Rio preps sex motels for Olympics, World Cup fans
An iron chain-strewn chair decorates the Medieval Room at the Shalimar Hotel.
A shortage of hotel rooms has led Rio de Janeiro authorities to invest millions of dollars to convert raunchy motels to accommodate the legions of tourists expected for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics.
Shalimar, in the upscale beach district of Leblon, is one of 60 sex motels undergoing a facelift and already 30 of its 62 rooms have been remodelled and given a minimalist look. That means out with the red carpets, mirrors, heart-shaped waterbed and chains on the walls.
Outside one debris-filled room, a large Venus sculpture, dirty and broken, lies forlornly, destined for the garbage dump.
According to Rio Negocios, the city's investment promotion board, more than US$100 million has been earmarked to convert 3,500 of Rio's 6,500 motel rooms, with local authorities slashing property taxes as an incentive.
"There is a problem of [hotel room] supply but we are working on it," Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes told AFP. "We have an additional 16,000 beds, or double what we pledged to the International Olympic Committee. We will even use love motels. This is something new. That could be an adventure for a couple, an opportunity for new experiences."
Rio, home to six million people, currently has 32,436 rooms: 20,414 in hotels and 12,022 spread out in motels, apartment hotels, inns and hostels. The goal is to bring the total up 47% to 47,788 by 2015.
"Motels will be an option for those who come to Rio, along with budget hotels in upscale areas of the city," said Alfredo Lopes, president of the Brazilian Association Of Hotel industry (ABIH-RJ).
Pulling out: Paintings of knights and noblemen unlocking women's chastity belts from the wall of the Medieval Room. Sticking in: A newly remodeled room with proper couches, functional desks and business-friendly furnishings.
Traditionally, local sex motels are chock-full during the high season—Carnival or the New Year—or during high-profile events such as the 1992 Earth Summit and the visit by the late Pope John Paul II in 1997.
"Foreign dignitaries would troop to their motels after their activities and ran into regular clients. It was a strange atmosphere," recalled Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo. And he welcomed as a "good idea" moves to convert the motels into "real hotels". The conversion process began two years ago, but accelerated last June with the holding of the UN Rio+20 environment summit.
The boom in sex motels reached its peak in the '70s and '80s. "Every teenager wanted to reach the age of 18 to be able to visit a motel," recalled Antonio Cerqueira, the Shalimar owner and vice-president of ABIH-RJ.
But the boom ended due to the economic crisis in the late '90s, the proliferation of AIDS cases, and a cultural change in families. "Before you could not imagine bringing your girlfriend in your parents' home but in the past few years it has become normal," Lopes said.
In recent years, middle-aged people have replaced the young in sex motels, "thanks to wonder pills [Viagra]", according to Cerqueira.
Meanwhile at the Shalimar, one room dubbed "the Medieval" has been spared. Adorned with chains and granite ornaments simulating a castle tower, it's one of most sought-after by the traditional clientele. "If we tamper with it, [the clients] will kill us," said a Shalimar employee, flashing a wide grin.
Source: AFP
Published: 28th February 2013
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