Safer Sex for Backpackers

The Family Planning Association (FPA) in Sydney is targeting backpackers with a safer sex campaign following revelations that around half of all backpackers visiting Australia have casual sex at some stage on their trip. Unfortunately, a large proportion of these travellers fail to take adequate precautions to protect their sexual health.

Sydney has become a major international junction for travellers and backpackers.
The Safe in the Sack will campaign comprises a series of initiatives, including posters, drinks coasters in bars and clubs and free condoms.

Sydney is no stranger to the promotion of safe sex campaigns. But in the past, these have tended to focus on the gay community, which was decimated in the 1980s and 1990s by the AIDS epidemic. Over the past decade, cases of new HIV infections have fallen year on year, but now other STDs are on the rise again as people are appearing to become more blasé. Young travellers, whose awareness of STDs tends to become dulled by the excitement of being away from home, are particularly vulnerable, according the report.

This story echoes warnings in Britain earlier this year that holiday-makers in Europe are indulging in risky sexual behaviour. See the August newsdesk for the full story.