India may be one of the countries most concerned by sexual tourism, but it attracts most male heterosexual tourists from the United States who visit the country to find either romance or prostitutes or just plain sex.
The details, revealed in the World Atlas of Sex by French geographers Nadine Cattan and Stephane Leroy, about India also highlight the fact that India hosts most heterosexual male and female visitors from Amsterdam in search for romance or sex.
Goa is the most famous place to go for sexual tourism in India, according to the atlas.
In Asia, Thai cities of Phuket, Pattaya and Bangkok, along with Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Bali in Indonesia are the most famous cities for sex tourism. Most male consumers come from Australia, the United States, and former Soviet Bloc.
Europeans lead the world in infidelity, the two researchers found as in an international group of over 1.6 million people currently leading double-lives, more than 65 per cent come from European countries.
Using data from a European infidelity website for married people called Gleeden with over 1.6 million subscribers, the researchers found that Paris was the city where most people are unfaithful.
The number of unfaithful married people range from 17,000 to 1,50,000 in every major European city. Over a third of the people in France, Italy and Spain seek excitement outside their marriages followed by Britain, Belgium and Switzerland, according to the atlas.
The UK ranks sixth most common region for social and sexual exploration and London ranks fifth amongst the top 15 cities for infidelity.
In Europe, people in Britain, Norway and Sweden are the most avid users of sex toys, according to the researchers who cited a report by condom maker Durex.
“Cheating in the UK, especially among women, is rising in an exponential rate,” according to Katherine Chester, Gleeden’s spokesperson in the UK. “This summer, we predict more than a 250 per cent increase in the amount of women seeking sensuality from men other than their husband. It’s clear that infidelity in Europe is much more than a trend: it is a cultural evolution,” she said.
In Greece, Poland and Brazil, some 80 per cent of the population think sex is very important, while in Thailand and Japan just 38 per cent do, according to the atlas, which has also looked at sexual habits across the countries.
“Over 68 per cent of men and women think that infidelity is the secret to their relationship’s longevity,” the research revealed.
The main reason for infidelity, according to the researchers, was “to test powers of seduction”. For over half of covert married lovers, infidelity helped them to “decompress” and other reason ranged from a desire to live out fantasies, need to regain lost freedom, fight boredom and a desire to live a more colourful life.
The atlas also details the darker side of sex, including sex trafficking of minors, in which India has the dubious lead. About 400,000-500,000 Indian minors are trafficked within the country and to West Asia and Southeast Asia.