About the Guidelines
The Child Welfare and the Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines have been developed to provide a common understanding of child welfare issues throughout the travel industry and to provide all travel businesses with guidance to prevent all forms of exploitation and abuse of children that could be related to travelers and the tourism industry.
Developed in conjunction with key global stakeholders and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the guidelines have been purposefully designed so that any tourism business should be able to implement them. All businesses operating in the tourism sector can use this document as a practical working tool to better understand the main risks they may face by not upholding child welfare practices and the subsequent impacts on children and communities. This tool will help businesses understand what key actions need to be taken to mitigate these risks and provide helpful guidance on how to uphold child welfare across all areas of business, including the supply chain. It also includes some useful real world examples and 7 Tips for initial implementation.
There are 15 guidelines organized under four sections to offer businesses a structured approach for implementation. The four sections are as follows:
1. Guidelines to ensure your company is able to prevent and respond to child abuse arising from tourism interactions
2. Guidelines for your products and services to have the best impact on children
3. Guidelines to ensure your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives are reinforcing child welfare
4. Guidelines for implementation
Businesses are encouraged to seek assistance from tourism and child welfare specialists and to utilize the widely available industry tools and supports referenced throughout this document and annexes.
It is important to note that the Global Good Practice Guidelines have been developed to specifically address the welfare of children living in communities where tourism activities are occurring, and does not delve deeply into the welfare of children traveling as clients. Basic guidance has been provided on this subject; however, it is recommended that travel companies that frequently provide services to children as clients should reference the strong body of work already existing on this topic and integrate good practice into their operations alongside those laid out in this publication.
