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Slayings of tourists and Colombian women expose the dark side of Medellin’s tourism boom

The Colombian city of Medellin has become a popular travel destination for foreign tourists. The “City of Eternal Spring” has come a long way since the 1990s when it was the main battleground for the country’s violent drug war. (Feb. 22) (AP Video/Marko Alvarez)

Tourists take photos in the Comuna 13 neighborhood of Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Once a battleground for fighting among drug cartels, leftist guerrillas, military forces and government-linked paramilitary groups, the area is now a tourist attraction. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

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A tourist rides a bungee jump in the Comuna 13 neighborhood of Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Once a battleground for fighting among drug cartels, leftist guerrillas, military forces, and government-linked paramilitary groups, the area is now a tourist attraction. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Visitors walk through Botero Plaza in Medellin, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Medellin was once the heart of a brutal war involving the Colombian government, drug cartels, and other armed groups, but a sharp dip in violence here has attracted a flood of tourists. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A couple strolls past the Coyote nightclub in Lleras Park in Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. A tourism boom in Medellin has presented officials with a new set of challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

The Mayor of Medellin, Federico Gutierrez, center, talks with one of his municipal workers as he visits police patrolling Lleras Park to enforce a curfew on minors in Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. A tourism boom in Medellin has presented officials with a new set of challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A hotel worker displays a sign that says in Spanish “No to pornographic exploitation and sex tourism” in Medellin, Colombia, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. A tourism boom in Medellin has presented officials with a new set of challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police check women’s identification cards for age and frisk them at a checkpoint at an entrance Lleras Park during an operation to enforce a curfew for minors in Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. The city has imposed an evening curfew on minors as part of its efforts to reduce sex trafficking. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police detain a minor for breaking curfew in Lleras Park in Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. The city has imposed an evening curfew on minors as part of its efforts to reduce sex trafficking. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police ask a woman for proof of age at a checkpoint at an entrance to Lleras Park during an operation to enforce a curfew for minors in Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. The city has imposed an evening curfew on minors, as part of its efforts to reduce sex trafficking. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) — The lush valley enveloping Medellin was once the heart of a brutal war involving the Colombian government, drug cartels and a smattering of other armed groups.

But a sharp dip in violence in the country’s second-biggest city has attracted a flood of tourists to its vivid colors, busy cafes and booming nightlife. About 1.4 million visited last year, many of them American.

Now the tourism boom has presented officials with a new set of dark challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps.

“This area has spun out of control,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said recently while touring a park known for the sex trade.

Sex and drug tourism has long been a problem in Medellin, but the dangers came to a head late last year. Between November and December, eight American men were killed, many after meeting local women who are often used as pawns by criminal groups that target foreigners.

The killings prompted the U.S. Embassy in Bogota to warn in January that some tourists had been slipped drugs and were later robbed or killed. American officials cautioned men against using dating apps. The apps offer a way to seek out sex workers, whose business is not criminalized in Colombia.

Medellin lead prosecutor Yiri Milena Amado Sanchez said most of the recent killings followed similar scripts: A tourist contacts a local woman through social media or a dating app. When they meet, the man is handed a drink spiked with a substance such as scopolamine, which can cause people to fall unconscious and block their memories. The victims lose their belongings and, in some cases, their lives.

Police ask a woman for proof of age at a checkpoint at an entrance to Lleras Park during an operation to enforce a curfew for minors in Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Of the killings, the most is known about the death of Tou Ger Xiong , an activist and comedian from Minnesota who went on a date with a Medellin woman, police say.

After meeting the woman, Xiong was kidnapped on Dec. 10, tortured, beaten and robbed. Despite his family paying a ransom for his release, he was taken to a nearby wooded area and thrown down a 250-foot cliff. He was found dead the next day.

Colombian authorities have not suggested that he was involved in prostitution. They said Xiong went out several times with the woman, who has been charged in the case , along with two men.

Friends and relatives described Xiong as a gregarious man who loved to travel, especially to Colombia, where he had friends.

A hotel worker displays a sign that says in Spanish “No to pornographic exploitation and sex tourism” in Medellin, Colombia, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

“It’s almost like a second home; he loved it there,” his brother, Eh Xiong, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis , adding that his brother knew about the U.S. government warnings, but that he assumed only “the best in people.”

Just this year, authorities have investigated the deaths of five more tourists, including a Dutch visitor found dead in a hotel, three Americans and a Lithuanian, who may have died by suicide.

Foreigners, too, have been behind some of the violence.

Earlier this month, the body of 20-year-old Colombian Laura Lopera was found jammed inside a suitcase. Authorities say her middle-aged Canadian ex-boyfriend, whom she met on a dating app, was likely behind the death.

Gutiérrez, the Medellin mayor, said the boyfriend fled the country and is now being pursued by Interpol. The Associated Press contacted the suspect over social media but did not receive a response.

A couple strolls past the Coyote nightclub in Lleras Park in Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

The Canadian Embassy in Bogota said it was tracking the case but could not share more information due to privacy concerns.

“How sad and painful it is to learn of another femicide,” Gutiérrez wrote on X , formerly Twitter. “I send my solidarity to her family.”

The rise in tourism has also coincided with an uptick in sexual exploitation and trafficking in a place where rates of violence against women are already sky-high. In 2023, the city documented 1,259 cases of possible sexual exploitation of minors, a nearly 60% increase from the year before, according to data collected by the city.

Much of the city’s sex work is also fueled by poverty and a migration crisis from neighboring Venezuela. Vulnerable women often sell sex to make ends meet. That was the case for one young sex worker, who fled economic crisis in Venezuela five years ago.

Every weekend, she walks dressed up through Lleras Park, which is surrounded by clubs frequented by foreign tourists. The small park is a hub for Medellin’s sex industry.

Visitors walk through Botero Plaza in Medellin, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

“An American will pay 100 or even 200 dollars for sex, but a Colombian never pays that much,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Far from making a lucrative salary, she needed to scrape together at least $50 to pay for the room where she lives with her 8-year-old daughter and her mother.

“Some think that we are going to harm them,” she said, referring to the crimes against tourists. “But not all of us are criminals.”

On a recent night, dozens of police officers and local government officials patrolled the park, accompanied by Mayor Gutiérrez.

They asked for identification from women entering the park through police checkpoints. Most were let through, but a couple of teenagers were stopped and taken into a van. When the police left, the area once again filled with sex workers of different ages.

A tourist rides a bungee jump in the Comuna 13 neighborhood of Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Despite the rise in sex tourism, many visitors to Medellin are pulled in by its vibrant culture, the stunning natural beauty of the valley and the city’s complicated history.

In a hillside neighborhood known as Comuna 13, hundreds of people take walking tours each day to see the area’s transformation.

The neighborhood was once a battleground for fighting among drug cartels, leftist guerrillas, military forces and government-linked paramilitary groups. The dead were buried in mass graves.

While the area still struggles with gang problems, tourists walk through colorful streets connected by electric staircases. Visitors take photos of intricate murals painted by local artists and shop for handicrafts in small stores.

In the middle of a tour, 38-year-old Ola Aiyedun of New York stopped to take some pictures with two friends. He said he wasn’t worried about safety or the warning to avoid dating apps because he didn’t come to Colombia in search of a partner.

“Colombia has more to offer than just women,” Aiyedun said.

Associated Press Writer Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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Sun, sea and sex: a review of the sex tourism literature

Timothy siliang lu.

1 School of Medicine, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

Andrea Holmes

2 Saolta University Hospital Healthcare Group, University Hospital Galway, Galway, Ireland

Chris Noone

3 School of Psychology, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

Gerard Thomas Flaherty

4 School of Medicine, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Associated Data

All material referenced in the preparation of this work are available from the corresponding author.

Sex tourism is defined as travel planned specifically for the purpose of sex, generally to a country where prostitution is legal. While much of the literature on sex tourism relates to the commercial sex worker industry, sex tourism also finds expression in non-transactional sexual encounters. This narrative review explores current concepts related to travel and sex, with a focus on trans-national sex tourism.

The PubMed database was accessed to source relevant literature, using combinations of pertinent search terms. Only articles published in the English language were selected. Reference lists of published articles were also examined for relevant articles.

With regard to preferred destinations, South/Central America and the Caribbean were more likely to receive tourists looking for casual sex. Longer duration of travel, travelling alone or with friends, alcohol or drug use, being younger and being single were factors associated with higher levels of casual sex overseas. The majority of literature retrieved on sex workers focused on risk behaviours, sexually transmitted infections (STI), mobility of sex workers and how these factors affected their lives. Sex tourists require better access to effective methods of preventing HIV, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, and better education on HIV prevention. Drugs and alcohol play a major role as risk factors for and cofactors in casual sexual behaviour while abroad.

Conclusions

Travellers need to be informed of the increased risks of STI before travel. They should be aware of the local prevalence of STIs and the risks associated with their sexual practices when they travel, including engaging with commercial sex workers, having unprotected sexual intercourse and becoming victims of sexual violence.

Prior to the current pandemic of COVID-19, international travel had reached record levels of activity, with 1.4 billion traveller arrivals recorded in 2018 [ 1 ]. Sex and travel have a long association, dating from the ancient world onwards [ 2 ], and their connection is still apparent today. Sex tourism is defined by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “travel planned specifically for the purpose of sex, generally to a country where prostitution is legal” [ 3 ]. Domestic sex tourism implies travel within the same country, while trans-national sex tourism refers to travel across international boundaries.

While much of the literature on sex tourism relates to the commercial sex worker industry, which remains illegal in many jurisdictions, sex tourism also finds expression in non-transactional sexual encounters, typically involving a tourist from an economically developed country seeking sexual experiences in developing host destinations. In some cases, travellers may engage in sex tourism to validate their own sexual identity with greater freedom than would be allowed in their own, more conservative nations. The main source of opposition to sex tourism concerns the troubling phenomenon of child sex tourism, which will be explored later in this review.

The link between travelling and the spread of disease is undeniable, as demonstrated by the current COVID-19 pandemic. As the travel landscape changes in the aftermath of the pandemic, so will the behaviour of travellers. The subject of sex tourism has been neglected to date in the travel medicine literature and receives little attention in the pre-travel health consultation. This narrative review explores current concepts related to travel and sex, with a focus on trans-national sex tourism, while also giving an insight into specific risks and behaviours associated with this activity.

Literature search strategy

The PubMed database was accessed between June 2019 and June 2020 to source relevant literature using combinations of the following search terms: Sex, Tourism, Travel, Migration, Holiday, Abroad, Vacation, Sexually Transmitted Infection, Sexually Transmitted Disease, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Prostitution, Drugs, Alcohol, Trafficking, Rape, Child, Military, Navy, Defence Forces, Business, Homosexual, Heterosexual, LGBTQ+, Transgender, Asia, North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, Africa. Only articles published in the English language were selected. Articles published within the past 5 years were prioritised. Reference lists of published articles were examined to ensure all relevant articles were included. Relevant sources of grey literature were also retrieved using Google® as a search engine. The legality of prostitution in different international jurisdictions, governmental attempts to regulate the sex tourism industry and the extraterritorial criminalisation of child sex tourism were beyond the scope of the current review.

Epidemiology of sex and travel

In the context of this review, we define casual sex as sexual relations undertaken without serious intent or emotional commitment between individuals who are not established sexual partners or do not know each other well. Men were more likely to seek out or engage in casual or risky sex behaviours (e.g., multiple partners, unprotected intercourse) while travelling [ 4 – 6 ]. As many as 1 in 10 men were recorded as having an overseas partner in a British study [ 6 ], and different categories of male sex tourist have also been proposed in the literature [ 7 ], ranging from the ‘macho lad’ asserting his dominance over foreign women to the ‘white knight’ saving women from commercial sex work. A study from the United States showed that female travellers had a greater preference for travel to European or tropical countries, and that sex was more likely to occur on group tours, sightseeing or backpacking holidays lasting fewer than 14 days [ 8 ]. Female sex tourism has also been described in Caribbean destinations such as Jamaica, with Euro-American women purchasing the services of so-called “Rent-A-Dreads”, local men who seek out relationships with tourist women for economic gain [ 9 ]. Younger women were reported to prefer expatriates and other tourists as sexual partners [ 10 ], while men of all ages and older women were reported to exercise a preference for local partners.

With regards to preferred destinations, a meta-analysis conducted in 2018 showed that South/Central America and the Caribbean were more likely to receive tourists looking for casual sex [ 5 ]. Additionally, Thailand and Cuba also have a prevalent sex tourism industry [ 7 , 11 ]. One study found that 66% of Australian tourists to Thailand were planning on having a sexual encounter while there [ 11 ], while sex tourism in Cuba has been described as “integral to the Cuban experience” [ 12 ]. Traveller subtypes who were more likely to engage in sex included backpackers, travelling businessmen, those visiting friends and relatives (VFR), and those travelling specifically to solicit commercial sex workers [ 5 ]. Factors associated with popular sex tourism destinations are described in Table  1 .

Characteristics of popular sex tourism destinations [ 5 , 13 – 15 ]

STI sexually transmitted infection

Several studies report that longer duration of travel (greater than 1 month), travelling alone or with friends, alcohol or drug use, being younger and being single were factors associated with higher levels of casual sex overseas [ 4 – 6 ]. A study conducted in Sweden reported conflicting data, showing that short term travellers (less than 5 days) were 20 times more likely to engage in casual sex [ 16 ]. While few studies offered information linking different ethnicities to sexual behaviour overseas, one British study found that non-white citizens were more likely to engage in sexual behaviour while travelling [ 6 ]. Migrants and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) community are also discussed frequently in the sex tourism literature. A summary of the characteristics associated with sexual risk behaviour is shown in Table  2 . This will be explored further in this review. Studies of travellers engaging in sex with tourism representatives [ 11 ], sex workers and fellow travellers [ 5 ] show that choice of partner while travelling is not limited to any particular demographic.

Summary of the characteristics of a typical sex tourist [ 4 – 6 , 8 , 16 – 23 ]

LGBTQ+ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer

Commercial sex work and travel

Travellers may engage in planned or opportunistic interactions with commercial sex workers (CSW). The majority of literature we retrieved on sex workers focused on risk behaviours, sexually transmitted infections (STI), mobility of sex workers and how these factors affected their lives. De et al. examined the different categories of sex worker in the region of Bangui in the Central African Republic, and found that 1 in 4 of ‘Pupulenge’, the higher class sex worker more likely to cater to foreigners, had poor regular usage of condoms in the previous 3 months, but better knowledge of their HIV/AIDS risk and status [ 24 ]. There were similar findings among male sex workers in Jamaica, who regarded themselves more as long term romantic partners of female tourists, and as such had low levels of condom usage [ 13 ]. In addition, these men had reported misuse of alcohol and drugs, and were accustomed to having multiple partners.

Safe sex behaviours were also shown to be highly dependent on the travel destination. A study in Singapore showed that 87.5% of local men used condoms when engaging a sex worker in Singapore, but when travelling the rate dropped to between 44 and 77%, depending on location [ 25 ]. This finding was supported by research from Hong Kong, which also showed that heterosexual men reported lower levels of condom usage when visiting sex workers outside of their own country [ 26 ]. Hsieh et al. [ 27 ] proposed that the clients of sex workers could facilitate the spread of STIs between different nations and networks to a larger degree than sex workers, while also contributing to STI prevalence within their own communities.

An interesting area with limited research evidence is the role sex tourism websites play, with only one paper identified on this subject [ 28 ]. This article analysed various sex tourism websites and found that most displayed sex workers as commodities, to be chosen and paid for by tourists, portraying them as exotic third world women, capable of providing a “total girlfriend experience”, enjoying the company of foreigners and being completely subservient to them. This study proposed that these websites enforce the fiction behind sex tourism and, in doing so, sustain the possible misogynistic views of the sex tourist. It was also noted that any legal or health information on these websites was centred round the tourist, rather than the sex worker.

The risks faced by non-commercial partners of sex workers have also been studied. An examination of CSW in a Mexican border town with high migratory traffic found that unprotected sex was often common in their personal relationships, too [ 29 ]. The literature relating to CSW and travel showed that multiple parties are implicated in commercial sex networks, and the behaviour of any one individual in these networks has implications for many others. Table  3 below summarises these findings.

Summary of commercial sex worker studies

CSW commercial sex workers; STI sexually transmitted infections

Sexually transmitted infections

The association of sex tourism and casual sex during travel with the spread of novel STIs has long been recognised. It has been suggested that Columbus’ sailors were responsible for the epidemic of venereal syphilis in Europe in the late fifteenth century following sexual relations with local Haitian women [ 2 ], while the link between travel and the spread of novel STIs was also established in Thailand in the 1980s [ 30 ], and Trinidad and Tobago in 2012 [ 31 ]. Travellers are also thought to be implicated in the reintroduction of syphilis and lymphogranuloma venereum to parts of North America and Europe [ 25 ]. The risk factors for traveller acquisition of STIs include longer duration of stay, travel to lower income countries, being single, substance abuse, being male, repeat visits to the same area, and a previous history of multiple partners or STIs [ 32 , 33 ]. Crawford et al. identified being female, having a history of fewer sexual partners, and having received pre-travel health advice and vaccinations as being associated with a lower risk of contracting STIs among expatriates and travellers [ 32 ].

While prevalence rates for STIs among CSW vary, rates as high as 88% in Nairobi and 44% in Bangkok have been reported [ 34 ]. In addition to this, high rates of curable STI prevail worldwide, ranging from 5 to 65% in Africa, 20.9% in Brazil and 0–13.6% in Asia [ 10 ]. These findings put sex tourists at very high risk for STIs on a global scale. A diverse range of STIs has been recorded in travellers returning from tropical countries [ 35 ], from frequent detection of genital herpes in sailors returning to China [ 36 ], to the suggested “new” STI Tinea genitalis , found in several individuals with a recent travel sex history in Southeast Asia [ 37 ]. While this type of dermatophyte infection is not primarily an STI, the sudden rise in cases associated with it over a short period highlights how vulnerable travellers are to organisms transferable through intimate contact during travel.

A study examining all cases of gonorrhoea contracted by people living in Nordic nations between 2008 and 2013 showed that 25.5% of all cases were associated with travel [ 14 ]. The rates of travel-associated gonorrhoea increased from year to year and, while the majority of cases involved men, the number of affected women increased from year to year. Among the regions visited, the majority of Nordic travel-associated cases of gonorrhoea were associated with travel to Asia (between December and July) and Europe (from August to November), a third of cases were associated with travel to Thailand, and travel to Thailand, Philippines and Spain accounted for almost half of all travel-related cases. These data imply that specific regions can be considered hotspots for contraction of STIs during travel.

Another important consideration is the acquisition and spread of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) STIs. In recent years, the rise in AMR involving Haemophilus ducreyi has been documented worldwide [ 10 ]. Similarly, beta-lactamase producing strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae have been detected in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. In isolates of N. gonorrhoeae from Africa and Southeast Asia, penicillin resistance has been reported in as many as 50% of isolates. Baker et al. also noted the worldwide spread of azithromycin-resistant shigellosis through sexual transmission, from high prevalence regions in Africa and Asia, to lower prevalence nations [ 38 ]. The documented increase in AMR STIs puts travellers engaging in sexual behaviour at high risk of treatment-resistant infection.

Current efforts to advise and change traveller behaviours have been shown to be of limited effectiveness. A study of different efforts to curtail travellers’ risk behaviour showed that providing brief interventions on sexual health during consults for travellers proved minimally more effective than just distributing condoms or not providing additional advice [ 39 ]. This trial showed that the methods employed still resulted in low levels of condom usage. In a study by Croughs et al., extensive motivational training was shown to reduce sexual risk behaviour, and it was also found that written materials on STIs were more effective than having travel health practitioners discuss STI prevention with travellers [ 40 ]. A change in strategy appears necessary to combat the risk-taking behaviours of travellers, especially given the reported difficulty of reaching target audiences [ 41 ].

This is an important area that warrants further research, given poor recorded levels of condom usage in travellers. A meta-analysis of literature on this subject found that the pooled prevalence of unprotected intercourse among travellers who had sex overseas was 49.4% [ 42 ]. Similar results have been shown among sexually active backpackers visiting Ko Tao and Ko Phangan in Thailand, with a third of subjects reporting inconsistent condom use. An online cross-sectional study of travellers was conducted in 2014 [ 15 ], and among the sexually active population 59.7% reported inconsistent condom use. A study of condom usage among Swedish travellers revealed flawed reasoning for decisions around condom usage, such as length of familiarity with partner, the country visited, and asking if their partner had an STI [ 43 ]. This same study also revealed that some travellers succumbed to peer pressure, were more willing to let their partner make the decision, and had a fear of being seen as promiscuous (among heterosexual women) or a fear of ‘ruining the moment’ (among heterosexual men), leading to reduced condom usage. Other factors associated with reduced usage were the belief that foreign condoms were of poorer quality [ 34 ], spontaneous sexual encounters or embarrassment at purchasing condoms [ 43 ], substance use [ 15 , 32 , 43 ], and travel to Latin America or the Caribbean [ 15 ]. An examination of male sex tourists to Thailand also revealed that unprotected sex was seen as more masculine and enjoyable, and there was a general misconception among male sex tourists that unprotected heterosexual intercourse was a low risk activity [ 44 ]. This same study also showed that male heterosexual sex tourists were aware of risks, but due to their own personal or peer experiences being at variance with the warnings they received regarding risky sexual behaviour, they were more likely to engage in unprotected sex with CSW. The low rates of condom usage put sexually active travellers at an obvious risk for contraction of STIs.

It is accepted that contracting an STI increases the risk of HIV transmission, and vice versa [ 45 ]. A Geosentinel analysis from 2013 indicated that, out of a sample of 64,335 travellers, 117 returned home with acute symptoms of HIV transmission [ 46 ]. In addition, links between clusters of HIV acquisition in Belize, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras have been found. This finding highlighted the role migration and travel play in the transmission of HIV within Central America. This study also found half of Honduran woman sampled with HIV belonged to viral clusters that were linked to international clusters. Memish and Osoba also noted in their paper on STIs and travel that travellers to Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and India were most likely to acquire HIV from unprotected sexual encounters [ 2 ]. The voluminous literature relating to STIs and travel indicates that this is an area of key importance to the travel medicine practitioner. While the effectiveness to date of interventions in altering risk behaviours in travellers has been questionable, it is clear that travellers require better access to effective methods of preventing HIV, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and better education on HIV prevention.

The LGBTQ+ community and travel sex behaviour

A meta-analysis published in 2018 revealed that gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) travellers were 3 times more likely to have casual sex while travelling [ 5 ]. Travel or migration may allow members of the LGBTQ+ community to escape from societal pressures they face in their home countries and explore their sexuality [ 17 ]. MSM are also more likely than heterosexual men to have multiple partners during their travels. MSM have also shown to be at least twice as likely to pay for sex compared to heterosexual men [ 10 ]. A report on MSM travellers in the United States also found that 19.4% of those surveyed reported that having sex with a new partner was one of their main goals while on vacation [ 18 ]. Further studies in the US on MSM travellers to Key West, a popular destination for LGBTQ+ travellers in Florida, found that of the sexually active participants, 34% had new partners, and 59% had unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) [ 19 ]. Among Swedish MSM travellers, 13.5% reported UAI during their overseas travels, the majority of whom met a new partner abroad [ 20 ]. Additional studies in China involving MSM found that 5% identified as sex tourists, a third of this group identified the purchase of sex as a primary reason for travel, and another third had UAI while travelling [ 21 ].

While limited research exists on other categories of travellers within the LGBTQ+ community, one paper on transgender women in Bangladesh revealed that those who crossed international borders had a greater number of transactional sex partners and reduced use of condoms [ 22 ]. Across all of these studies, regular associations between travel and drug and alcohol use, transactional sex, group sex, a history of STIs and a greater number of past partners were reported [ 18 – 23 ].

Another interesting area of development in LGBTQ+ international travel trends is the resurgence of circuit parties [ 47 ]. These parties involve weekend-long social activities and dance events. Party-goers were found more likely to have a greater number of partners in the previous 6 months, greater use of recreational drugs, more likely to seek transactional sex, and more likely to report a personal history of STI and UAI. A common finding with these parties was attendees travelling from low HIV prevalence countries to high prevalence countries. This finding was replicated among Chinese MSM travellers [ 21 ]. These social events are commonly associated with the use of drugs which heighten sexual arousal, an activity referred to as ‘chemsex’.

Networks of MSM travellers have also been described around the world. A group of MSM referred to as “Geoflexibles” was identified by Gesink et al. in 2018 [ 48 ]. The authors described a group of men who were willing to travel for sex, and who were less particular about where they had sex. Gesink proposed that these travellers could act as a bridge between MSM in Toronto and, although his study did not specifically mention international travel, it is certainly applicable in the travel context. Networks of MSM implicated in the transmission of STIs and HIV have been suggested in the literature. Persson et al. suggested the presence of a network in Sweden with a high prevalence of STI/HIV [ 20 ], and an examination of HIV clusters in Central America found that half of the people living with HIV were MSM, with serotypes closely related to international clusters [ 49 ]. The suggestion of international MSM networks and travel playing a role in the dispersion of STI/HIV was reinforced by Takebe et al. in 2014 [ 50 ]. Their research revealed the worldwide dispersal of the JP.MSM.B1 subtype of HIV, and confirmed the interactions of HIV epidemics between Japan, China and the rest of the world. These networks have also been implicated in Shigella transmission in San Francisco [ 51 ], in addition to an outbreak of Hepatitis A in Northern Italy [ 52 ].

These findings have implications for LGBTQ+ travellers who engage in sexual behaviour while abroad. Mathematical modelling of LGBTQ+ tourists to Key West estimated that 1 in 196.5 MSM who engage in risk behaviour will acquire HIV [ 19 ], roughly equating to 200 new infections per 100,000 tourists, a number which could drop to as low as 45 with consistent condom use. In 77% of sexual interactions in this study, HIV serostatus was not discussed. Studies about MSM travellers in San Francisco showed that, among those who engaged in casual sex, there was a decreased probability of HIV serodisclosure when communication was an issue owing to language barriers [ 53 ]. A follow up study was conducted on the health-seeking behaviour of MSM travellers, revealing that a quarter of those surveyed had not received the Hepatitis B virus vaccine, and of the men living with HIV, a third had not been vaccinated [ 54 ].

Another facet of the intersection between sex tourism and HIV transmission that warrants attention is the relatively new phenomenon of “holiday pre-exposure prophylaxis” (PrEP) for HIV. With PrEP being a relatively new phenomenon, limited literature exists on the subject in relation to travel, but interviews conducted by Underhill et al. suggest that MSM travellers regard themselves as at greater risk for HIV while travelling and are more willing to take PrEP [ 55 ]. However, travel has also been associated with disruption in PrEP regimens due to inconvenience [ 56 , 57 ], so the role it plays in sex tourism warrants further research.

Travel for the purposes of sexual exploration and casual sex among MSM presents a challenge to travel medicine practitioners. Analysis of Swedish MSM travellers in 2015 revealed that there was little HIV or STI prevention information received in Sweden or abroad [ 58 ]. In addition, only 3% of the surveyed population sought out this information before travelling. A further investigation of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of MSM travellers is required to plan successful interventions in this population of international travellers. More research on how sex tourism is experienced by women and gender diverse people within the LGBTQ+ community is also warranted.

The effects of alcohol and drugs on sex tourism

Drugs and alcohol play a major role as risk factors for and cofactors in casual sexual behaviour while abroad. A study of British summer workers in Ibiza found that almost all those surveyed drank alcohol, while 85.3% used drugs during their stay, a high proportion of whom used drugs that they had never tried before [ 59 ]. This study found that the odds of having sex increased with the use of amphetamines or higher frequency of drinking, while the odds of having multiple partners increased with greater frequency of drinking. Unprotected sex was also found to be more likely when alcohol was involved.

Extensive analysis of American students on Spring Break has also been conducted to analyse the role alcohol plays in high risk behaviour during this period. Patrick et al. found that a greater proportion of students drank alcohol before having sex or making risky sexual decisions [ 60 ]. This finding was particularly prevalent among students who travelled abroad. Another study of Spring Break students found that risky behaviours such as unprotected sex or multiple partners were cumulative [ 61 ], such that engaging in one activity increased risk for the other. Almost half of the students in this study reported binge drinking before sex. The role alcohol and drugs play in exposing travellers to risky sexual behaviour is clear, but this appears to be poorly appreciated by the traveller. Travel health practitioners must emphasise the risks travellers expose themselves to when misusing alcohol and drugs.

Sexual assault and violence in travellers

A cross-sectional survey on travellers returning from Mediterranean resorts reported that 1.5% were subject to non-consensual sex during their travels, with gay and bisexual males reporting higher levels [ 62 ]. In this same report, 8.6% of respondents experienced some form of sexual harassment, with females and gay/bisexual males more frequently reporting this. Another finding was that being a gay/bisexual male, using marijuana, and patronising bars where there were opportunities for sex were factors associated with being subject to non-consensual sex. A similar study on the harassment of tourists in Barbados found between 7 and 12% of tourists reported sexual harassment, depending on their country of origin [ 63 ]. Kennedy and Flaherty also asserted that up to 4% of Irish citizens reporting sexual violence experience it while travelling [ 64 ]. A review from Canada of all reported sexual assault cases associated with mass gathering events found a significant association between being overseas and being sexually assaulted at such an event [ 65 ]. Table  4 outlines the pre-travel health advice which should be available to travellers who may engage in sex tourism.

Pre-travel health recommendations

STI sexually transmitted infection; HIV human immunodeficiency virus; PrEP pre-exposure prophylaxis

Child sex tourism

Klain described two main types of child sex tourist, the “elective sex tourist” who travels for leisure or business and makes unplanned use of child sex workers when given the opportunity, and the “core sex tourist”, the purpose of whose trip is solely to engage in sexual contact with a child [ 66 ]. A study of German tourists conducted in 2017 found that 0.4% reported being child sex tourists [ 67 ]. This same study found that these individuals usually had personal experiences of abuse, paedophilic and antisocial behaviours. With an estimated 1.2 million children trafficked worldwide annually [ 67 ], more research is urgently needed on this topic.

The effects of wealth and mobility on sex tourism

Aggleton et al. describe in their paper a specific group of travellers, “mobile men with money” [ 68 ]. These men come from diverse backgrounds and various employments, but share two common features, high spending power and high mobility. In the paper, these men were said to frequently use their high spending power and resources to engage in casual and transactional sex encounters. This group of men was found to be at high risk for HIV. The paper proposed that these men lacked social support and were frequently influenced by the behaviour of their peers. While further literature on this sub-group is lacking, travel to lower income countries and the resulting increase in spending power for the traveller have been documented as risk factors for acquisition of STI/HIV [ 32 ]. This would suggest that wealth inequality may have a role in influencing risk behaviours in certain individuals.

Impact of sex tourism on host communities

While a detailed consideration of the impact of sex tourists on sex tourism destinations is beyond the scope of the current work, some key issues are worthy of discussion. Local cultural attitudes towards sex tourism are complex and are influenced by harsh economic conditions, where impoverished families may find themselves with few options for survival and have to resort to sending their children to urban centres visited by sex tourists. There may be an expectation in some cultures that children will share the family’s financial burden. Remittances from a family member engaged in the sex tourism industry may be vital to enable families to improve their quality of life.

Child sex tourism produces a detrimental impact on the children’s capacity to achieve their goals within the education system. Sex tourism may reinforce traditional colonial attitudes towards race and gender, which serve to deepen existing socioeconomic inequalities. Local communities are often reluctant to intervene in cases of child sexual exploitation, given the complex underlying economic precipitants and the greater level of public acceptability of prostitution in some countries. Such attitudes render children far more vulnerable to being absorbed by the adult sex trade and becoming sexually exploited by sex tourists, who may use the anonymity afforded by the dark web as a global networking tool to share information with other sex tourists.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to school closures and a higher risk of contact between children and online sexual predators. It has isolated victims of child trafficking and sex tourism from available support structures and jeopardised their usual escape routes. The reported 30% increase in consumption of online child pornography during recent periods of pandemic lockdown in Europe, for example, have further increased the demand for child exploitation [ 69 ]. The current restrictions on international travel will undoubtedly influence sex tourism patterns worldwide, leading to greater degrees of domestic child abuse and online sexual exploitation. Further research may shed a light on this and other COVID-related secondary effects on the sex tourism industry.

Future considerations in sex tourism

While the world prepares for a cautious return to routine international travel in a future post-COVID era [ 70 ], we may ponder what constitutes a traveller or a tourist in the modern era. Opperman proposed the idea of a ‘cyberspace tourist’ in his paper on sex tourism [ 71 ]. While we have not found any further literature on this subject, is a person who sits at a computer in his/her home and pays for a voyeuristic virtual reality experience involving a foreigner thousands of miles away a cyber-sex tourist? With the rapid advancements in technology in recent years, we may contemplate whether people even need to leave their home to “travel”. It is conceivable that future sexual experiences will mirror these changes in travel patterns. With PrEP being a recent development, the role it plays in protecting travellers exposed to HIV overseas remains to be seen. This is a potential area of research activity as it becomes established as a mainstay preventive option. Possible areas of unmet need in sex tourism research are presented in Table  5 .

Sex tourism research priorities

PrEP pre-exposure prophylaxis

Limitations of current review

Strengths of our review include its multidisciplinary authorship, its broad coverage of diverse facets of sex tourism, and the focus on the most recent literature on the subject. Limitations of our approach include its restriction to articles published in the English language and the use of a single medical literature database. Accessing literature on sex tourism from Latin America and the Caribbean, using the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature virtual library, for example, may have provided deeper insights into the impact of sex tourism on host communities. It is reasonable to assume that relevant literature on sex tourism resides in the social sciences literature such as the Social Sciences Citation Index of the Web of Science. Future reviews on this topic should also consult an appropriate social sciences database and refer to relevant material from the anthropological literature.

In our review of the literature associated with sex and travel, it was clear that the same set of risk behaviours and consequences applied to diverse groups. We recommend that more research be conducted into novel and effective interventions for modifying these high-risk behaviours. Travellers should be informed of the increased risks of STI before they travel. They should be aware of the prevalence of STIs in the area they plan to visit, and the risks associated with their sexual practices when they travel, including engaging with commercial sex workers, practising chemsex, engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse, and becoming the victim of sexual violence. They should also be informed about how to access appropriate medical care overseas and as returned travellers, should they require it.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the assistance received from Dr. Amy Abrahams and Dr. Stuart MacLeod in identifying appropriate source material for an earlier version of this manuscript.

Authors’ contributions

GTF conceived the idea for the review. GTF and AH planned the literature search strategy. TSL conducted the literature search with assistance from GTF, AH and CN. TSL prepared the first draft of the manuscript, which was edited for significant intellectual content by GTF, AH and CN. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

None received.

Availability of data and materials

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Not applicable.

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Competing interests.

The authors state that they have no conflicts of interest to declasre.

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• Section 9 - Adventure Travel
• Section 10 - African Safaris

Sex & Travel

Cdc yellow book 2024.

Author(s): Melanie Taylor, Ina Park

A natural human desire for novel experiences, coupled with the often-experienced loss of inhibition associated with being away from home, can lead some travelers to take greater than usual sexual behavioral risks (e.g., engaging in sex with new, unknown partners; having sex with multiple partners; connecting with sex networks) while abroad. Any of these behaviors can increase the traveler’s risk for exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. Use of alcohol or drugs (which further decrease inhibition), or geosocial networking applications (“apps” which increase the efficiency of meeting sexual partners while abroad) can amplify a traveler’s chances of having an at-risk exposure, in some cases substantially.

Clinicians have an opportunity to help patients reduce their risk of exposure to STIs through pretravel behavioral-prevention and risk-reduction counseling and medical care. Elements of the pretravel preparation include STI prevention guidance (e.g., advocating for the use of condoms or other barrier methods); STI screening, treatment, and vaccines; and a discussion about HIV pre- and postexposure prophylaxis. Consider providing preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection in travelers planning to have condomless sex. The pretravel consultation also gives clinicians a chance to review safety recommendations to prevent sexual assault during travel.

Sex While Traveling

Sex while traveling encompasses the categories of casual consensual sex, sex tourism, sexual violence or assault, connection to sex trafficking, and sexual exploitation of children.

Casual Consensual Sex

Casual consensual sex during travel describes informal, non-transactional sexual encounters with other travelers or locals. Longer duration of travel, traveling alone or with friends, alcohol or drug use, younger age, and being single are factors associated with engaging in casual sex while traveling internationally. Other associations with casual sex are listed in Box 9-14 . Two meta-analyses estimated that 20%–34% of male international travelers engage in casual sex abroad, and that 43%–49% of all travelers participating in casual sex abroad have condomless sex.

Box 9-14 Factors associated with higher frequency of casual or unprotected sex abroad

• Casual sex at home and during a previous travel experience
• Expectation of casual sex while abroad
• History of previous sexually transmitted infection
• Illicit drug use, alcohol abuse, tobacco use
• Long-term travel (expatriates, military, Peace Corps volunteers)
• Traveling without a partner (either alone or with friends)
• Younger age
• ≥2 sex partners in the last 2 years

Men Who Have Sex With Men

For men who have sex with men (MSM), conclusions from the literature regarding their sexual behavior when traveling are conflicting. Some studies examining MSM sexual behavior when traveling have concluded that this population is more likely to engage in condomless anal intercourse with partners of unknown HIV status; to have concurrent or multiple sex partners; or to have sex in conjunction with substance use while traveling. These can be particularly true if the reason for travel is to attend group sex events or gatherings (e.g., cruises, circuit parties). Other reports, however, indicate that MSM might adapt their behaviors when traveling to destinations perceived to have a higher risk for HIV. One study found that MSM who travel internationally were less likely to have condomless anal intercourse with partners abroad compared to partners encountered at home or during domestic travel.

Sex Tourism

Travel for the specific purpose of procuring sex is considered “sex tourism,” and sex tourism destinations frequently are countries where commercial sex is legal. In some countries, sex tourism supports sex trafficking, among the largest and most lucrative criminal industries in the world. Sex tourists have traditionally been men from high-income countries who travel to low- and middle-income countries to pay for sex with local women, including commercial sex workers. Sex tourism among American and European women also has been described, particularly to the Caribbean.

Having condomless sex with commercial sex workers is associated with an increased risk for STIs. Multidrug-resistant gonorrhea infections have been linked to encounters with sex workers. High rates of HIV are also frequently found among sex workers, with a systematic review describing a global prevalence of 11.8%. Among sex workers in Thailand, however, HIV rates of up to 44% have been described; in Kenya, the rate among sex workers has been reported to be even higher (up to 88%).

Sexual Violence & Assault

People of any age, gender, or sexual orientation can be victims of sexual violence during travel and should be aware of this risk. The risk for sexual assault is greater among young women traveling alone and in regions of high sexual violence prevalence (e.g., central and southern sub-Saharan Africa, Andean Latin America, Australasia). In addition, some studies have identified that young gay and bisexual males (MSM) traveling internationally might be victims of sexual violence more frequently than females or heterosexual males. Sexual violence can occur more often in association with international recreational travel, but it is also reported in travelers participating in humanitarian aid work. Alcohol and drug use have been shown to increase vulnerability for sexual assault. Unfamiliar cultural norms, environments, language barriers, and safety concerns might also increase the risk.

Post–Sexual Assault Medical Care

Victims of sexual violence (particularly rape) should seek immediate medical attention. Health care sought after 72 hours could negate the benefits of postexposure prophylaxis for HIV and STIs, lower the effectiveness of emergency contraception, and reduce the value of any collected forensic evidence. Seeking medical care following a sexual assault can, however, be difficult in places where safety is a concern, where health care is not easily accessed, and where language and other barriers might not facilitate appropriate evaluation.

In addition to HIV and other STI postexposure prophylaxis, emergency contraception, and the forensic examination, medical attention after sexual assault should include treatment of injuries and provision of mental health and other supportive care. Adolescent-adapted services should be available and sought to address the related but different needs of youth who have been victims of sexual violence.

Sex Trafficking & Sexual Exploitation of Children

Although commercial sex work is legal in some parts of the world, sex trafficking, sex with a minor, and child pornography are always criminal activities according to US law, and travelers can be prosecuted in the United States even if they participated in such activities abroad. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act makes it illegal to recruit, entice, or obtain a person of any age to engage in commercial sex acts or to benefit from such activities.

Sex With Minors

Federal law bars US residents traveling abroad from having sex with minors; this applies to all travelers, both adult and youth. Travel health providers should inform student travelers and other young people going abroad that according to US law, it is illegal for a US resident to have sex with a minor in another country. The legal age of consent varies around the world, from 11–21 years old. Some countries have no legal age of consent, with local laws forbidding all sexual relations outside of marriage.

Child Pornography

Regardless of the local age of consent, participation in child pornography anywhere in the world is illegal in the United States. US Code Title 18, Chapter 110 , prohibits sex with minors, as well as the purchase, procurement, holding, or storage of material depicting such acts. These crimes are subject to prosecution with penalties of up to 30 years in prison. Victims of child pornography suffer multiple forms of abuse (emotional, physical, psychological, as well as sexual), poverty and homelessness, and health problems, including physical injury, STIs, other infections and illnesses, drug and alcohol addiction, and malnourishment.

Sexual Exploitation of Children

Sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism affects all countries of the world regardless of income level. Offenders can include expatriates, humanitarian aid workers, international business travelers, military personnel, people attending large-scale sporting and cultural events, teachers, travelers and tourists, and volunteers. Financial vulnerabilities of families and communities resulting from the millions of travel and tourism jobs lost due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the availability of cheap and accessible travel, and expanding access to information and communication technologies are expected to increase opportunities for child sexual exploitation.

Combatting Sexual Exploitation of Children

To combat sexual exploitation of children, some international hotels and other tourism services have voluntarily adopted a code of conduct that includes training their employees to recognize and report suspicious activities. Tourist establishments supporting this initiative to protect children from sex tourism are listed online. Providers and travelers who suspect child sexual exploitation occurring abroad can report tips anonymously by calling the Homeland Security Investigations Tip Line (toll-free at 866-347-2423), or by submitting information online to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children .

In the United States, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline collects reports of child prostitution and other crimes against children (toll-free at 800-843-5678).

Protect Act

Since 2003, when Congress passed the federal PROTECT Act, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has arrested >11,000 offenders for child sex tourism and exploitation, including 1,100 outside of the United States. The PROTECT Act strengthens the US government’s ability to prosecute and punish crimes related to sex tourism, including incarceration of ≤30 years for acts committed at home or abroad.

Cooperation of the host country is required to open an investigation of criminal activity, resulting in a much lower than hoped for conviction rate. In some places, the judicial system might be prone to bribery and corruption, or the government is otherwise willing to expand tourism and the money it brings at the expense of children being trafficked for sex. The US Department of State has published a list of 20 ways to fight human trafficking , including recommendations for youth and their parents, attorneys, health care providers, journalists, and other stakeholders.

Sexually Transmitted Infections

See Sec. 11, Ch. 10, Sexually Transmitted Infections , for details regarding the management of STIs in returned travelers.

Epidemiology

In 2019, the World Health Organization estimated that 376 million new infections with curable sexually transmitted pathogens (chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, and syphilis) occur annually. Globally, >500 million adults are estimated to be infected with a genital herpes virus; ≈40 million people are infected with HIV; and >300 million with human papillomavirus infections, the cause of cervical cancer. Over 30 infections are sexually transmitted, several of which are neither curable nor vaccine preventable.

The distribution of STI prevalence and STI resistance to available treatment varies, and some countries and regions have very high rates of STIs. International travelers having sex with new partners while abroad are exposed to different “sexual networks” than at home and can serve as a conduit for importing novel or antimicrobial-resistant STIs into parts of the world where they are unknown or rare. For example, gonorrhea (among the more common STIs globally with ≈78 million new cases in 2016) has become extensively drug resistant in some parts of the world. Multidrug-resistant gonorrhea infections have been associated with unprotected sex and commercial sex during travel. Patients presenting with antimicrobial-resistant gonococcal infections should prompt providers to inquire about their travel history and the travel history of their sex partners.

STI incidence is increased ≤3-fold in people who experience casual sex while traveling internationally, a consequence of new sexual partnerships and unprotected intercourse. Condoms prevent both STIs and unwanted pregnancy. Preventive vaccines (which can be considered as part of pretravel care) are available for some infections transmitted through intercourse (e.g., hepatitis A, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus). HIV PrEP might be appropriate for travelers planning to engage in condomless sex during travel. Travelers should consider packing condoms from their home country to avoid the need to search for them in the countries visited during travel. Women carrying condoms in luggage might need to conceal these to avoid questions related to sexual activity or assumed behaviors.

In May 2022, a multinational outbreak of monkeypox  ( mpox ) began; 3 months later (by the end of August) it involved people from >90 countries. During the outbreak, the causative agent, monkeypox virus (see Sec. 5, Part 2, Ch. 22, Smallpox & Other Orthopoxvirus-Associated Infections ), spread person-to-person primarily through close skin-to-skin (including sexual) contact. Most cases occurred among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men; international travel played a role in introducing the virus to new countries. Remind all travelers that sex with new partners can increase their risk of contracting infections, including mpox.

People at risk of mpox exposure and infection during travel should complete mpox vaccination series at least two weeks prior to departure.  Refer susceptible travelers who have been exposed to mpox for vaccination, as soon as possible (ideally within 4 days of exposure) to help prevent the disease or make it less severe.

The following authors contributed to the previous version of this chapter: Jay Keystone, Kimberly A. Workowski, Elissa Meites

Bibliography

End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT). Summary paper on sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism. Bangkok: ECPAT; 2020. Available from: www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ECPAT-Summary-paper-on-Sexual-Exploitation-of-Children-in-Travel-and-Tourism-2020.pdf .   

Kennedy KM, Flaherty GT. The risk of sexual assault and rape during international travel: implications for the practice of travel medicine. J Travel Med. 2015;22(4):282–4.

Lee VC, Sullivan PS, Baral SD. Global travel and HIV/STI epidemics among MSM: what does the future hold? Sex Health. 2017;14(1):51–8.

Lu TS, Holmes A, Noone C, Flaherty GT. Sun, sea and sex: a review of the sex tourism literature. Trop Dis Travel Med Vaccines. 2020;6(1):24.

Minhaj FS, Ogale YP, Whitehill F, Schultz J, Foote M, Davidson W, et al. Monkeypox Outbreak—Nine States, May 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022;71(23):764–9.

Newman WJ, Holt BW, Rabun JS, Phillips G, Scott CL. Child sex tourism: extending the borders of sexual offender legislation. Int J Law Psychiatry. 2011;34(2):116–21.

Svensson P, Sundbeck M, Persson KI, Stafstrom M, Östergren P-O, Mannheimer L, et al. A meta-analysis and systematic literature review of factors associated with sexual risk-taking during international travel. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2018;24:65–88.

Truong HM, Fatch R, Grasso M, Robertson T, Tao L, Chen YH, et al. Gay and bisexual men engage in fewer risky sexual behaviors while traveling internationally: a cross sectional study in San Francisco. Sex Transm Infect. 2015;91(3):220–5.

US Department of Justice. Extraterritorial sexual exploitation of children. Available from: www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/extraterritorial-sexual-exploitation-children .

Vivancos R, Abubakar I, Hunter PR. Foreign travel, casual sex, and sexually transmitted infections: systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Infect Dis. 2010;14(10):e842–51.

World Health Organization. Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence. Available from: www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/vaw-clinical-handbook/en .

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News & Insights

Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism

Equality Now tackles sexual exploitation in travel and tourism, often called “sex tourism”, a global issue that cuts across national borders and state lines. “Sex tourists” travel to buy sex from vulnerable women, girls and other vulnerable people, often from poor and marginalized communities.

Sexual exploitation in travel and tourism has become far more complex, involving not only tourists but business travelers, migrant/transient workers, and ‘voluntourists’ intent on exploiting women, girls, and other vulnerable people, as well as large numbers of domestic travelers.  ECPAT’s global study on sexual exploitation in travel and tourism  confirms that offenders can come from any background and do not all fit the stereotypical profile: a white, Western, wealthy, middle-aged male pedophile. Some may be pedophiles but most are not. Both the age of the clients and the age of the victims are  decreasing . 

There is increasing recognition of the links between organized sexual exploitation and travel for business or leisure, including for major sporting events such as the Super Bowl. 

Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism

Women, girls, and other vulnerable people are often trafficked domestically or internationally to meet demand. Equality Now was one of the first human rights organizations to recognize the link between “sex tourism” and sex trafficking, and to focus on shutting down sex tour operators.

What is Equality Now doing to end sexual exploitation in travel and tourism?

Equality Now is working with Trace Kenya and LifeBloom Services International to call for legal reform that will protect women and girls from sexual exploitation and end impunity for perpetrators. As well as working on reform of national law including the Sexual Offenses Act, the Counter Trafficking In Persons Act, and the Children Act we are also engaging with local government to promote county-level laws and policies. Through our partners, we also engage with judiciary and law enforcement to encourage them to take a more gendered, survivor-centered approach. 

Our Impact: Tackling Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism

Taking on big apple oriental tours.

We campaigned to shut down Big Apple Oriental Tours, a New York City-based company exploiting women and girls in the Philippines and Thailand. In 2007, our efforts led New York to amend its anti-trafficking law, which gave police the tools to prosecute sex tour operators. After many investigations, we helped convict the company’s co-owner Douglas Allen of promoting prostitution in 2013.

Passing First US State Law Against Sex Tourism

We began our campaign to shut down Hawaii-based sex tour operator Video Travel, a company exploiting women and girls in Thailand. Our campaign and legal support inspired Hawaii to introduce and pass the first state law to criminalize sex tourism. Video Travel’s proprietor had his travel agency license revoked and is no longer allowed to operate in Hawaii.

Calling on the US Government to End Sex Tourism

We called on the US government to stop sex tourism and to investigate GF Tours, a company exploiting women in Southeast Asia. We lobbied for stronger enforcement of federal anti-trafficking laws, which make sex tourism a crime, to shut them down. Due to our efforts, GF Tours removed graphic content from its materials.

First Sex Tourism Conviction in New York State

Equality Now brought the case of Jump Off Destinations, a New York-based sex tour operator traveling to the Dominican Republic, to the attention of the Manhattan District Attorney. In 2007, the owner was found guilty, the first time that New York State law prohibiting the promotion of prostitution was used to prosecute a sex tour operator and the first conviction of its kind in the US.

Standing Up for Exploited Girls

We led a civil case in the US on behalf of Brazilian girls who were sexually exploited by a US-based sex tour operator. With pro bono support from a law firm, we filed the first known civil action under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. In 2015, the case was settled. The funds helped the girls rebuild their lives. 

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Sex tourism, disease migration and COVID-19: lessons learnt and best practices moving forward

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Alyson Hillis, Conan Leavey, Stephanie Kewley, Susan Church, Marie Claire Van Hout, Sex tourism, disease migration and COVID-19: lessons learnt and best practices moving forward, Journal of Travel Medicine , Volume 27, Issue 7, October 2020, taaa144, https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa144

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Tolson 1 broadly defines sex tourism as ‘travel for the purpose of engaging in sexual relations’ due to the nuanced ideas between sex tourism, and sex and tourism. Approximately 20–34% of international travellers engage in casual sex ( https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2020/travel-for-work-other-reasons/sex-and-travel ). Yet, based on the given definition, the number of sex tourists in the world are unknown, as many remain anonymous. Sex tourists are a source of many international sexual health issues, due to high-risk behaviours such as condomless sex with multiple partners or sexualized drug use whilst abroad. Those who engage in high-risk sex when travelling are prone to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and blood borne viruses (BBVs) such as viral hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 2 , 3 Condom use is dependent on the choices made by sex tourists and sex providers, with usage ranging from low to up to 75% ( https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-26585/v1/a105f3aa-99d5-46e9-8884-ad195ea411b9.pdf ). This has led to HIV transmission in male sex workers being as high as 50%; and 40% of gonorrhoea diagnoses in Asia having become antibiotic resistant and circulating around parts of Northern America. 2 , 4 Tourists are generally reluctant to access sexual health services before, during or after travelling. 5 Furthermore, sex tourists have reported using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a biomedical HIV prevention tool, on an event-based regimen, as it reduces the perceived threat of HIV acquisition. 6 There is mixed evidence in relation to risk compensation, whereby PrEP use may potentially increase risky sexual behaviours and therefore STI transmission. Yet, as primary HIV infection has been shown to be the leading STI contracted by travellers who are not living with HIV, PrEP would play a substantial preventative role for high-risk tourists. 3 It is these risky sexual behaviours that pose significant threats to the international, domestic and community transmission and migration of diseases.

With over 22.9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 797,918 deaths worldwide at the time of writing, we have witnessed the devastating human and economic consequences of this globalized virus ( https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=instagramcoach1? ). It has led to the closure of national borders and cancellation of the majority of commercial flights, halting global trade across all industries, including sex tourism. With the international travel of people severely restricted, global populations are changing social and health behaviours in order to adapt to the current situation.

With domestic lockdowns and social distancing measures in place for the foreseeable future, the physical sex tourism industry is currently non-existent. As sex work is criminalized in most countries, sex workers are struggling to survive as they are unable to access government relief responses to the pandemic ( https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/16/it-s-a-contact-job-sex-workers-struggle-amid-the-coronavirus-crisis ). A number of sex tourists and sex workers have therefore moved online to the ‘surface’ and ‘dark’ web. The online sex tourism industry was occurring before COVID-19. Websites and technology-based applications increasingly facilitated the seeking of offline and cyber-sexual activities. Furthermore, those who sought sex online reported to have riskier interactions when the relationship moved offline. 7

At this stage of the pandemic, we cannot say exactly what the repercussions will be regarding health risk behaviours on return to normality or even quasi-normality. After restrictions ease and with the waning of the pandemic, it would be reasonable to expect a surge of offline sex-seeking behaviours and high-risk sexual activity, potentially reigniting the cycle of international to domestic and community transmission of BBVs and STIs. Behaviours such as sexual gratification through technology may become permanent in the industry, intensifying sexual exploitation, online grooming and human trafficking. For example, one sex worker has described how moving online to work during COVID-19 has led to being ‘constantly abused’ with ‘dozens of violent messages every week. The abuse by this kind of person has increased tenfold’ ( https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/16/it-s-a-contact-job-sex-workers-struggle-amid-the-coronavirus-crisis ).

COVID-19 is having a significant detrimental impact on international sexual health progress. For example, Zimbabwe is now unable to provide consistent antiretroviral treatment to the 14% of their population living with HIV ( https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/survive-health-woes-deepen-zimbabwe-covid-19-fear-200&#x2009;323&#x2009;065&#x2009;933&#x2009;020.html ). However, there are key lessons that can be learnt from the international strategic responses to COVID-19, which can be applied to the sexual health scene and, by proxy, the sex tourism industry. These include effective communication, decentralization of services and ‘test, treat and isolate’ programmes. Senegal used learnings from HIV, Ebola and malaria to develop simple communications around isolation and case-finding tactics to prepare for COVID-19. These were disseminated by service managers to community-based actors and patients using social media and telephone hotlines ( https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2020/june/20200603_senegal ). It is this effective decentralization of services that utilizes top-down approaches in unison with localized, community-based interventions, which should inform the reopening of the sex tourism industry post-COVID-19. Of note, staff who understand the epidemiology of the infectious and sexual diseases within their locality should be consulted on the delivery of surveillance, testing and monitoring schemes for localized HIV and STI management. Furthermore, the World Health Organization, based on their own experiences of prior epidemics, recommended a similar approach with the ‘test, treat and isolate’ COVID-19 strategy as well as encouraging local lockdowns to counter second spikes. Through strong elimination tactics, the likes of New Zealand, Iceland, Rwanda and Taiwan have successfully contained the virus, in contrast to countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden.

When borders do begin to open, global migratory patterns supporting the sex tourism industry will resume, and with it, an inevitable flux of disease. Flexible ‘test, treat and isolate’ strategies must be urgently scaled-up internationally, nationally and regionally, alongside the decentralization of services and mobilization of communities, to target not only the resurgence of COVID-19 and other coronaviruses, but to also address sexual migration flows. There is a clear need for increasing awareness of the impact of COVID-19 on the sex tourism industry, and how new learnt behaviours will perpetuate risky activities, with additional emphasis to be placed on safe sex due to increased vulnerability for all involved. State communication and education is key. Public health messaging must include the most vulnerable and be accessible to all, disseminating communication materials that pay particular attention to the most exposed populations, in a bid to reduce social and health disparities. Research needs to be conducted to understand the real-life experiences of COVID-19 on those within the sex tourism industry, so we can look at adapting public health strategies to accommodate the significant changes taking place. This is therefore a call to action to scale-up preparedness, learn from our mistakes and equip ourselves for the future diversification of infectious and contagious diseases, be they coronaviruses, BBVs or strains of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea.

All authors worked collaboratively to draft, edit and review the manuscript.

None declared.

Tolson   M . Sex tourism. In: The The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies . London : Blackwell , 2016 .

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Nouchi   A , Caby   F , Palich   R  et al.    Travel-associated STI amongst HIV and non-HIV infected travellers . J Travel Med   2019 ; 26 .

Minichiello   V , Scott   J , Callander   D . A new public health context to understand male sex work . BMC Public Health   2015 ; 15 : 1 – 11 .

Croughs   M , de   Gouw   A , Remmen   R  et al.    Do travel clinic visitors read information on sexual risk abroad in travel health brochures?   J Infect Prev   2016 ; 18 : 18 – 22 .

Brooks   B , Park   S , Guilamo-Ramos   V  et al.    Sex tourism and pre-exposure prophylaxis modality preferences among men who have sex with men . J Sex Res   2018 ; 56 : 1 – 9 .

Liau   A , Millett   G , Marks   G . Meta-analytic examination of online sex-seeking and sexual risk behavior among men who have sex with men . Sex Transm Dis   2006 ; 33 : 576 – 84 .

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Sex Tourism, Condomless Anal Intercourse, and HIV Risk Among Men Who Have Sex With Men

• PMID: 31241505
• DOI: 10.1097/JNC.0000000000000018

Sex tourism affects the sexual health of tourists and locals with whom they interact. However, a few studies have examined whether sex tourism is a risk factor for the acquisition of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men, and no such studies have been conducted in Western Europe. Almost 28% of our respondents reported engaging in sex tourism in their lifetime. Sex tourism was associated with an elevated risk of engagement in condomless receptive anal intercourse, use of alcohol/drugs during sex, participation in group sex, and an elevated risk of diagnosis with any type of sexually transmitted infection over the previous year, specifically gonorrhea and chlamydia. Research with men who have sex with men who engage in sex tourism should explore high-risk sexual behavior during sex tourism and also the feasibility and acceptability of the use of episodic pre-exposure prophylaxis for short periods of participation in elevated risk behaviors by tourists and local sex partners.

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• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
• Condoms / statistics & numerical data*
• France / epidemiology
• HIV Infections / epidemiology*
• HIV Infections / psychology
• HIV Infections / transmission*
• Homosexuality, Male / psychology*
• Homosexuality, Male / statistics & numerical data
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Key Biscayne Independent

Facts Are Stubborn Things

The dark side of Medellin’s tourism boom: sex trafficking

MEDELLIN, Colombia — The lush valley enveloping Medellin was once the heart of a brutal war involving the Colombian government, drug cartels and a smattering of other armed groups.

But a sharp dip in violence in the country’s second-biggest city has attracted a flood of tourists to its vivid colors, busy cafes and booming nightlife. About 1.4 million visited last year, many of them American.

Now the tourism boom has presented officials with a new set of dark challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps.

“This area has spun out of control,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said recently while touring a park known for the sex trade.

Sex and drug tourism has long been a problem in Medellin, but the dangers came to a head late last year. Between November and December, eight American men were killed, many after meeting local women who are often used as pawns by criminal groups that target foreigners.

The killings prompted the U.S. Embassy in Bogota to warn in January that some tourists had been slipped drugs and were later robbed or killed. American officials cautioned men against using dating apps. The apps offer a way to seek out sex workers, whose business is not criminalized in Colombia.

Medellin lead prosecutor Yiri Milena Amado Sanchez said most of the recent killings followed similar scripts: A tourist contacts a local woman through social media or a dating app. When they meet, the man is handed a drink spiked with a substance such as scopolamine, which can cause people to fall unconscious and block their memories. The victims lose their belongings and, in some cases, their lives.

Of the killings, the most is known about the death of Tou Ger Xiong, an activist and comedian from Minnesota who went on a date with a Medellin woman, police say.

After meeting the woman, Xiong was kidnapped on Dec. 10, tortured, beaten and robbed. Despite his family paying a ransom for his release, he was taken to a nearby wooded area and thrown down a 250-foot cliff. He was found dead the next day.

Colombian authorities have not suggested that he was involved in prostitution. They said Xiong went out several times with the woman, who has been charged in the case, along with two men.

Friends and relatives described Xiong as a gregarious man who loved to travel, especially to Colombia, where he had friends.

“It’s almost like a second home; he loved it there,” his brother, Eh Xiong, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, adding that his brother knew about the U.S. government warnings, but that he assumed only “the best in people.”

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Just this year, authorities have investigated the deaths of five more tourists, including a Dutch visitor found dead in a hotel, three Americans and a Lithuanian, who may have died by suicide.

Foreigners, too, have been behind some of the violence.

Earlier this month, the body of 20-year-old Colombian Laura Lopera was found jammed inside a suitcase. Authorities say her middle-aged Canadian ex-boyfriend, whom she met on a dating app, was likely behind the death.

Gutiérrez, the Medellin mayor, said the boyfriend fled the country and is now being pursued by Interpol. The Associated Press contacted the suspect over social media but did not receive a response.

The Canadian Embassy in Bogota said it was tracking the case but could not share more information due to privacy concerns.

“How sad and painful it is to learn of another femicide,” Gutiérrez wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I send my solidarity to her family.”

The rise in tourism has also coincided with an uptick in sexual exploitation and trafficking in a place where rates of violence against women are already sky-high. In 2023, the city documented 1,259 cases of possible sexual exploitation of minors, a nearly 60% increase from the year before, according to data collected by the city.

Much of the city’s sex work is also fueled by poverty and a migration crisis from neighboring Venezuela. Vulnerable women often sell sex to make ends meet. That was the case for one young sex worker, who fled economic crisis in Venezuela five years ago.

Every weekend, she walks dressed up through Lleras Park, which is surrounded by clubs frequented by foreign tourists. The small park is a hub for Medellin’s sex industry.

“An American will pay 100 or even 200 dollars for sex, but a Colombian never pays that much,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Far from making a lucrative salary, she needed to scrape together at least $50 to pay for the room where she lives with her 8-year-old daughter and her mother.

“Some think that we are going to harm them,” she said, referring to the crimes against tourists. “But not all of us are criminals.”

On a recent night, dozens of police officers and local government officials patrolled the park, accompanied by Mayor Gutiérrez.

They asked for identification from women entering the park through police checkpoints. Most were let through, but a couple of teenagers were stopped and taken into a van. When the police left, the area once again filled with sex workers of different ages.

Despite the rise in sex tourism, many visitors to Medellin are pulled in by its vibrant culture, the stunning natural beauty of the valley and the city’s complicated history.

In a hillside neighborhood known as Comuna 13, hundreds of people take walking tours each day to see the area’s transformation.

The neighborhood was once a battleground for fighting among drug cartels, leftist guerrillas, military forces and government-linked paramilitary groups. The dead were buried in mass graves.

While the area still struggles with gang problems, tourists walk through colorful streets connected by electric staircases. Visitors take photos of intricate murals painted by local artists and shop for handicrafts in small stores.

In the middle of a tour, 38-year-old Ola Aiyedun of New York stopped to take some pictures with two friends. He said he wasn’t worried about safety or the warning to avoid dating apps because he didn’t come to Colombia in search of a partner.

“Colombia has more to offer than just women,” Aiyedun said.

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7 Destinations Where Drug Tourism Is Thriving

See recent posts by Megan Wood

A destination's reputation for drugs can deter tourists who worry about safety and violence. But drug access (whether illegal, legal, or somewhere in between), and the party culture that comes with it, can also work as a hook to draw both the curious and the initiated. Of course, it's important to be aware of all drug laws while traveling and know that penalties can be severe. We took a look at how drug tourism is thriving and impacting these seven popular tourist destinations. 

1. Ayahuasca in Peru

Machu Picchu /Oyster

A growing number of Westerners are heading to the jungles of Peru (and Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia) to experience an Amazonian ayahuasca ceremony, usually led by a shaman. Ayahuasca is a hallucinogen made from a specific blend of Amazonian plants that are mixed into a drinkable elixir. The drink has been used in medicinal and spiritual rituals for centuries by indigenous cultures who believe in ayahuasca’s psychological healing properties. But in the last decade, Western travelers have been especially keen to imbibe and possibly cure their past traumas, addiction, or emotional baggage on a psychedelic plane. The Guardian estimates that there are around 100 ayahuasca centers in Iquitos alone that cater to foreign travelers (and the vomit that usually comes with consuming the drug). Packages range from an overnight visit to a month-long spiritual retreat. Though many studies have shown ayahuasca to be safe, and even beneficial, there have been reports of fake shamans, sexual assaults, and death affiliated with the drug. Ayahuasca is legal in Peru and illegal in the United States. 

2. Hashish in Morocco

Nathan Guy/Flickr

Smoking hashish (or kif, in local parlance) is a common pastime among Moroccan males and tourists of both sexes. Many backpackers look to Morocco’s easy availability of the drug as a main reason to visit stoner-friendly towns like Chefchaouen . According to Vice , Morocco produces half of the world’s hashish and the illegal industry employs around 800,000 people. Hordes of young men work as unofficial hash guides, taking interested tourists to hash farms and teaching them about production before getting them ripped. Hash looks like sticky brown clay and is usually broken up and mixed with tobacco for smoking in a paper like a cigarette, or in a hookah pipe. But just because it’s widespread, doesn’t mean it’s legal. Smoking illegal drugs (or carrying them) can incur a 10-year prison sentence. 

3. Cocaine in Colombia

Pedro Szekely/Flickr

In the early 1990s, Medellin was the murder capital of the world. The city recorded 381 murders per 100,000 residents in 1991, and the presence of paramilitary groups and the Medellin cartel made the entire place look and feel like a war zone — a drug war zone led by the notorious Pablo Escobar. In 2015, Medellin saw only 20 murders per 100,000 residents, continuing the steady trend of declining violence and the promotion of a flourishing and stable economy. And though locals seem more than ready to forget about the city’s recent, brutal past, many tourists choose to visit Medellin for a safe taste of notoriety — and cocaine. El Poblado, one of the city’s wealthiest and safest neighborhoods, is incredibly popular for Poblado Escobar Tours and procuring baggies of cocaine from men who also sell candy and gum on picturesque street corners. The arrest of tourists for cocaine possession is exceedingly rare, but the city’s citizens (many of whom lost at least one friend or family member in the violent ’90s) are less than enthused by wealthy visitors who treat the once violent city as a safe drug playground. 

4. Marijuana in Colorado

Sheila Sund/Flickr

The state of Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational purposes in 2012. Though easier access to pot has drawn significantly more visitors to the state, there have been problems. It’s still illegal to smoke pot in public and in most hotels, and many visitors don’t realize they’re not allowed to fly or drive out of the state with drugs. One of the biggest problems is over-ingesting edible marijuana. The Chicago Tribune reported that out-of-state visitors to Colorado emergency rooms for marijuana-related symptoms accounted for 163 per 10,000 visits in 2014. Visitors consume edible marijuana in the form of pastries and candies, and essentially dose themselves with too much THC, causing heart palpitations and anxiety attacks. 

5. Marijuana in the Netherlands

BriYYZ/Flickr

Recreational drugs are illegal in the Netherlands , but the Dutch parliament decriminalized possession of less than five grams of cannabis in the 1970s, allowing for an upsurge in “coffee shops” that sell pot, and (mostly) allow customers to light up. Some estimates say that 90 percent of coffee shop customers are foreigners and there are occasional threats to shut the whole system down. But with millions of coffee shop visitors a year, the financial toll would be high and the Dutch are well-known for allowing individual freedoms. Amsterdam even has a Hash, Marijuana & Hemp Museum that celebrates the history of cannabis.  

6. Coca in Bolivia

Matthew Straubmuller/Flickr

The coca leaf, of which cocaine derives, is considered a sacred commodity in Bolivia, where Andean people have chewed the leaf for thousands of years to relieve altitude sickness and get an energy boost that’s equivalent to a cup of coffee. President Evo Morales legalized coca cultivation after he was elected in 2006, arguing that indigenous peoples should not be robbed of their ancient crop and traditions. Coca is generally harmless, but cocaine is not. And Morales’ liberal coca leaf policy has bolstered illegal cocaine use in Bolivia, particularly among foreigners who appreciate the high quality of the drug for an insanely low cost. Route 36 is a notorious underground and ever-moving cocaine and cocktail bar that doesn’t allow Bolivians inside in an effort to keep out undercover cops and journalists.

7. Mushrooms, Ecstasy, and Opium in Laos

Jean-Pierre Dalbéra/Flickr

The drug culture is strong and can be all-consuming among expats and long-term backpackers throughout Southeast Asia.  Full moon parties in Thailand , Vietnam, and Indonesia are usually fueled by ecstasy, Molly, and mushrooms that keep partiers dancing and tripping until the sun rises. But the largest concentration of drugs in Southeast Asia can arguably be found in Vang Vieng, Laos, which is well-known for its lazy river, where (usually young and covered in body paint) visitors are given free shots of booze and sold a variety of drugs. The floating party is experienced by inner-tubes, tree swings, and slides into the water. Bars line the shores, and it’s easy and cheap to buy the drug of choice. Death by drowning, overdose, and broken necks are yearly occurrences, but the known danger doesn’t seem to stop the hordes of partygoers looking for a good time. 

You’ll Also Like:

• 9 International Tourist Attractions that Would be Illegal in the U.S.
• 5 Minor Offenses That Will Have You Serving Hard Time Abroad
• Ayahuasca: Why Travelers Swear by this “Trip” of a Lifetime

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• Entertainment

Here are the top 10 sex tourism destinations

From Europe to Southeast Asia, we list places that are known as destinations for sex tourism.

It turns out that while planning for a vacation, there are people who actually are looking for places where they can have uninhibited sex – not necessarily with their partners.

Some people look at sexual encounters while travelling as a way of enhancing their travel experience. And to top it all, the sex tourism industry is worth billions with millions of sex workers, both legal and illegal scattered around the globe.

Here are 10 of the biggest sex tourism destinations around the world:

Germany : Prostitution and even street prostitution is wide spread and organised sector in Germany and it is completely legal. The country has a long history of sexual tourism with organised prostitution in the country dating back to the 1200’s AD. Interestingly, people join the flesh trade in Germany willingly and there are advertisements, and job offers through HR companies. Frauenhäuser ("women's houses") have always been a common part of German history and were looked upon as places which helped curb greater crimes by offering their services. The practice carries on till date.

Dominican Republic : Travellers to the Dominican Republic will see legal brothels, marriage parlours and prostitutes openly roaming around in many of the downtown areas of Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata. The Dominican Republic ranks fourth highest in the world among countries exporting large numbers of sex workers.

Spain: Party destinations in Spain that include Madrid, Ibiza and Barcelona which are known for their riveting club and bar scene have also become popular sex tourism destinations. Street that is known as the red light area.

Malaysia : While prostitution is illegal in Malaysia, it is still rampantly practiced and services are widely available. The demand is particularly high in places like Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. Most of the sex workers are trafficked from neighbouring countries like China.

Kenya : While it is one of the countries in Africa which is relatively easier to visit, it also has one of the largest sex tourism industries on the continent. The country does not discourage the practice despite the high level of STDs and HIV prevalent. Interestingly, Kenya is a popular destination among older white women who want to 'buy' some time with a man. Children are lured into prostitution by tourists willing to pay handsomely for sex in secret locations.

The Netherlands: Often considered to be one of the most popular sex tourism destinations in the world. Prostitution is legal and regulated while Amsterdam’s, De Wallen, is the largest and most famous red-light district in the city and a famous destination for international sex tourism.

The Philippines : The country has a huge industry domestically with an estimated 800,000 men, women and children working in the trade. It is believed that the country’s international image as a sex destination was formed due to the ‘girlie’ bars that were prevalent during World War II.

Brazil : Another place where prostitution is legal, Brazil however says it is illegal to operate a brothel or to employ sex workers in any other way. Still, dozens of brothels fill the cities, where prostitutes engage in sexual activities.

Colombia : Colombian women are often considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world, and perhaps this is one factor that has led to sex tourism flourishing in the country. While sex trade is completely legal here, the government is taking efforts to curb areas that re illegal, like child prostitution.

Thailand : The industry apparently started in the country during the Vietnam, war and is a legal profession here with over three million sex workers earning a livelihood in the country.

Tags: adult tourism , sex , destinations , germany , dominican republic , spain , malaysia , kenya , the netherlands , the philippines , brazil , colombia , thailand

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Local pharmacist charged with attempted sex trafficking of a minor and child sex tourism

MIAMI – On April 19, a local pharmacist was charged by criminal complaint with attempted sex trafficking of a minor and attempted travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

According to the criminal complaint and the underlying affidavit, law enforcement officers stopped Stefan Andres Correa, 42, of Miami, Florida, attempting to board a flight from Miami to Bogota, Colombia. It is alleged that, law enforcement officers discovered nine cellular phones in Correa’s possession containing videos of Correa engaging in intercourse with purported minor children, as well as a chat exchange with a suspected sex trafficker, where Correa allegedly paid for commercial sex with children aged between 10 to 12 years old in Colombia. According to the allegations, during the chat exchange, Correa agreed with the suspected sex trafficker to meet with the minor victims once he arrived in Colombia. 

Correa made his initial appearance on April 19. A detention hearing is scheduled for today, April 23, at 10:00 a.m. If convicted, Correa faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life in prison as well as up to a lifetime of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami made the announcement.

HSI Miami investigated the case with assistance from HSI offices in Cleveland, Ohio, and Bogota, Colombia, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).  The Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of the Judicial Attaché in Bogota, Colombia, also provided critical assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Astigarraga-Little is prosecuting it.

A criminal complaint contains mere allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate better, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit  www.projectsafechildhood.gov . 

To report suspected human trafficking or to obtain resources for victims, please call 1-888-373-7888; text “BeFree” (233733), or live chat at HumanTraffickingHotline.org . The toll-free phone, SMS text lines, and online chat function are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Help is available in English, Spanish, Creole, or in more than 200 additional languages. The National Hotline is not managed by law enforcement, immigration, or an investigative agency. Correspondence with the National Hotline is confidential, and you may request assistance or report a tip anonymously.

To report online child sexual exploitation visit https://report.cybertip.org/ or call 1-800-843-5678. The Cyber Tip Line is operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in partnership with HSI and other law enforcement agencies.

To learn more about the National Resource Hotline, visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org . To learn more about the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to combat human trafficking, visit www.justice.gov/humantrafficking .

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov , under case number 24-mj-02786.

Public Affairs Unit

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Southern District of Florida

[email protected]

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Sex tourism in the Philippines (Angels City)

Angeles City is a well-known destination for sex tourists. There I also have my second residence, where I flee the hamster wheel for a few weeks a year. That doesn’t mean that I enjoy the red light district there. On the contrary. Angeles City is a very diverse location. But read the article and you will understand.

Based on my experiences and conversations over many years with prostitutes in Angels City, I tried to answer Chris’ questions as best I could. Thanks to Chris for this opportunity to shed some light on this critical topic with this article. Everything I write here is my own opinion and is based on my own experiences and reflects my experiences as well as my point of view.

What do you think of sex tourism?

Sex tourism is clearly an illegal business and brings to light much suffering and poverty, brutality and all the bad qualities of the people who earn the big money with it. That is from my point of view to condemn. But sex tourism is not just a sexual service. The business offers many people who work directly or indirectly in this business, a perspective, a job and something to eat on the table.

I visit bars to talk to the women there. Many of these women work voluntarily in the bars. Many simply work as service personnel or cleaners.

A regular income, a regular health check and accommodation is a luxury in the Philippines. As an employee in a bar this is standard. Clearly it is morally reprehensible and clear it is illegal. But it is a fact that for many women it is an “easy” way out of poverty and lack of money. And nothing is easy in the Philippines, especially not to find a job.

And then there are the women who do not work voluntarily in the bars. They are exploited. These women want nothing more than to go home again, have nothing to do with this business. They were lured by “traffickers” with the offer to get a job. The travel and all expenses are paid by these organizations. The women then have to “work through” these debts in the bars, which of course never works. These women are the ones who get into the swamp of the mafia.

There are Caritas organizations that take care of these women. Donations are always welcome.

This is what women who work in the bars of Angeles City look like.

Volunteer sex workers benefit from sex tourism

The volunteer sex workers have a clear idea of the job and know what to expect. How long they have to work to make a good life possible for their families. Plan the employee relationship exactly and are immediately out when the goal has been reached. Just this year I had exactly this conversation with a woman. She had quit on the next day and went back to Manila to attend the first school day with her daughter in a private school – financed by her employment in the bar.

These are my experiences as a man who has spoken with many of these women who know amazingly well what is going on and what they want. I don’t want to gloss over sex tourism, but especially in a poor country it’s hard to just eliminate this kind of machination. It is better to come to terms with it than to rebel against it.

Have you seen or even experienced it yourself?

My first and only contact during my very first visit to the Philippines – about 20 years ago! I was still very young, naïve and unfortunately I had never heard of anything like sex tourism.

The whole thing went on a mighty hangover and an almost missed flight the next day. Everything after the bar visit until waking up in the hotel sank into a Black Hole. Since the same thing happened to my companion at that time, there were probably drugs involved. But somehow nothing was stolen from us, and we barely reached the flight. Since this experience and the information gained later, I am a burned child.

Sex tourism – Good or bad for the people / economy / reputation of the country?

Tourismus kurbelt die Wirtschaft an

Tourism is a very strong economic factor in the Philippines and the government does a lot for tourism. This is a win-win situation for the local as well as for the tourists. In recent years, especially here in Angeles City, the red light district was somewhat optically odd as well as the security strengthened. This is also a win-win situation for everyone. The prostitutes are in a secured area. Compared to many European red light neighborhoods certainly better conditions.

The Philippines are always mentioned in the vast majority of cases with the many beautiful tourist sights. It is known that there is something like sex tourism there, but it is not mentioned very much. This speaks for the reputation of the Philippines abroad in the media. The tourist focus is definitely on the scenic and cultural beauties and directed.

Do you as a backpacker have to take a stand on sex tourism or do you ignore it when you travel in the country?

I see people in Angeles City again and again who are either sleeping there with their backpacks, wife and child or on a printing trip. I guess many people now accept that Angeles City is not just about sex tourism.

But it is practically impossible to ignore sex tourism in Angeles City. In every corner there are bars or massage saloons.

But, there is also the other side. good infrastructure and an international airport. When travelling in Luzon’s north it is almost negligent not to make a stop over in Angeles City. Ignore impossible – everyone has to take a stand and form his own opinion about what Angeles City has brought him. I am willing to show everyone the beautiful and practical sides of Angeles City.

Rather sex tourism than drugs and violence?

Das öffentliche treiben auf der Walking Street

I have a clear opinion: A world without borders, without violence, suffering, drugs and humiliation must be the goal of all. Anyone who can contribute to alleviating suffering and violence in some way is obliged to do so within his means.

Of course violence is a part of the human being, but sometimes you can achieve a lot with small things. This small contribution here hopefully helps to bring more tourists to Angeles City. With it more money is available for infrastructure. With it schools are built. Well educated children find jobs instead of slipping into the criminal milieu…

Future, fear & hope as prostitutes? What do you really think is important about this topic? As mentioned, there are different kinds of prostitution. Those who are forced and who do it voluntarily. I know both sides and know what goes on in these women. Those who are forced are naturally afraid, very much on their own and have no hope of ever repaying the accumulated debt. This is brutal and it is more or less hopeless ever to escape from this trap. If I could help, there would be a good starting point. but unfortunately it is in a bottomless pit. Various aid organizations take care of these cases. If you like to donate you can do this here.

It is important not to forget that prostitutes are also people with dreams and plans. You can talk to them quite normally. Most of the time you are surprised by their history. It always gets very close to me and I would like to help right away. But that would be the wrong way. I hope that with my words I have taken some of the shyness away from the red light in Angeles City.

Go there, talk to the women – I know you are always very happy to have good conversations with a foreigner. Maybe there will be a possibility to help?

Conclusion:

If my words have created the impression that Angeles City is a single cesspool of sin, the sex tourism zone is limited to a single street in Angeles City. Angeles City, like the nearby American base Clark Airbase, are normal Philippine regions. Angeles City is a small provincial city where there are also schools, hotels, shopping malls, dentists (even good ones) and apartments like in any normal Philippine city.

It is easy to find your way around Angeles City because it is manageable and not a juggernaut like Manila. And if you want, you can go to the “Walking-Street” in the evening to eat a good meal in a good restaurant.

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Slayings of Tourists and Colombian Women Expose the Dark Side of Medellin's Tourism Boom

A sharp dip in violence in Colombia's second-biggest city has attracted a flood of tourists to Medellin's vivid colors, busy cafes and booming nightlife

Slayings of Tourists and Colombian Women Expose the Dark Side of Medellin's Tourism Boom

Fernando Vergara

Tourists take photos in the Comuna 13 neighborhood of Medellin, Colombia, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Once a battleground for fighting among drug cartels, leftist guerrillas, military forces and government-linked paramilitary groups, the area is now a tourist attraction. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) — The lush valley enveloping Medellin was once the heart of a brutal war involving the Colombian government, drug cartels and a smattering of other armed groups.

But a sharp dip in violence in the country’s second-biggest city has attracted a flood of tourists to its vivid colors, busy cafes and booming nightlife. About 1.4 million visited last year, many of them American.

Now the tourism boom has presented officials with a new set of dark challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps.

“This area has spun out of control,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said recently while touring a park known for the sex trade.

Sex and drug tourism has long been a problem in Medellin, but the dangers came to a head late last year. Between November and December, eight American men were killed, many after meeting local women who are often used as pawns by criminal groups that target foreigners.

The killings prompted the U.S. Embassy in Bogota to warn in January that some tourists had been slipped drugs and were later robbed or killed. American officials cautioned men against using dating apps. The apps offer a way to seek out sex workers, whose business is not criminalized in Colombia.

Photos You Should See - April 2024

Medellin lead prosecutor Yiri Milena Amado Sanchez said most of the recent killings followed similar scripts: A tourist contacts a local woman through social media or a dating app. When they meet, the man is handed a drink spiked with a substance such as scopolamine, which can cause people to fall unconscious and block their memories. The victims lose their belongings and, in some cases, their lives.

Of the killings, the most is known about the death of Tou Ger Xiong , an activist and comedian from Minnesota who went on a date with a Medellin woman, police say.

After meeting the woman, Xiong was kidnapped on Dec. 10, tortured, beaten and robbed. Despite his family paying a ransom for his release, he was taken to a nearby wooded area and thrown down a 250-foot cliff. He was found dead the next day.

Colombian authorities have not suggested that he was involved in prostitution. They said Xiong went out several times with the woman, who has been charged in the case , along with two men.

Friends and relatives described Xiong as a gregarious man who loved to travel, especially to Colombia, where he had friends.

“It’s almost like a second home; he loved it there,” his brother, Eh Xiong, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis , adding that his brother knew about the U.S. government warnings, but that he assumed only "the best in people.”

Just this year, authorities have investigated the deaths of five more tourists, including a Dutch visitor found dead in a hotel, three Americans and a Lithuanian, who may have died by suicide.

Foreigners, too, have been behind some of the violence.

Earlier this month, the body of 20-year-old Colombian Laura Lopera was found jammed inside a suitcase. Authorities say her middle-aged Canadian ex-boyfriend, whom she met on a dating app, was likely behind the death.

Gutiérrez, the Medellin mayor, said the boyfriend fled the country and is now being pursued by Interpol. The Associated Press contacted the suspect over social media but did not receive a response.

The Canadian Embassy in Bogota said it was tracking the case but could not share more information due to privacy concerns.

“How sad and painful it is to learn of another femicide,” Gutiérrez wrote on X , formerly Twitter. “I send my solidarity to her family.”

The rise in tourism has also coincided with an uptick in sexual exploitation and trafficking in a place where rates of violence against women are already sky-high. In 2023, the city documented 1,259 cases of possible sexual exploitation of minors, a nearly 60% increase from the year before, according to data collected by the city.

Much of the city's sex work is also fueled by poverty and a migration crisis from neighboring Venezuela. Vulnerable women often sell sex to make ends meet. That was the case for one young sex worker, who fled economic crisis in Venezuela five years ago.

Every weekend, she walks dressed up through Lleras Park, which is surrounded by clubs frequented by foreign tourists. The small park is a hub for Medellin's sex industry.

“An American will pay 100 or even 200 dollars for sex, but a Colombian never pays that much,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Far from making a lucrative salary, she needed to scrape together at least $50 to pay for the room where she lives with her 8-year-old daughter and her mother.

“Some think that we are going to harm them,” she said, referring to the crimes against tourists. “But not all of us are criminals.”

On a recent night, dozens of police officers and local government officials patrolled the park, accompanied by Mayor Gutiérrez.

They asked for identification from women entering the park through police checkpoints. Most were let through, but a couple of teenagers were stopped and taken into a van. When the police left, the area once again filled with sex workers of different ages.

Despite the rise in sex tourism, many visitors to Medellin are pulled in by its vibrant culture, the stunning natural beauty of the valley and the city’s complicated history.

In a hillside neighborhood known as Comuna 13, hundreds of people take walking tours each day to see the area’s transformation.

The neighborhood was once a battleground for fighting among drug cartels, leftist guerrillas, military forces and government-linked paramilitary groups. The dead were buried in mass graves.

While the area still struggles with gang problems, tourists walk through colorful streets connected by electric staircases. Visitors take photos of intricate murals painted by local artists and shop for handicrafts in small stores.

In the middle of a tour, 38-year-old Ola Aiyedun of New York stopped to take some pictures with two friends. He said he wasn’t worried about safety or the warning to avoid dating apps because he didn’t come to Colombia in search of a partner.

“Colombia has more to offer than just women,” Aiyedun said.

Associated Press Writer Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Copyright 2024 The  Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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'they denied the victim’s basic humanity': man sentenced for sex trafficking a woman in maine.

Prosecutors say the suspects used drugs, lies, intimidation, violence and rape to control a Maine woman dealing with substance abuse disorder.

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A man from Boston was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking a young woman through force, fraud and coercion and obstruction in Maine.

Ricardo Middleton, 32, was convicted by a jury in December of last year.

Middleton’s co-defendant, Sherry Jones, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was sentenced today to 80 months in prison. Jones had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking on May 23, 2023.

According to evidence presented during the trial, Middleton exploited a 25-year-old Maine woman who was suffering from substance abuse disorder and forced her to engage in commercial sex using drugs, lies, intimidation, physical violence and rape as means to control her.

Testimony described three days in November 2015 when Middleton, along with Jones and co-defendant Mathew Thatcher, of Scarborough, took the woman to several locations in Maine and Massachusetts. Along the way, prosecutors said Middleton berated the victim, abused her and humiliated her, including raping her and saying he was "going to make a lot of money off" her.

On March 22, Thatcher was sentenced to 44 months in prison after pleading guilty on Nov. 17, 2023, to interstate transportation in aid of racketeering and contempt of court.

"These acts were odious and intolerable. They denied the victim’s basic humanity," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Police in Portland, Biddeford, South Portland, Topsham and Saco all helped investigate the case.

"The horrific violence inflicted upon women by Middleton and his co-conspirators is difficult to comprehend," Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol of Homeland Security Investigations New England said. “He targeted someone battling substance use issues and used this as a lever to control, making it even harder for her to escape the nightmare she found herself in.”

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org .

Popular European city-break unveils controversial plan to sell cocaine in pharmacies

P harmacists in Amsterdam could one day be selling cocaine and other hard party drugs, according to the mayor of the Dutch capital.

The controversial proposal has raised eyebrows in Amsterdam, which has long had a reputation for drug and sex tourism.

The Dutch capital, which is one of the most popular city-breaks in Europe, is known globally for its tolerance towards soft drugs like cannabis and its lively tourism sector.

Femke Halsema, who recently won re-election for a second six-year term, told the AFP that one day "you could imagine getting cocaine at pharmacies or via a medical system".

She said that regulation of hard drugs was the only way to tackle the "disastrous" impact of drug trafficking in her city.

Ms Halsema complained that 80 percent of police time in Amsterdam was devoted to the "war on drugs".

She said new ideas were needed, adding: "I think that some drugs are dangerous, and I also think it is wise to reduce drug use. But I also notice that the way we do this does not help. We need to think of better ways to regulate drugs.

"Is it not ridiculous that we leave drug trafficking to criminals and we do not try to find a way to have a civilised market?"

Earlier this year, Ms Halsema invited mayors and experts from around the world to a conference in Amsterdam to discuss "how and not whether" cities should regulate drugs.

The city remains one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, with around 20 million visitors each year.

While many British tourists visit Amsterdam to admire its canals or cultural highlights, it remains a popular stag party destination for many Brits.

Many party-loving tourists are attracted by the city's late-night club scene, cannabis coffee shops and red light district.

It is unclear how the Amsterdam mayor's stance will align with the Dutch government's "digital discouragement campaign" launched in March 2023, which aims to deter people from using the capital for weekends of sex and drug tourism.

In 2023, cocaine seizures in the Netherlands rose with Dutch customs authorities seizing nearly 60 metric tonnes of cocaine - up from 51 tonnes in 2022.

The largest quantities were found in the ports of Rotterdam and Vlissingen.

Episode 6: Drugs, Sex and Secrets

Another side of paradise and a startling discovery.

Episode 6:  Drugs, Sex and Secrets

The Upper Peninsula has its own culture. It also has its own law enforcement culture.  

In this episode, locals help us examine the drugs, sex work, murder and police conduct swirling around people connected to the Derrick Henagan case. 

We also uncover a startling decision Michigan State Police made related to Trooper David Moeggenborg.

Who’s who:   Missy Kerridge, an Upper Peninsula mom who saw her daughter and her daughter’s best friend pulled into drugs and sex work. John Hutchinson, a local man whose brother was caught up in drugs. Michigan State Police Trooper David Moeggenborg. His daughter Meghan Moeggenborg and his second wife, Renae Botbyl. Capt. Clint Michelin, former commander of the Michigan State Police in the Upper Peninsula.

Explore the case: Cabin B&E , K-9 search

Get the  latest episodes here .

If you need help: For substance misuse resources call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at 1-800-662-HELP or visit samhsa.gov/

To report a suspected case of human trafficking, visit humantrafficking.org or call their hotline at 888-373-7888 to submit a confidential tip or to access resources to help victims and survivors.

For sexual violence resources, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network can connect survivors of sexual violence to support services at 800-656-HOPE or through the website rainn.org

Contact us: 248-702-4092 or encrypted email: [email protected]

Sign up for our email updates on this story through our newsletter .

Credits:  John Wisely, Darcie Moran, Kathleen Galligan, Garrett Tiedemann, Robin Chan, Tad Davis, Adrienne Roberts, Kathy Kieliszewski, Jim Schaefer, and Anjanette Delgado. Nicole Avery Nichols is editor of the Detroit Free Press.

Our theme music is “Abyss,” an original song by Camilla Cantu and Brian Castillo.

Check back later for a full transcript of this episode.

Drugs and Prostitutes Alleged at Australia’s Seven Network in Bruce Lehrmann Defamation Trial; Broadcaster ‘Appalled’ by Claims

By Patrick Frater

Patrick Frater

Asia Bureau Chief

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Australia ’s Seven West Media and its Seven network may risk reputational damage following Federal Court revelations in Sydney on Thursday and Friday.

The defamation case was brought by former Liberal Party political aide Bruce Lehrmann against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. It does not directly involve Seven.

Lehrmann was tried in court in 2022 over the alleged rape of another political aide, Brittany Higgins, in Canberra in 2021. But the case and a retrial were abandoned with no findings against him.

Lehrmann’s defamation case alleges that Network 10 and Wilkinson have made false claims that he raped Higgins.

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In late 2022, Seven, Australia’s most-watched TV network, aired an exclusive two-part interview with Lehrmann. But how its “Spotlight” investigative news program obtained that interview is now the subject of intense debate.

In court on Thursday, former Seven Network producer Taylor Auerbach explained that he had been appointed Lehrmann’s babysitter on a visit to Sydney.

”Mr. Lehrmann had over dinner purchased a bag of cocaine while we were dining at Franca and when we got upstairs to the room he pulled that out and started to put it on a plate and then started talking to me about a prospective ‘Spotlight’ story and his desire to order prostitutes to the Meriton that night … And he began googling a series of websites to try and make that happen,” Auerbach alleged in court.

Auerbach also testified that he was offered a promotion and a pay rise after he used a corporate credit card to purchase Thai massages for himself and Lehrmann. He said that he charged approximately A$10,000 ($6,600) to the card, later confessed the activity and personally reimbursed the money.

Auerbach further testified that he was advised by lawyer Richard Keegan to delete material from his phone and computer that could be damaging to Seven.

Australian media have reported that Lehrmann has denied receiving a massage.

Its statement also said that it has complied with all obligations in relation to producing documents and that it had not asked anyone to delete or destroy any evidence. “Seven has acted appropriately at all times,” it said.

Public broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that “Seven executives are dealing with escalating reputational damage that threatens the future of its Spotlight program.”

ABC quoted media commentator and shareholder activist Stephen Mayne as saying that the interview allegations “continue a bit of a pattern, which I think is significantly damaging” and that Seven West’s major shareholder Kerry Stokes “has a history of backing his talent even when there are cultural issues and controversy.” Mayne speculated that Seven may soon shut down the “Spotlight” program.

The Lehmann vs Network 10 and Higgins case was previously closed with a judgement pending, but it was reopened by Justice Michael Lee for the two days of testimony. It has now closed again.

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Anthony Briggs, sex offender, held for indecency, drugs in Kinston park

by Matthew Hinson

A registered sex offender was arrested in Kinston Tuesday evening and has been charged with multiple charges including indecent exposure and resisting a public officer.

Anthony Briggs, 38, of Kinston, was arrested on April 23 after members of the Kinston Police Department say they responded to a report of an individual inappropriately touching himself near 108 W. North Street.

According to authorities, as officers arrived, they attempted to contact the suspect. Once Briggs spotted the officers, he immediately led them on foot pursuit. During the chase, Briggs ran towards Pearson Park, where he was apprehended without incident.

Upon further investigation, it was determined that Briggs was required to register as a sex offender due to previous convictions. This prior conviction prohibited him from being within 300 feet of a park. It was also determined that he had three outstanding warrants for Possession with the Intent to Sell/Deliver a Controlled Substance.

Briggs was ultimately arrested for the warrants and charged with Indecent Exposure, Sex Offender Unlawfully On-premises (within 300 feet of a Park), and Resisting a Public Officer. Briggs was placed in the Lenoir County Jail under a secured bond.

The Kinston Police Department makes it a priority to investigate all crimes perpetrated in our city. We will investigate such cases without compromise for crime and continue to seek assistance from the community we proudly serve. If anyone has information about this incident, please call the Kinston Police Department’s Tips Line at 252-939-4020, Lenoir County Crime Stoppers at 252-523-4444, or through the Tip411 App that is available on both Apple and Android devices. Calls to Crime Stoppers are confidential and anonymous, and the caller may be eligible for a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest.