ABSTRACT
Since the 1990s, tourism has become a major part of Costa Rica’s economy, with visitors attracted by the country’s pristine beaches, stunning scenery and stable political climate. According to figures supplied by official sources at international airports, an estimated 1.9 million tourists visited Costa Rica in 2005, mainly from the USA and Europe (La Nacion 2005). Easy access from the USA and signs of a crackdown on sex tourism in parts of South East Asia have, since the 1990s, seen Costa Rica emerge as something of a new Mecca for sex tourism (Jimenez 1999; Seabrook 2001). As well as over 40 websites dedicated to promoting sex tourism in Costa Rica, sexual services are also promoted by hotels, travel agencies, and escort services and even by fishing trip promoters. Sex workers can be delivered to the client’s hotel door in some towns. Clients can order a woman for an entire trip or one for every night at beach hotels. ‘Didn’t you like what was brought to you? No hay problema’ says the information in one brochure, ‘You can exchange her at no extra cost’. Defining themselves as ‘whoremongers’ – often shortened to ‘mongers’, many
of those travelling to Costa Rica are middle-aged US men who seek sex with young Latino women. As one man notes on an internet chatroom board aimed at sex tourists, the accessibility of Costa Rica’s sex industry, based primarily in San José’s ‘Gulch’ area, means ‘I can get to CR for $313 right now. I can go to work … work almost a full day. … catch a non-stop after work and be banging a chica in the [Hotel] Del Buey by 10 pm that same night!’ Hotel Del Buey, Hotel El Duende1 and others nearby are establishments in
the Gulch that cater largely for sex tourists. The average occupancy rate for these hotels is 72 per cent. In a regular day, there are 667 occupied rooms, half of which are occupied by two men. This gives us approximately 1,000 persons per day. If the average stay in Costa Rica is seven days, there will be around 4,000 sex tourists per month and approximately 48,000 sex tourists per year in hotels in this area alone. Since there are many more hotels that cater to sex tourists and not all sex tourists stay in hotels, the maximum could be much higher, and may involve 5-10 per cent of the total number of visitors from the USA per year. If we add up this group with those US and Canadian ex-patriots who live in Costa Rica and who also participate in the sex trade, the numbers could double.
