"The brothel owners are having to put on extra girls to meet the demand," Chris Seage, a spokesman for the group, told The Sun-Herald.

He said many brothels reported a 20 percent increase in traffic during World Youth Day, which brought thousands of visitors to the city. Much of the business came from the journalists and TV crews in Sydney, not from the young Roman Catholics who were the target audience for four-day World Youth Day celebration, the report said.

Sydney officials billed World Youth Day as the biggest event the city has seen since the 2000 Summer Olympics. Seage said that was true for the sex trade as well.