The belief that in tourism context, men seek tout court sex, while women are more interested in love and romance.
Published in Chapter:
Tourism and Sex Outside the “Sex Tourism Paradigm”: Tourists' Perspectives and Practices in a Sun and Beach Destination
Milene Lança (Faculty of Economics and Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability, and Well-Being (CinTurs), University of Algarve, Portugal) and Fernando Bessa Ribeiro (Sociology Department of the Social Sciences Institute and Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA), University of Minho, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 28
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3156-3.ch017
Abstract
The relationship between tourism and sex has been intensively explored over the past decades. The great majority of the studies examining this relationship focus disproportionately on commercial sex tourism as if all the sexual encounters in tourism context are related to prostitution, commercialization, trafficking, inequalities, and disrespect for the human rights. Despite these contributions, the purpose of this chapter is to show that most of the romantic and sexual encounters that occur in a tourism setting are positive, gratifying, and nonpecuniary. Therefore, these relationships should be analyzed outside “sex tourism paradigm.” Results from 29 in-depth interviews with tourists in the Algarve (South Portugal) confirm the strong relationship between holidays and romantic and sexual behaviors, due to the liminal nature of tourism. In addition, results show different perspectives and behaviors according to gender, due to the continuous sexual double standard.