2 for 1 offers! Money back guarantees, if not completely satisfied! This is the new look of prostitution in Amsterdam.Ingrida, a young prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district, threatens and gestures angrily in the direction of a rival who has slashed her rates as the economic crisis forces sex tourists to haggle.
"She is too cheap! People like her make it very difficult for the rest of us. It costs me a lot of money to look this cheap!" scowled the leggy, blonde as she dragged seductively on her cigarette. She sat relaxed on her best asset. Talking openly in her skimpy black-and-white lingerie, all the while taking time to pose seductively for the men passing outside the window. This is her office, showroom and workshop combined. The undressed window where she plies her trade and in which she displays and flaunts her talents. The show must go on, well into the night!
More for Less
"Some of the girls are now doing it for 30 euro but I keep my price at 50 euro. The men are playing us off against each other. Some want to pay only 20 euro," she said.
Ingrida is not the only one complaining. As the credit crunch keeps away sight-seers and business travellers, the owners of brothels, escort agencies and sex shops all grumble that those visitors who still do indulge in the pleasures of the flesh are increasingly hard-assed and tight-fisted. Two things not welcome here.
Sex shop takings
"Things are bad," lamented salesman Dave Doeve. He owns Casa Rosso sex shop in the middle of Amsterdam's brazen red-light district where neon-lit prostitutes' windows normally draw hordes of tourists. "There are not so many people around, as you can see and those who come only buy small things, novelty balloons, trinkets ... only cheap things."
Who's your Daddy?
The most popular items are the luminous condoms (for Star Trek fans). Men like to switch off the lights and pretend they are Luke Skywalker and perform mock fighting with their 'light sabres'. Unfortunately most women only see what appears to be a rather depressed and slightly elongated glow bug! Some men have been known to be slapped unceremoniously with fly swats, which can be OK!
Reduced Expense Accounts hit Brothels
Clients, voyeurs and tourists (can you tell the difference?) walk around Amsterdam's red-light district where prostitutes are exposing themselves in the shop windows. Brothel owner Willy van der Sloot, herself a former prostitute, said she had never seen the sex market so depressed. "Before, the punters 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."
"Where I used to send out 12 to 14 girls a day, now I am down to just three some days."
The Voice of VER
According to Andre van Dorst, director of the Netherlands' VER sex industry association, turnover had dropped 30 to 40 percent over the last year.
The more exclusive the club, the bigger the impact as clients seek cheaper options and thrills."Eating and drinking are the very last things people save on, followed by sex, both are basic needs (but not necessarily in that order, surely!). In these difficult economic times, people frequent restaurants less and supermarkets more, just as they opt for less glamorous (more tacky?) sex clubs," said van Dorst.
De Rode Draad
Metje Blaak, spokeswoman for De Rode Draad (The Red Thread) sex workers' representative group, said clients were "paying less and demanding more and the girls often have no choice but to discount their prices. They have to pay the rent."
Though prostitution has long been tolerated (legalised and heavily taxed) in the famously liberal Dutch capital city, the Netherlands only legalised the world's oldest profession in 2000.Prostitute Numbers Reduced
Last December, Amsterdam's city officials announced plans to half the total 482 prostitutes' windows in the centre in a multi-million revamp that would also involve shuttering many cannabis-vending coffee shops another tourist ‘draw-card’, closely related to prostitution.
Officials claim the two vices, in themselves not illegal, attract elements of organised crime but observers have pointed to a rise in support of right-wing Dutch conservatism.
No Tax Incentives Offered
Blaak warned that these changes, coupled with the economic recession, was forcing the industry underground as sex workers struggling to make ends meet abandon the regulated environment to avoid having to pay window rent and the 35 percent income tax.
"You are already seeing more women walking the streets," said Blaak. "The economic crisis is changing the character of the industry. Previously, the women were in charge (with the city fathers in the background), now it is the men who call the shots."
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