Sex tourism in The Gambia

Abstract

‘Bumster’ or ‘beach boy’ means a young boy who is hanging around on the sandy beaches of West Africa. Usually, they are between 16 and 28 years of age, relatively poor but good-looking black boys, who are especially “hunting” for elder white women as sources of financial rise. Tourism gives work opportunity for sixteen thousand people out of the 1.7-million population of The Gambia. This
service branch produces thirteen percent of the country’s GDP which in 2007 was roughly forty million dollars. Sex tourism for women started to take over in the seventies and in slightly more than twenty years the tiny country became the second most favoured location in Africa for single female tourists who are seeking occasional or long-term relationships.