Introduction

Travel companies and travellers do not often question who cleaned the room, washed the
vegetables or made the craft but from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) figures it is
clear that the likelihood of them unknowingly benefitting from child labour is high. The
estimates range for children working in tourism run from 13 to 19 million children under the
age of 18 which counts for around 10-15% of the formal tourism labour market(Black, 1995).
The numbers are probably much higher when we factor in that the informal sector was not
included in the estimates. Whether we are aware of it or not child labour is very likely to have
contributed to our holidays. However, the lack of visibility stops companies and travellers from
asking questions or taking action to reduce child labour in tourism destinations. Effective
strategies for tackling child labour in tourism can be developed when the tourism industry has a
clear understanding of the causes and effects of child labour. Whilst poverty, lack of access to
education and the growing demand for cheap labour are causal factors pushing higher numbers
of children into work, they are also areas that the tourism industry can help address, for
example by supporting education projects and providing fair wages for adults working in
tourism. This paper is based on the findings from a research report called Child Labour and
Tourism: How travel companies can reduce child labour in tourism destinations written by
Emilie Hagedoorn in 2011 for Intrepid Travel who are one of the few travel companies to have
signed up to the United Nations Global Compact. Principle Five of the Compact states that
“businesses should uphold the effective abolition of child labour” (UN Global Compact, 2010)
but that is easier said than done. First companies need to spend time investigating how and
where they are impacting on child labour before they can take action by “developing an
awareness and understanding of the causes and consequences of child labour” and by
“identifying the issues and determining whether or not child labour is a problem within the
business”(UN Global Compact, Principle Five, 2010).The aim of the research was to identify
ways in which travel companies can reduce child labour in tourism destinations and begin to
measure performance and progress in this area. The research therefore identified existing
advice for businesses on tackling child labour and how that advice can be used by travel
companies, the impacts of child labour in tourism, the different types of work children do in
tourism, reasons why children do or don’t work in tourism (push and pull factors), how other
tour operators are tackling child labour and reporting on performance and progress as well as
barriers to acting on the elimination of child labour for Intrepid and other travel companies.
Using Intrepid as a case study, tour leaders from a wide range of countries collected data on
child labour in destinations which Intrepid used to create Performance Indicators for a UN
Global Compact Communication ofProgress (COP) and future monitoring as well as make
recommendations for other travel companies on how to act against child labour. This paper
aims to share a summary of these findings and recommendations with other interested travel
companies.
Positive Opinion

Children whose parents work long and irregular hours and cannot access or afford child care may
have to look after themselves and/or their siblings, leaving them extremely vulnerable to injury,
neglect and abuse. These risks can be heightened for children living in popular tourist
destinations that suffer from higher levels of alcohol consumption, prostitution, gambling, drug
abuse, noise, and crime. Companies can help create safe environments for the children of their
employees by supporting efforts to subsidise the cost of day-care, providing a company crèche to
staff or increasing investments in local youth and sports clubs.

Although child labour is not legal in any or our country. But the participant of the children can
be benefited. We all know thath the children are quick learner they can learn foreign language,
culture and that knowledge can be used in future to serve this to other tourist

Negative Site

Though the significance of these economic contributions should not be downplayed, it is also
well documented that while tourism has the potential to make significant positive contributions
to host countries, it can bring with it significant and substantial social, cultural and
environmental problems. Such problems are amplified in contexts where there is rapid – and
thus often unplanned and unmonitored – tourism development. One of the key concerns for
Project Childhood Prevention Pillar (discussed in more detail below) is the way in which tourism
impacts children’s lives. Due to the economic pull factors of the tourism sector there is a clear
correlation between tourism and child exploitation. Vulnerable children and their families are
frequently attracted to tourism destinations in search of an income. This may mean giving up
traditional livelihoods, communal ties and/or social support networks. It may also mean that
girls and boys may end up working in the tourist industry in conditions that are unsafe or
harmful. Furthermore, children earning money from tourists in various forms of child labour are
less likely to go to school and face heightened vulnerability to other forms of exploitation,
including sexual exploitation and abuse. Due to the lower protective mechanisms around these
children, they are more easily targeted by child abusers, including travelling child sex
offenders.10Evidence collated from identified cases and reports from this region show that
travelling child sex offenders target children that are working on the streets or in various
informal business establishments in tourism destinations. 11In addition, they may otherwise gain
unsupervised access to vulnerable children by working in schools or orphanages. Without
adequate vetting and safeguards, the tourism industry sometimes facilitates offenders’ access
to vulnerable girls and boys and may unwittingly enable exploitation. This can occur not only in
mass tourism establishments (such as hotels, restaurants, bars, markets and tourist leisure
precincts), but also within so-called ‘responsible tourism’ or ‘cultural tourism’ enterprises. For
instance, ‘orphanage tourism’, where travellers are allowed to visit and interact with children in
institutional care12, can leave children vulnerable to exploitation. So too can various forms of
‘voluntourism’13, where adequate checks are not always placed on adults working with
children, and “home-stays” where unknown adults who are accommodated within local homes
frequently have unsupervised contact with local children.In an effort to protect children against
sexual abuse in travel and tourism in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, the Australian
Agency for International Development (AusAID) commenced a dual prevention and protection
initiative Project Childhood, implemented by World Vision, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
and INTERPOL. As part of this, World Vision is working with communities and governments to
prevent girls and boys from becoming victims of sexual exploitation in travel and tourism and to
establish ‘Child Safe Tourism’ practises and initiatives. To this end, World Vision recently
distributed an online survey to international travellers in order to gauge their perceptions and
understandings of child safe tourism, as well as their encounters and experiences with children
in these countries. World Vision defines child safe tourism as a form of tourism:
 1. Recognises its potential role in, and impact on, child exploitation
 2. Takes responsibility to minimise harmful impacts (direct or indirect) on vulnerable
children
 3. Takes an active role in strengthening and maintaining a safe environment for all
children