Prostitutes gather in Davos for annual meeting of global elite – where demand for sexual services rockets during economic summit
JACK NEWMAN FOR MAILONLINE
The global elite tackling the world’s greatest problems – including gender inequality -at the Davos summit are fuelling a surge in prostitution in the Swiss resort town.
Demand for sex work skyrockets each year at the meeting of world leaders and business tycoons who jet in from all around the world to rub shoulders with each other.
Escorts are booked into the same hotels as high-powered bosses and their employees during the five-day summit, which started on January 16.
One sex worker named Liana said she dresses in business attire so she doesn’t stand out among the executives, despite prostitution being legal in Switzerland.
She told Bild she regularly sees an American who visits Switzerland multiple times a year and is among the 2,700 conference attendees.
Liana charges around €700 ($760) for an hour and €2,300 ($2,500) for the whole night, plus travel expenses.
The manager of one escort service in Aargau, 100 miles away from the summit, says she has already received 11 bookings and 25 inquiries – and expects many more to follow this week.
She told 20 Minuten: ‘Some also book escorts for themselves and their employees to party in the hotel suite.’
Salome Balthus, a sex worker and writer, posted on Twitter: ‘Date in Switzerland during #WWF means looking at the gun muzzles of security guards in the hotel corridor at 2 a.m. – and then sharing the giveaway chocolates from the restaurant with them and gossiping about the rich… #Davos #WEF.’
The 36-year-old is staying at a hotel near Davos throughout the summit but refused to reveal who the influential clients are.
She cautioned: ‘Believe me, you don’t want to get into litigation with them.’
In 2020, an investigation by The Times found at least 100 prostitutes travel to Davos for the summit according to a Swiss police officer.
One official driver for the forum said he picked up one sex worker who claimed she had been forced by her ‘boss’ to sleep with an older client at a delegates’ hotel.
Among the topics up for discussion at this year’s summit are the Ukraine war, global inflation rates, climate change and inequality.
Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska will give a rare international address today at the annual gathering.
The Covid-19 pandemic torpedoed the event for the past two years but a springtime version was held eight months ago.
