Exploring the Minds of Sex Tourists: The Psychological Motivation of Liminal People

(ABSTRACT) Sex tourism is one of the world’s most controversial industries. While it generates tremendous revenue to the sex tourism destinations, the industry has been condemned as the two main reasons trafficking of women and children exist. Despite this, little research has examined the motivation of sex tourists. The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the sex tourism phenomenon and, more specifically, motivation of tourists. This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. Two key propositions are addressed (1) The person’s level of perceived modernity relates to the perceived level of personal needs; and (2) The person’s level of perceived personal needs relates to the person’s desire of travel for sexual participation. A mixture of qualitative methods was utilized. The data was collected using semi-structured personal interviews with thirty-three male sex tourists who traveled to Pattaya, Thailand in 2005. The transcribed data was constantly compared and the interviews revealed four substantial themes with eight subsequent categories. It was discovered that sex tourists were pushed by two main motivational drives