Re: The Truth
Nope. The report is mostly fabrication.
See all the false statements:
Article: "A slow tourist season has hurt the T-shirt and coconut milk vendors in this scenic beach town, but it hasn't put a dent in the body business. "
Truth: Slow tourist season affects the body business, big time.
Article: "Indeed, the Dominican Republic is one of the biggest sex tourism destinations in the world, thanks in part to Internet sites that extol the country as a "single man's paradise."
Truth: It is not. It isn't even in the top 10.
Article: "But [Puerto Plata] has a dark side: The area's thriving commercial sex industry has given it one of the highest HIV rates of any region in the country, according to the World Bank."
Truth: The World Bank does not provide HIV statistics by region within the country. The estimated HIV rate in the DR for the year 2000 was about 0.6% (50,000 carriers out of 8,000,000 people - see http://www.paho.org/english/HIA1998/DominicanRepublic.pdf, page 5). According to http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/publicat/aids/aic04-99/aid99es4.html, the AIDS rate as of 1998 in the DR was 0.05% or 50 out of every 100,000 people. This is 1/5 the rate in the United States.
Article: "Today, men looking for local action can choose from customized love vacations that include room, board, 20 alcohol drinks a day and the company of one or more local women. "
Truth: Love vacations are not new, not unique to the Dominican Republic, are are available right in the USA. I don't see the point. This type of offer in the DR is very rare.
Article: "Plug "adult travel" into a search engine and you'll find dozens of membership-based sites where men around the world swap information on prostitutes, brothels and the price of oral sex in Brazil or Cuba."
Truth: Yes, there are sex boards where members swap photos and stories. This is not DR related, as the DR would be a tiny fraction of these reports.
Article: "The guys running these sites are pimps."
Truth: Totally false. None of the sites mentioned partipates in, profits by, or facilitates their members meeting prostitutes.
Article: "In the Dominican Republic, as in many developing countries, many women are driven to sell their bodies by poverty and lack of alternatives. It is a profession that is illegal but tolerated by local authorities, who accept kickbacks to turn a blind eye to the seedier side of tourism. "
Truth: It is not illegal.
Article: "Its reputation for cheap and easy sex has given the Caribbean the second-highest AIDS rate in the world after sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank"
Truth: The AIDS rate in the Dominican Republic as of 1998 was 0.05% (50 out of 100,000 people), with only 4000 cases reported in a country of over 8 million people. See http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/publicat/aids/aic04-99/aid99es4.html. The AIDS rate in the DR is less than 1/10th that of Zimbabwe, 1/20th of the rate in the Bahamas, and less than Switzerland, Spain, and 1/5 that of the United States.
Article: "In some areas of the Dominican Republic, HIV infection rates among prostitutes top 12 percent, according to local activist groups. "
Truth: Where's the data to back up this outrageous claim? Good reporters don't print unsubstantiated hear-say.
The DR is being promoted as a sex destination. So are many other countries x 10, including Germany, The Netherlands, Brazil, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Cuba, Switzerland, ... In other words, there is no point.