As the credit crunch keeps away sightseers and business travellers, owners of brothels, escort agencies and sex shops grumble that visitors who still do indulge in the pleasures of the flesh are increasingly tight-fisted. --PHOTO: AFP
AMSTERDAM - EVA, a 25-year-old prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district, gestures angrily in the direction of a rival who has slashed her rates as the economic crisis emboldens sex tourists to haggle.
'People like her make it very difficult for the rest of us,' scowled the tall, blonde Estonian in skimpy black-and-white lingerie as she dragged on a cigarette while posing for men passing the window in which she offers herself.
We are all in the same economic boat
BETWEEN taking calls from clients, offering them a special price of 160 euros per girl per hour - down from the usual 175, Mr Snoep said the economic crisis had made a deep dent in his biggest client base - travelling businessman.
'Before they had big expense accounts from which they could subtract their 'meals' and the like. Nowadays, their bosses are not so generous. We are all in the same economic boat.
'Some of the girls are now doing it for 30 euros (S$60). My price is still 50 euros, but the men are playing us off against each other. Some want to pay only 20 euros,' she told AFP.
Eva is not the only one complaining.
As the credit crunch keeps away sightseers and business travellers, owners of brothels, escort agencies and sex shops grumble that visitors who still do indulge in the pleasures of the flesh are increasingly tight-fisted.
'Things are bad,' said Mr Dave Doeve, who owns Casa Rosso sex shop in Amsterdam's red-light district where neon-lit prostitutes' windows normally draw hoards of tourists.
'There are no people, as you can see. And those who come buy small things, condoms, cheap things.' Brothel owner Willy van der Sloot, herself a former prostitute, said she had never seen the sex market so depressed.
'Some days there are just no people,' she sighed.
Twenty-six-year-old Oxana, who shares Eva's window, says her income has halved in six months while her window rent went up 25 per cent in January.
On a 'good day' she sees six clients but sometimes only one - at 50 euros per visitor not enough to cover her half of the 150 euro daily rent. 'But I can't do it for 20 or 30 euros like some of the others. That is not money.'
Escort club owner Hugo Snoep said: 'Things have never been this bad' in his 16 years in the business. 'Me and the girls are battling to keep our heads above water.' -- AFP
