7 THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN TOURISM, SEX, AND HEALTH – Contributions by Liza Ber
7 THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN TOURISM, SEX, AND HEALTH – Contributions by Liza Berdychevsky
I have been studying the intersections between sex, tourism, leisure, health, and well-being for over fifteen years, and there has never been a dull moment. What an exciting journey that I would not trade for any other! The transdisciplinary nature of my work has offered numerous rewarding opportunities to collaborate with scholars from other fields and disciplines, including tourism and leisure studies, public health, sexuality studies, human development, family studies, gender studies, gerontology, communication, sociology, criminology, and technology/computer sciences. Nevertheless, my tourism and leisure colleagues have often asked me, especially at the beginning of my research journey, “Liza, why sex? Why haven’t you chosen to study another safer/relevant/appropriate/conventional topic?” Some seemed to pose this question with a genuine curiosity regarding the source of my motivation, which is when I dived into an in-depth discussion of the importance, innovation, impacts, and translational capacity of studying sex and its links to tourism, leisure, and health. Others appeared to ask the question in such a sniggering tone that made it evident that they view sex as beneath the dignity of any respectful academic discourse, in which case there was no point in continuing the conversation.
So, indeed, why study sex in tourism? First, sex and tourism have historically dovetailed each other in societal imagination, and various tourist experiences are overtly and covertly marketed as characterized by the supremacy of senses and expectations of sexual intimacy and escapades (Bauer & McKercher, 2003; Carter & Clift, 2000; Berdychevsky, 2016; Oguz Kiper & Ulema, 2021). Second, evidence shows that tourism contributes to the geographical expansion of sexually transmitted infections (Brown, Ellard, Mooney-Somers, Prestage, Crawford & Langdon, 2014; Qvarnström & Oscarsson, 2014; Vivancos, Abubakar, & Hunter, 2010). Third, studies have demonstrated that many kinds of tourist experiences offer a unique social reality that affects people’s sexual behavior by offering perceived anonymity, diminishing sexual inhibitions, and encouraging sexual adventurousness and risk taking (cf. Berdychevsky, 2016; Eiser & Ford, 1995; Milhausen, Graham, Crosby, Ingram, Tetro, Bransfield & Yarber, 2020; Ragsdale, Difranceisco & Pinkerton, 2006; Thomas, 2005). Fourth, tourists’ sexual experimentation often has short- and long-term positive and negative impacts on their health, well-being, and identity (Berdychevsky & Gibson, 2015a, Berdychevsky, Gibson, & Poria, 2013; 2015). Thus, it is essential to develop evidence-based, comprehensive, and context-specific sexual health education programs explicitly targeting tourists (Bauer, 2009; Berdychevsky, 2017a;b, in press|c; Matteelli & Capone, 2016; Tanton, Johnson, Macdowall, Datta, Clifton, Field & Mercer , 2016). Finally, one of the primary foc