Conduct Code for Ending Child Trafficking

The U.S. Travel Industry Has Failed To Support Adoption of a Code of Conduct For Ending Child Trafficking

Posted by Arthur Frommer at 3/9/2010 2:22 PM EST

I have several times written about an international organization called ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking in Travel), which ccombats the quite considerable number of organizations that promote tours to areas of widespread child prostitution. At the New York Times Travel Show a week ago, I again met Carol Smolenski, Executive Director of that organization, who later wrote me about the refusal of the U.S. travel industry to sign on to a Code of Conduct for dealing with the problem. In the hope that this inertia may be overcome, I am reprinting an e-mail from her that deals with the campaign:

	One thing we didn't talk about last year was the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism. It is a voluntary Code that companies in the travel industry can adopt so that they are not involuntarily facilitating child sex tourism (www.thecode.org). It has been signed by almost 1,000 companies around the world, but only 4 in the United States: Carlson Companies, ElaBrasil, Amazon Tours, and ASTA. Unfortunately, unlike in the rest of the world, US companies are extremely reluctant to take a stand.
	We continue to try to get U.S. companies to adopt the Code of Conduct. Even if they are not willing to sign the Code, we ask that they at least begin to adopt policies that protect children and to train their staff. We have had some success recently with Choice Hotels. After a grassroots campaign, they have agreed to have a policy against commercial sexual exploitation of children and agree to do training of the staff of their new franchisees about their policy. We will be helping them develop the training.
	We are actively courting other US companies but it is very difficult. However, in Mexico and Belize where we have worked for the last few years, we have had great success promoting the Code of Conduct. On our website is a brochure about the great companies in Mexico that have signed the Code of Conduct.

Thank you so much for being one of the people in the travel industry who is willing to talk about this ugly subject. Please let me know if you would like more information about this topic.

I'd be interested to know if any of our readers have any idea as to why the U.S. travel industry is apparently unwilling to sign on to this cause.

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Last Updated: March 04, 2010