Sex tourism is thriving in many countries. The reasons can be many. One of the explanations can be unequal distribution of money. In many countries prevalence of poverty stimulates the emergence of this kind of tourism. People from rich countries often come to these places for sex tourism.
Different people have different definitions of sex tourism. It involves travel of people to another country to indulge in non-reproductive sexual activity. But this is a vague definition. If a person goes to another country for a business trip, and takes advantage of opportunity to have sex with a prostitute there, will he be called a sex tourist? In the same way a boy and his girl friend visit another country for vacations; will they be called sex tourists? It is argued that only in case a person goes to another place with the intention of engaging in sexual act with a local, in lieu of money or other material consideration, will he/she be called a sex tourist.
The reason for thriving sex tourism is that in some countries the laws for indulging in prostitution are not very strict. In fact in some countries the governments feel that sex tourism provides stimulus to the tourism industry and helps their economy. So in spite of laws which prohibit prostitution, they look the other way. There is strict restriction for prostitution in most of the Western Europe, whereas, it is legal or the laws are not very strict in many of the countries in the east, which leads to development of sex tourism. Very often women in these countries have very few civil rights, and are poor. Prostitution is a source of income for them, and they need money badly to look after their family. Many boys take to this profession to get easy money.
Some of the popular countries for sex tourism are Brazil, Thailand, Czech Republic, Jamaica, etc. Sexual tourism leads to exploitation and human trafficking. Many human rights groups are fighting against child prostitution. Still the sex tourism is a thriving industry in many of these places. Many boys join this profession for the lure of easy money. Sex tourism is not a black and white issue. Many people join this trade willingly. However it is a fact that a large number of people are smuggled and forced into this flesh trade by pimps and many a times by their own family members in greed of easy money. Many rich tourists think that they are doing great service to these poor prostitutes by paying them handsomely. Thus this trade flourishes due to overall vested interests.
