Female sex tourism

Female sex tourism is sex tourism by women who travel intending to engage in sexual activities with one or more locals, including male sex workers. Female sex tourists may seek aspects of the sexual relationship not typically shared by male sex tourists, such as perceived romance and intimacy.^[2][3][4][5] The incidence of female sex tourism is much lower than male sex tourism, and the low number of female sex tourists makes it difficult to research this phenomenon, which has been described as "poorly understood".^[6][7]

Female sex tourism occurs in diverse regions of the world. Africa, the Caribbean, and southern Europe appear to be preferred destinations for female sex tourists, but some other regions with many unemployed or underemployed locals are also becoming popular.^[1] Recent research has suggested that some female sex tourists do not seek male sex workers. A 2018 study found that Australian female sex tourists were more likely to seek female prostitutes than male prostitutes.^[6]

Female sex tourists can be grouped into three types:

• Traditional sex tourists, who have similar characteristics and motives as male sex tourists.
• Situational sex tourists, who do not intentionally put themselves in a sex tourist position, but find themselves involved in a sexual encounter with locals. Situational sex tourists may fall into the category of either being businesswomen, students, women in overseas conferences or other women who have different agendas that are non-sexual.^[2]
• Romance tourists, who plan to fulfill their travel with romantic experiences that they cannot experience in their native country.^[8]

With this movement of different populations to different countries, problems concerning health increase, especially ailments involving sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. Some women involved with sex tourism do not use barrier contraceptives during the majority of their visit, leaving them and those they have sex with unprotected against STIs.^[6][9]