Prostitutes by the thousands in Australia are getting ready for what the BBC anticipates to be a sex boom during this year's Olympic Games.
Brothels plan an ad blitz in the on- and offline media to gear up for millions of extra tourists expected to hit Sydney in September for the games. The BBC says some parlor owners "are rushing to build new premises to cash in. Others are looking to recruit workers from overseas to help meet the expected demand."
"The sex industry here in Sydney is in for its busiest time ever," Sex Workers Outreach Project manager Maria McMahon tells the BBC. This group is launching a "cultural awareness" leaflet to let Olympic visitors know prostitution is legal in Australia. "We want them to enjoy themselves safely here," McMahon says. "I'm sure they will. Sydney's got some of the world's best prostitutes."
And, many of the safest, according to Bernadette Keefe of the AIDS Council of New South Wales. She tells the BBC her group will "push the message home," especially through the gay press, making "sure pubs, clubs and brothels are well-stocked with condoms, lubricants and rubber gloves. We're already stocking up. Our rates of HIV here in Sydney are lower than many other big cities. We want to keep it that way."
There are said to be ten thousand sex workers in New South Wales, where prostitution and brothels have been legal since 1995, the BBC says. The broadcasting service adds that are strict controls on girls working the streets and on kerb-crawlers, with most brothels located away from schools and residential areas.
One American sex worker getting ready for the Olympic crunch is Victoria Scheider of San Francisco. She tells the BBC she's been offered work at some half dozen Sydney brothels. "They're falling over themselves to get me," she tells the BBC. "I'm an American and would be a great item on their list. The men will love me!"
