Influx of talent causing price war among Costa Rica’s whores

For a real economic bellwether, look no further than the world’s whores. Since the great economic downturn, we’ve seen brothels offer all sorts of promotions, including loyalty cards, deals to mass transit riders and bicyclists, even discounts for senior citizens.

And for a case study of how the free market is coping with the downturn, consider Costa Rica’s sex industry, which has been legal and government-regulated for more than 100 years. According to the Miami Herald, San Jose is seeing an influx of working girls from far and wide. This surge of talent is causing a price war. Some hookers have been forced to slash their rates by as much as 50 percent.

“Business is bad. The problem is competition. Sometimes I don’t even make enough to take a taxi home after work,” said Costa Rican prostitute Mayela, as she lingers by the bar at Key Largo in search of a client.

Like many prostitutes, Mayela, a 36-year-old single mother with an unfinished education, first started selling her body for sex in her early 30s to support her children. After several years of prostitution, she made enough money to buy a small house and get her three daughters into decent schools. She eventually found an unskilled assembly line job at a factory, which paid less than prostitution but got her out of the skin trade, which she despises.

But when she got laid off earlier this year, Mayela said she had no choice but to return to wearing short skirts and working long nights.

“Now there are like 90 percent more girls working here than before,” Mayela said of the scene at Key Largo. “And most of them are foreigners.”

Even veteran foreign prostitutes notice the changes.

“There are a lot more Colombians now. Before it was mostly Ticas [Costa Ricans] and Nicas [Nicaraguans],” said Elena, a Russian prostitute who was brought to Costa Rica by a Belgian man five years ago to work in a strip club.

Overall, Costa Rica’s tourism industry is down an estimated 15 percent, but the prostitution biz is, um, holding firm. According to Jacobo Schifter, a professor and author of Mongers in Heaven, Costa Rica welcomes between 25,000 and 50,000 sex tourists. The vast majority come from the U.S.

Costa Rica draws sex trade | MiamiHerald.com.