In the last 30 years, The Gambia has become an open sex market for wealthy European women who come here to romp with men decades younger - and substantially poorer - than themselves. The practice is so common here that gigolos known as 'bumsters' are rife on every beach and in every bar and restaurant on the popular Senegambia Strip.
Two years ago, The Gambia Tourist Board issued a plea asking elderly Brits to go elsewhere to look for young lovers as they attempted to revamp their image. Peak season for the Gambian sex industry is approaching thick and fast β with punters eager to find a toyboy in time for Christmas.
The Sun last visited The Gambia two years ago at a time when authorities were promising a crackdown on the grab-a-granny culture β promising to bring in laws to make it easier to arrest local beach boys and older women engaged in suspect relationships. We want tourists that come to enjoy the country and the culture, but not tourists who come for sex. However, we found that β despite pleas for them to stay away - scores of lusty, middle-aged women were back on the hunt for muscular young men following the pandemic.
Campaigners say that the popular Kololi beach resort is already swarming with women from Sweden, Russia, Germany, Holland and the UK that have only one thing on their minds. The Gambia - a former British colony - took off as a tourist destination when Thomas Cook started selling budget package holidays including cheap flights in the s. Many would insist they are not, saying they only take on a toyboy after genuinely falling in love.
She is not the only one β posts on social media show that huge numbers of British women have married Gambian men. Others admit they have no interest in long-term commitment as they trawl the beach looking for young hunks. If you go to somewhere like Thailand you see loads of old men with young girls, but no one talks about that. He says poverty here is so dire that many young men feel they have no choice but to sleep with older people. People are dying at sea in the search of a better life Many of those left behind have little choice but to go out and look for Westerners that can support them.
