World Vision hands the ‘Child Safe Tourism’ baton to The Code

The Child Safe Tourism campaign was launched in November 2012 as part of the Project Childhood Prevention Pillar – an Australian Government initiative implemented by World Vision to prevent child sexual abuse within travel and tourism in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam.

With Project Childhood coming to completion in July 2014, World Vision pursued alternatives to ensure the sustainability of the Child Safe Tourism campaign. On 24 November 2014, World Vision and The Code entered an agreement to hand ownership of the Child Safe Tourism campaign over to The Code.

The Code is an industry-driven responsible tourism initiative that works with the tourism sector to prevent the sexual exploitation of children within the travel and tourism industry. Since 1996, The Code has been partnering with global travel and tourism businesses by assisting them in the adoption of responsible policies and business practices.

The Child Safe Tourism campaign seeks to arm travellers with information and knowledge on simple actions that they can take to reduce the vulnerability of children and young people who live or work in tourism locations. In the past two years, the campaign has reached over 15 million travellers in the South East Asia region.

“As global tourism continues to grow, particularly in Southeast Asia, it’s become increasingly important to consider its impact on local communities, in particular where this relates to the exploitation of children,” said Albert Yu, Communications Director for World Vision East Asia.

Matthias Leisinger, the Chairman of The Code, also expressed his excitement about the handover, saying, “The Code is delighted to be taking over the Child Safe Tourism campaign, and we can’t wait to take it to the next level to help us in our mission to eradicate child sexual exploitation within the tourism industry”.