SEX TOURS - A LEARNING MODEL

Captive Daughters Fights Sex Tourism - 1999

Philippine Adventure Tours (PAT), of Ventura, California, 

specialized in sex tours to the Philippines. The individual 

cost was $1,645, for a package that provided round trip 

irfare, hotel, and guided tours to bars where one could 

purchase sex from prostitutes working in the bars as 

entertainers." The cost of prostitution, called a " barfine," 

is approximately 750 pesos (U.S. $24). The tour guide 

assists the tourist in negotiating the sexual transaction with 

the "mamasan" (manager) of the prostitute-entertainer. 

Allan Gaynor, owner and tour guide for PAT, promised 

prospective sex tourists that they would "never sleep alone 

on this tour," and recommended sex with a different girl 

every night – "two if you can handle it."

Mr. Gaynor routinely used his web site to deceive the public 

as to the true activities of PAT. His April 1998 web site used 

such words as "girl, lover, topless, breast, nudity, sex, 

arrange" and the telltale word "barfine," which indicates to 

sex tourists that girls/women are for sale for sex. The words 

were designed to blend with the blue background of the site. 

By dragging the mouse through the background, the words 

were revealed. No reputable tour agency would ever 

incorporate these search mechanisms in their advertising. 

After an April 18, 1998 protest at LAX against a PAT 

departure, the web site underwent various transformations 

in an effort continue business , but continued to deceive the 

general public as to their true activities. Still, there were 

numerous images of young girls and women in minimal 

clothing and seductive poses.

Unfortunately, PAT is not the only American sex tour operator

to Asia. According to Business Week more than 25 other 

U.S. companies offer such tours. Since December of 1996, 

Equality Now has been calling for the prosecution of Big 

Apple Oriental Tours in Bellerose, New York, a sex tour 

business that also promotes tours to the Philippines. The 

Philippine Government has banned owner Norman Barabash 

from entering their country.

Many of the prostitutes exploited by sex tourism and other 

forms of sex trafficking are young girls. The 1994 Child Sex 

Abuse Prevention Act makes it a felony for United States 

citizens to travel to another country for the purpose of 

engaging in sex with persons under age 18 years of age. 

Regardless of the age of girls, prostitution is illegal in the 

Philippines. Sex tours also violate state laws prohibiting the 

promotion of prostitution. The United Nations Convention on 

the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

obliges governments to "take all appropriate measures, 

including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women 

and the exploitation of prostitution of women. In June of 1998 

Equality Now, Captive Daughters and GABRIELA filed 

complaints with the California Attorney General against, PAT,

citing false and misleading advertising. On November 4, 1998,

a second protest was held at LAX against a PAT departure.

NOTE: On February 24, 1999, on KABC-Los Angeles, Mr. Gaynor announced that he was bowing to public pressure and discontinuing Philippine Adventure Tours.

Mail@captivedaughters.org

______________________________________________________________________________