Want to
be a social escort? You need a degree
first
THE quality of female social escorts or professional companions has
gone up, say agency owners and managers.
Clients, they added, have
become more discerning and demanding: They want
degree-holders.
The usual going rate for
escorts is around $200 to $250 for an hour's work, while overnight
rates usually hover around $1,000.
But undergrads or
graduates can command up to $500 an hour.
The agency operators insist that
the world of the entertaining industry - as they would prefer to
call it - is not as shady as it is often made out to be.
Mr Ernest Ting of MS Promotions
told The New Paper on Sunday: It is often misunderstood.
'Think, why would someone want to
pay so much, if all that is on your mind at the end of the day is
sex?'
A cheaper option, he offered:
'Head down to the red-light district and get your fix there. It'll
cost you less than half of what you'd have to pay.'
Another agency manager, MsGlenda,
claimed: 'There is often a misconception. Many times, the clients
who hire social escorts or who can afford to do so, are not your Ah
Gongs and Ah Peks.
'They are respectable businessmen
who have to entertain their associates who could be in town for a
few days.'
For this reason, added a manager
of three agencies: 'Surely you'd not want to send the wrong message
out to your clients?
PERSONALITY COUNTS
'They'd want someone who can dress
up properly, carry themselves well and are able to hold decent
conversations without stuttering, spluttering or making sheer fools
of themselves.'
The trend in the past two
years has been to recruit women who are in their mid-20s and more
highly-educated.
Demand has been good, said
MrTing.
He added: 'Of course the
other problem we face is that these girls can work as
freelancers.
'As such, they could be
working for more than one agency. If we relied on just the number
at hand, we could find ourselves short of
manpower.'
Except for one, all the
other agencies claimed that there has been a 40 per cent increase
in the number of undergrad and graduate
escorts.
One
agency owner, who only wanted to be known as Ms Kimoi, said: 'But
many of our graduates have been with us since they were
undergrads.'
She
also revealed that these undergrads 'had initially entered the
trade because they needed to pay their bills or
fees'.
Ms
Glenda claimed: 'Many of them later realise how lucrative or easy
it is to make a fast buck and they become reluctant to leave the
trade.
'But they are usually in only for
the short haul. Some do quit after a couple of years.'
A major international business
conference last year had also seen an influx in the number of
escorts for some of the agencies.
Yet all the agency owners
reiterated that escorts were not required to offer sexual
services.
But, added Mr Ting: 'We can't
control what is negotiated privately between the escorts and their
clients.'
The managers and owners insisted
that they do not get a cut of the 'extra services'.
Said one agency manager:
'Prostitution is not illegal in Singapore but soliciting is. We're
not going to risk paying a fine, going to jail or losing our
licence.'
The offence carries a $1,000 fine.
Repeat offenders can be fined up to $2,000 and jailed six
months.
But summing it up best was Mr
Ting, who said: 'It's a matter of feeding the right type of meat to
cater to the right palate.
'We supply you with what you want.
Simple.'
This article first appeared in The
New Paper Dec 23 2007
from: http://www.asiaone.com/Just%2BWoman/News/Women%2BIn%2BThe%2BNews/Story/A1Story20071225-42435.html
