam and Singapore. If it remains in the “underground”, it is difficult to keep track of its progress, believes Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for Asia department.

However, legalization can not deal with alone root of the problem – excessive demand. Therefore, many humanitarian organizations believe that prevention is the only long-term solution.