Towards deconstructing urban tourism within the framework of commercial sex work in Uganda

Abstract

There is great anxiety that present day urban authorities are not considering the amount of heterosexual activities that are neither among legitimately married couples nor casually relating friends. This anxiety has brought much pressure onto the civil society that aims to promote morality in society in addition to the religious bodies that aim to encourage positive morals among their congregates. Yet, the extent to which commercial sex work is capable of increasing the level of urban tourism in the 21st century is fascinating. Bearing in mind the different challenges and the proof of dearth of statistics on commercial sex work in Uganda, the emphasis of this paper is on how urban authorities can exploit the growing industry of commercial sexual activities to enhance urban tourism. Through an intensive review of available literature, this paper has established that commercial sexual activities are one of the central tourist attraction products in a number of urban areas in Uganda even though it lacks official documentation. Consequently, neither the urban authorities nor the tourism agency cares paying attention to the huge tourism potential hidden in the commercial sex industry. It is encouraged that urban authorities document the number of participants in commercial sex work so that they can be used to enhance urban tourism. This study is useful to urban authorities and other key stakeholders working with urban populations particularly at a time when nations are turning to domestic tourism.