Millions of sex tourists annually invade countries where, in addition to sun, sand and sea, there are also women at ridiculous prices. You can see that at the European Championships in Ukraine. About a modern form of slave trade that doesn’t even stop at children.

Affordable flights and long-distance travel around the world have  led to mass tourism in the past few decades. This also made a modern type of slave trade possible: Millions of sex tourists annually invade countries where, in addition to sun, sand and sea, there are also women at ridiculous prices.

400,000 German men go on a sex vacation every year, as the aid organization  Terre des Hommes estimates. Particularly popular travel destinations for “erotic vacations” are still Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union also Eastern Europe. Poorer countries in which there is a lack of work, education, and prospects, and in which women and children often have no choice but to prostitute themselves.

In Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, according to US estimates, around forty percent of foreign holidaymakers are also sex tourists. Things don’t look much better in African countries like Kenya, Madagascar and Gambia, where meanwhile many women from the wealthy industrialized countries go on the hunt for a “boyfriend” for a while. In Ukraine, women’s groups have  been protesting for years that their country is attracting more and more sex tourists. “Ukraine is not a brothel”, the women from Femen defended themselves before the European football championship against the expected onslaught of foreigners who are not only interested in games but also in cheap sex.

Many sex tourists come from the upper classes, including doctors, lawyers, managers and politicians. Men of influence and power whom a docile woman will help satisfy their narcissistic ego. For many, a sex vacation is also an escape from a complicated couple relationship. Why bother with a demanding woman in “Emanzenland” when everything is much easier a few hours’ flight away?

Equality between men and women in industrialized countries is an essential factor in promoting sex tourism, says Hamburg psychotherapist Michael Cöllen, who also examines the problems of couples in his books. “The sexual revolution is only a few decades old. In this short period of time, centuries-old traditions went overboard. ”In the past, men determined when, how often and how people slept together; a woman who did not keep up was considered frigid and was sent to the doctor. Today women are equal partners who have their own demands and needs – “I have the impression that our men are only getting used to it slowly,” says Cöllen. Some men could not cope with it at all, would see their masculinity threatened by the required “emotional dialogue”, got erectile dysfunction, would become impotent. “This is a problem across the board,” says the psychologist. “Couples therapy is now the strongest branch of psychotherapy.”

For some, the sex vacation is easier and faster than couples therapy. Instead of discussing problems with the partner on an equal footing, the man gets on the plane and looks for a seemingly undemanding and docile girl who fulfills his sexual desires. For a few dollars, he gets the feeling of being strong and powerful. The devotion of the young lover satisfies “an additional sexual drive of submission,” as Cöllen says.

Page 2: Children are the most sensitive victims

Children are the most sensitive victims. Around 150 million girls and 73 million boys worldwide are being forced to have sex, estimates the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In the Philippines alone, between 60,000 and 100,000  children are exploited as prostitutes. The girls come to the capital Manila because they are looking for work … Read the rest