Heat cools ardour in Red Light District

27 July 2006

AMSTERDAM — Although Amsterdam’s Red Light District is almost overrun with tourists, prostitutes report business is slower than usual because of the hot weather.

“The women are having a hard time; it is dreadfully warm,” former prostitute Mariska Majoor of the Prostitute Information Centre said on Thursday.

With the country sweltering in daytime temperatures of around 30 degrees, fewer men than normal are availing of the services offered behind the infamous windows near the centre of the city. “As soon as the worst of the heat is gone, the place becomes livelier in the evenings,” Majoor said. Still, prostitutes are complaining of lost income due to the heat.

Meant to work for themselves rather than pimps, the women tend to start work later and leave earlier because of the high temperatures. “Some prostitutes seek cooling outside the door, but passing police officers send them back into their rooms,” Majoor said.

Most of the rooms with windows rented by the prostitutes are not fitted with air conditioning. “And the rooms that do have it are still too warm, Majoor said.

Subject: Dutch news