Like any government, one cannot put too much faith in the political establishment here. The objectives of the politicos are often in contradiction to what could or should be done to better the lives of citizens and advance society. By now we should all know that outright bans do not work - Thou shall not lie with prostitutes or you may not use drugs are lost causes.
Politics at the municipal level is particularly nonsensical and ineffective. Sosua has never had a plethora of AI vacation choices. 20 years ago there may have been more than just one option such as we have now, but even then, there was nothing in, around or about Sosua that could sustain interest in coming here for a week or two every year. The hotel options dried up and now only Casa Marina remains and that is about all this little town can possibly hope to support.
If the location of a resort is in a place that offers nothing to do, the facilities, food and the beach at the resort need to be exceptional. The majority of tourists will not return time and again for mediocre unless the week is heavily discounted on Groupon to the tune of $20/day - even that will only entice a specific tourist demographic.
Sosua, and much of the North Coast never developed beyond the initial novel appeal of the All Inclusive resort concept. For a time, that is all that was needed as people came here to do just what the resorts offered, party, eat, sleep and get a sunburn. The attention span of people in general and tourists in particular has changed over time. It's no longer good enough to just to offer drinks via a funnel and 30m of overcooked chicken, pork, beef & fish and some french fries for the kids.
True to the Dominican entrepreneurial philosophy, people saw it working in Puerto Plata and began to duplicate the offerings in Punta Cana. In time, the resort industry in Puerto Plata became too busy counting their money to notice the inducements being offered to the tourist brokers from off island to switch their client offerings to the east of the island. PC was new, modern, offered a long continuous beach. There, like Puerto Plata there was nothing substantive to do in PC and there still isn't. Over time, it became cheaper for the travel industry to send their clients there rather than maintain the existing partnerships in the north. Winter escape tourists really do not care where they go as long as it is warm, there is decent sand, 10 successive cocktails makes them forget yesterday and when their stomach rumbles there is somewhere to go to eat enough to absorb the alcohol so that the ritual can be repeated the following day.
What the tourists want is cheap AI with sun, sand at little hassle. The north coast forgot the cheap part and failed to counter the competition in Punta Cana so operations shifted there. New hotels and tall towers offer a change of scenery in PC so tourists can stay at different hotels and pretend to be on a completely different trip year after year as long as it remains cheap and convenient to get to.
All that Sosua has ever had on offer is prostitution. Not always to the same degree as today, but even 10 years ago, there existed businesses that arranged evening excursions to Sosua and downtown Puerto Plata for the gentlemen who were looking for an off resort cultural experience. There is nothing else to do in Sosua. Tourists can drink themselves sick for a week or two but then go home and dry out until the next trip. Those who live here can't drink like that for 52 consecutive weeks, and thus cannot on their own sustain all of the bars and eateries that exist. If the ladies of the evening go away, Sosua will become the Detroit of the North Cost, not so much in size but sharing the same economic destitution and civic decay.
The local politicians are creatures of survival. They know all of this, and talk up a good line to appease voters or allay the concerns of the religious right, but really, they understand that curtailing the last vestige of foreign interest in places like Sosua, Boca Chica and similar venues, spells the beginning of some really destitute times for these places, the end of their political careers and a physical relocation to somewhere else where there remains some semblance of an economy.
It is entirely possible that the ladies of the evening may someday abandon Sosua for somewhere else, but that will happen because somewhere else offers a better opportunity to make more money and will not be tied to feigned moral outrage or political hucksterism.
There is no recovery model in play somewhere else for the politicians and civic leaders to copy, so for years past and the foreseeable future, nothing substantive can or will change in places like Sosua. Sure there will be some tinkering, but if you want butter on your bread, you need both the butter and bread.
