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14 - Sex Tourism: Fluid Borders of Meanings and Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2024

By
Amalia L. Cabezas
Edited by
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks  and
Mathew Kuefler
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Mathew Kuefler
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
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Summary

In this chapter, we examine the evolving definition of sex tourism. Through a comprehensive literature review focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean, we assess the long history of commodified sex and travel and the difficulties in defining the practice as exclusive to heterosexual men purchasing sex or as a phenomenon exclusive to the Global South. A case study of Havana, Cuba, contributes to a deeper understanding of how colonial cities benefitted from commodified sex connected to travellers and racialized bodies. In analyzing the scholarship on sex tourism, we appreciate the heterogeneity of arrangements, identities, ambiguity, and fluidity of relationships. Both hosts and guests are looking for opportunities to enhance their lives and to challenge the gender, sexual, and racial dictates of their society. Tourist-related intimacies, therefore, are used for personal and familial gains and mobility in the global political economy. The findings reveal that while some studies have adopted narrow definitions, a more comprehensive approach argues for understanding sex tourism as part of a spectrum of intimate encounters that combine sex and money, encompassing everything from marriage to sex work.

Keywords

tourismLatin AmericaCaribbeanCubaracesexsexualitygenderqueer
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 297 - 317
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Cabezas, Amalia L. Economies of Desire: Sex and Tourism in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Carr, Neil. ‘Sex in Tourism: Reflections and Potential Future Research Directions’. Tourism Recreation Research 41, no. 2 (2016): 188–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Ebron, Paula. ‘Traffic in Men’. In Gendered Encounters: Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa, ed. Grosz-Ngate, Maria and Kokole, Omari, 223–44. New York: Routledge, 1997.Google Scholar
Fernandez, Nadine. ‘Back to the Future? Women, Race, and Tourism in Cuba’. In Sun, Sex, and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean, ed. Kempadoo, Kamala, 81–9. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.Google Scholar
Fosado, Gisela. ‘Gay Sex Tourism, Ambiguity, and Transnational Love in Havana’. In Cuba Transnational, ed. Fernández, Damián J, 61–78. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Frohlick, Susan. Sexuality, Women, and Tourism: Cross-Border Desires through Contemporary Travel. New York: Routledge, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Truong, Thanh-Dam. Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books, 1990.Google Scholar
Williams, Erica Lorraine. Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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