Canadian tourist and Dominican Republic sex workers
Herold, E.S.
Aids and Society 4(1): 7
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 1055-0380 PMID: 12286019 Document Number: 323289
The Dominican Republic is a popular tourist destination for Canadians. The country's sex industry for tourists developed markedly in the 1980s. The Puerto Plata/Sosua area is currently one of the most popular tourist sites and claimed the highest incidence of AIDS in 1989 at 23.2 cases/100,000 people. Two pilot phases of the Dominican Sex Workers and Canadian Tourists Study have been conducted to obtain methodological and empirical data to use in developing a major study of sex and tourism. First phase interviews were held only with beachboys who make money by having relations with female tourists, while phase two interviews were held with beachboys, female sex workers, and female and male tourists. Results indicate that female tourists consider their relations with male sex workers to be primarily social, while male tourists see their relations with female sex workers as more casual, sexual, and monetarily based. Further, women are more likely than men to continue their relationships with sex workers after returning to Canada; many help their men to immigrate and some get married. To learn more about the dynamics of tourism, sex, and AIDS prevention, the author proposes individual studies exploring the characteristics of each of the following four populations: male and female sex workers and male and female tourists.