[英语阅读]德国性行业“降价促销”应对危机

Recession-hit brothels offer novel promotions

受经济危机的影响，德国性行业最近推出了一系列“促销”手段以吸引顾客上门，其中一项“包价无限性服务”的促销方式引起广泛争议，有人表示此举是对人格尊严的极大侮辱。据悉，该项“包价”服务的想法源自于“无限畅享型”自助餐厅，顾客只要一次性支付70欧元，便可享受任意次数的性服务。除此以外，德国性行业同时推出的其他促销手段还有：对退休和领取福利金的人士实行返款优惠，对骑自行车或乘坐公共交通工具光顾的客人打九折，以及为留宿的顾客提供免费擦鞋服务等。

German brothels are offering customers the chance to sleep with as many prostitutes as they like for a single fee, in recession-busting deals criticised as immoral by politicians.

German brothels are offering customers the chance to sleep with as many prostitutes as they like for a single fee, in recession-busting deals criticised as immoral by politicians.

The "flat-rate sex" promotions, which are based on all-you-can-eat restaurants, have been introduced by brothel owners in a bid to revive trade that has fallen around 30 per cent in the economic downturn.

Other imaginative offers include rebates for pensioners and people on benefits, 10 per cent discounts for men who arrive by bicycle or public transport, and free shoe-polishing for customers who stay overnight.

But it is the flat-rate deals – which are priced as low as £60 (€70) – that have attracted particular controversy in a country where prostitution is legal and generally well-tolerated.

The promotion is popular with brothel owners who have to pay their sex workers a fixed daily wage whether or not they have any clients.

But conservative politicians have expressed disgust at the innovation and have ordered a wave of police raids on sex clubs in an effort to bring it to an end.

“This is an outrageous violation of human dignity,” Heribert Rech, the Baden-Württemberg interior minister, told The Times.

“So-called flat-rate sex is an immoral development which cannot be tolerated in our society.”

Because the promotion is not forbidden by law, officers have focused their raids on immigration and hygiene offences at brothels where is has been introduced.