What happens in Tenerife, stays in Tenerife: understanding women's sexual behaviour on holiday

Recent research has drawn attention to the epidemiological importance of international travel in the spread of HIV. Drawing on data generated in focus groups and in depth interviews with women holiday travellers, this paper explores the context of sexual risk behaviour of women on holiday. These data suggest that freedom from the constraints and realities of domestic life is a crucial aspect of the holiday experience. It is argued that holidays are a ‘liminoid period’ in which norms of behaviour are temporarily abandoned. Furthermore, on holiday, time becomes ‘compressed’. Thus relationships follow a similar pattern to that they would at home however over a much shorter time period. Time compression and liminality lead to the rapid establishment of trust in new relationships. This has implications for sexual risk: women have sexual intercourse more quickly with a new partner on holiday than they do at home. Unqualified trust in relative strangers also raises issues for women's general safety.