5.2 Recommendations For Future Research

During my study of child sex tourism in Costa Rica, many different aspects of this phenomenon attracted my attention, aspects I could not find an answer to or information about and which I unfortunately did not have the time to study as well. For this reason I will end this report by listing my recommendations for future research:

• I would argue that both supply and demand are enforcing each other and thus you also have to fight both sides in order to fight the whole phenomenon. It would be very interesting to study the sending countries with regard to their efforts to fight the commercial sexual exploitation in its economical, cultural, political and historical context. As the fight against child sex tourism is not only the responsibility of Costa Rica, one should also look at this part of the fight, such as the efforts done by the United States to fight the problem.

• To understand the situation of commercial sexual exploitation in Costa Rica completely one should stay for an extended time in Costa Rica.

• It would be interesting to conduct an anonymous survey among tourism personnel in order to assess their knowledge and opinions about the issue. In the workshops some people possibly will not give their real opinion, because it may differentiate from the ruling opinion of the whole group. This is especially applicable to Costa Rica, because the culture is characterized by avoiding confrontations and keeping everyone happy.

• It would be interesting to interview or survey the people who participated in a Code of Conduct workshop after one year in order to assess what they remember and what they have learned.

• It would be interesting to study the influence of (communication) technologies on the development of child sex tourism in Costa Rica.

• It would be interesting to study the expatriates in Costa Rica and their role in child sex tourism in Costa Rica.

The phenomenon of child sex tourism is so multifaceted and complex that still a lot of research can and needs to be done on this issue in order develop the understanding of this topic further. For this reason I would like to invite students, professors and scientists to develop this understanding further and in this way contribute to the fight against this dark side of the tourism industry.