Теневые аспекты туристской индустрии на примере гендерных особенностей выбора дестинаций

Теневая экономика. 2022. Т. 6. № 4. С. 215–240.

Lebedeva S.

As in any sector of the economy, there are also shadow segments in tourism. Shadow activity in tourism not only poses a threat to the economic security of the countries in which it is carried out, but also contradicts the global vector of the world economy’s, culture’s and society’s development, including the field of implementing sustainable development goals. The article considers the sex segment of the tourism services market, which is becoming an increasingly popular area of tourist activity and is often associated with trafficking in women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the scientific literature. Most often, this type of tourist activity is considered in the context of such destinations as Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Kenya – countries that do not have the highest level of socio-economic development. The paper proves that the participants of this shadow segment of the tourism industry are not only developing countries, but also highly developed countries of the world. The author carried out a cluster analysis of destinations that stand out on the Internet as the most typical for sex travel and justified the differences between popular “male” and “female” sex-destinations. The conducted correlation analysis showed that “male” sex-destinations are countries with a lower level of socio-economic development and illegal prostitution, that explains the connection between sex tourism and the trade and sexual exploitation of women and children. Women choose more socially and economically developed countries with legalized prostitution for their sexual travelling. Separately, the author considers the place and participation of the Russian Federation in this shadow segment of the tourist market. The results of the study may be useful to scientists involved in the study of both the shadow economy and the sphere of travel, tourism and hospitality.

Keywords: cluster analysis, кластерный анализ, гендерные различия, торговля людьми, tourism, корреляционный анализ, human trafficking, correlation analysis, sexual exploitation, сексуальная эксплуатация, туризм, gender differences, sex tourism, shadow segment, geography of sex tourism, секс-туризм, теневой сегмент, география секс-турима