ECPAT-USA
and the Adventure
Travel Trade
Association (ATTA) announced that the ATTA became
the first United States-based association to sign the Tourism
Child-Protection Code of Conduct.
It
is an internationally accepted industry-driven corporate
responsibility initiative to protect children from trafficking and
sexual exploitation in travel and tourism.
The
ATTA has a long history of
social responsibility and sustainable development and when delving
deeper into child exploitation issues in tourism, the ATTA viewed it
as imperative to get involved in taking steps to protect children
worldwide. In the past, the ATTA has written about ECPAT-USA’s
mission to protect children globally from sexual exploitation and
trafficking, therefore, signing the Code was a natural next step. As
part of being a signatory to the Code, the ATTA has created a plan to
help disseminate materials, provide education and also give exposure
for theCode.org.
“ECPAT-USA
is thrilled to bring the Adventure Travel Trade
Association into the family of organizations and companies that
have signed the Code of Conduct. Children are sexually exploited by
the millions all over the world,”said Carol Smolenski, Executive
Director of ECPAT-USA. “It is important that every sector of the
travel industry become part of the solution by implementing the six
steps of the Code. The ATTA will have a tremendous multiplier effect
by informing its membership about how they can help fight the scourge
of child exploitation.”
“We
recognize there are dark sides to tourism,” said ATTA President
Shannon Stowell. “With such recognition comes great responsibility
to take meaningful and immediate steps to eradicate harmful activity.
This is our first measure to address this issue, and most certainly
not our last.”
The
ATTA, along with many Advisory Board members and other industry
leaders such as UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai serving as
witnesses, signed the Code before more than 600 tourism industry
professionals representing 60 nations on October 9th during the
2012 Adventure Travel World Summit in Switzerland to send a
signal to the global adventure tourism community that there is no
place for the exploitation of children in tourism, as well as to
foster a movement for additional support to fight this battle
together. The ATTA joins Code signatories such as Accor Hotels,
Carlson Companies, Delta
Air Lines, Hilton Worldwide, Sabre Holdings and Wyndham
Worldwide.
