Buying and selling sex are both forbidden as are all activities relating to prostitution, including owning a service related business for sex-work, pimping and running a brothel. Despite the very clear laws, prostitution in Vietnam, especially in cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, is very common.
This is due, in part, to the fact that policing of prostitution can be quite casual. Most infringements of the law result in administrative fines being handed out rather than any criminal proceedings. Official figures suggest that there are just 20, prostitutes working in the country though independent studies estimate the true figure to be ten to twenty times this amount.
Conservative estimates suggest that Ho Chi Minh City has anywhere from 2, to 20, sex workers providing services to both locals and tourists. Though Vietnam is no Thailand when it comes to sex tourism, the growing number of visitors to the country is underpinning a rising demand for prostitution in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ho Chi Minh City is bustling and vibrant Asian city with plenty of entertainment to be had, including those that offer sex. Image via Pixabay. At present, sex workers can be found across a variety of entertainment venues in the city.
Independent prostitutes find customers in bars, clubs and hotels or advertise as escorts online. Some take to the streets to find business whilst others work for massage parlours, KTVs or strip clubs. Many of the prostitutes working in Ho Chi Minh City are Vietnamese but it is also common to find women from Laos, China and Cambodia, particularly on the streets. You can also find European escorts, especially Russian women.
