Open for holidays. Eurispes survey on the prostitution market (2003)

Only one in 30 prostitutes go on holiday in August. The survey on the paid sex market classifies tariffs into four types: luxury, high, medium for indoor prostitution, low for street prostitution. The survey method was based on 300 telephone calls to sex workers working indoors, and direct contact with street prostitutes in four cities (Milan, Rome, Naples, Palermo). One out of four fake ‘Beauty Centres’ closed for summer rest. Two out of 20 sex workers do not answer the phone or leave messages with the date and time of their return from short holidays. Among the luxury escorts, one out of eight moves to Formentera, Sardinia or Saint Tropez to combine business with pleasure: holidays and work. If the street sex market has no need for advertising because it is the prostitute’s body on display that conveys the message of the offer, that which takes place in flats, organised houses, centres, or at the client’s home, needs the appropriate “classified ads”. Until recently, there were only advertisements in newspapers and local journals. Nowadays, on the Internet and in specialist magazines, each advertisement has a photo of the person making the offer, together with a location and mobile phone number. With little effort and little money (a specialised magazine can be bought at the shop for only 6 euros), the customer has a more attractive and expensive catalogue than in traditional newspapers.