Tourism and Socio-cultural Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 230

provide a tourist police force for the protection of tourists. Trafficking of
illegal drugs due to tourism is a problem even in nations like the Netherlands
and Belgium that have an unusually high tolerance for the possession and sale
of soft drugs. As illustrated in popular films such as Bangkok Hilton and Return
to Paradise , some nations do not hesitate to take extreme measures to prevent
drug trafficking by tourists. Illegal drugs not only affect tourism, but can also
lead to the corruption of the fabric of society.
Terrorists and political activists target international tourists as an effec-
tive medium for propaganda, relying on worldwide news coverage. Incidents
of shooting tourists at attractions or hotels, the planting of bombs in inter-
national hotels and tourist buses, outbreaks of civil riots near tourist areas
and taking tourists hostage increased at an uncommon rate in the late 1990s.
Although the increase in terrorism is not the direct result of tourism develop-
ment, tourism does lend itself to terrorism, acting as a perfect venue for ter-
rorist groups to have their agenda noticed. The far-reaching effects of the
terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001 illustrate the
impacts of terrorism. The psychological and economic impact of these
attacks is continuing to have direct and indirect effects on the tourism indus-
try around the world.
Prostitution that specially caters to tourists is also considered to be one
of the negative social impacts of tourism development. Female prostitution
is a direct response to local demands rather than tourism demands; how-
ever, male prostitution (i.e. 'beach boys') is a direct response to tourist demand
(Momsen, 1994). In some Asian nations, government officials tolerate sex-
tourism (Staudt, 1998) as this can be an invaluable source of foreign exchange.
For instance, sex-tourism is the third largest source of foreign exchange in
the Philippines. The existence of Kisaeng sex-tourism is dependent on
Japanese clients (tourists and businessmen) in South Korea (Leheny, 1995),
and the Thai government took a proactive stance in favour of sex-tourism
as a form of job creation even when the AIDS/HIV scare became a major
issue in the late 1980s that could no longer be ignored (Hall, 1994a).
Nonetheless, women and girls who work in the sex-industry for both local
men and male tourists 'earn from mere pittance wages to salaries that sur-
pass that of factory jobs' (Staudt, 1998: 106).
Other issues also associated with prostitution and tourism include: cross-
border human trafficking to satisfy increasing demands, the spread of HIV/
AIDS and resulting deaths, child prostitution to accommodate paedophilia
clientele, and associated illegal drug use. Certain destinations are already
known as sex-tourism destinations. This is the stereotypical image creation
of a destination with regard to women and children in the destination.
Women and children in these destinations are wrongly labelled as 'submis-
sive, obedient, trained to amuse male clients' and 'cheap'. This commerciali-
sation of personal relations (trading in human relationships) in some studies
is explained in relation to the loss of male identity in clients'/tourists' home