The travel and tourism sector plays a key role in supporting the livelihood and development of communities and countries worldwide. The promotion of responsible, accessible and sustainable tourism is also an important dimension of achieving the 2030 Agenda. However, many child protection challenges emerge in the context of travel and tourism, whether as a result of offenders moving within or between States or as an unintended result of the activities and operations of the sector itself.

There has never been a more pivotal moment to ensure that the travel and tourism sector is truly sustainable, with child protection at its core. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the sector, as well as on the communities and States for which the sector represents an important source of income. The number of international tourist arrivals reached 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023, according to the World Tourism Organization. However, as the domestic and international travel and tourism sector continues to revive, it cannot be a case of recovery at any cost. We cannot go back to what was normal before the pandemic, because what was normal was not good enough.

It is time to rethink the way in which travel and tourism is conducted and to create a truly sustainable industry. Discussions on sustainability in the sector have rightly incorporated environmental, economic and social dimensions. However, freedom from violence against children is also fundamental for sustainability. It is impossible to achieve genuinely sustainable growth – including within travel and tourism – and realize the promise of the 2030 Agenda while this violence and its drivers persist.

With just seven years remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we are not on track, and hard-won progress on protecting children from violence has faltered. However, the challenges for ensuring the protection of children in travel and tourism can be overcome.

The Special Representative is grateful for submissions received from Member States and for consultations with various stakeholders, including representatives from the United Nations, regional organizations, civil society, law enforcement, industry and children, from which she has drawn illustrative examples for this section of her report.

Increased mobility, increased risks

The COVID-19 pandemic caused travel and tourism to grind to a halt in 2020 and 2021 while also disrupting child protection systems and efforts to tackle the violence against children that occurs in the sector. Traveller numbers are now climbing as the industry recovers, with international tourism receipts rising again to reach the $1 trillion mark in 2022 and more than 960 million tourists travelling internationally in the same year, a figure that does not include the millions of trips made by people within their own countries for both leisure and business. In addition, the most recent estimates suggest that around 169 million people are international migrant workers, who constitute 4.9 per cent of the global labour force and are concentrated in the services sector.

As traveller numbers increase, along with the accessibility of local and remote areas, so too do the risks to children. The more people travelling, the greater the likelihood that they will include offenders who inflict violence on children with impunity, as their mobility presents challenges for ensuring justice and accountability. There is a risk that, in the drive to meet growing demand, businesses in the travel and tourism sector may neglect the measures required for protecting children and overlook the need to safeguard children’s rights in every facet of a reviving sector’s operations and value chains, including the prevention and identification of and response to violence against children.

Evolving modes of travel and tourism also intersect with violence against children. One of the trends that has shaped the growth of travel and tourism in recent years is the decentralization of travel towards more tailored and individual experiences, such as community tourism and various forms of voluntourism with and for children – including in orphanages and alternative care settings – which brings travellers and children into closer contact than more traditional locations or forms of tourism. The greater digitalization of travel, combined with new forms of interaction from the dark web to unregulated and informal travel and tourism, can put children at higher risk. This shifting landscape generates new avenues that can be used by offenders, traffickers, intermediaries and criminal networks to exploit children.

All of this is happening against a backdrop of increasing vulnerability of children. As outlined in the present report, children worldwide face multiple and overlapping crises that increase the risks of experiencing violence, including in the context of travel and tourism. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, these vulnerabilities presented enormous challenges for children’s safety, as did the gaps in the legal protection of children, weak enforcement of the laws that were in place, underreporting and underprosecution of offences, social tolerance of violence, and widespread impunity and corruption.

These push and pull factors combine to fuel various forms of violence against children everywhere, including in the context of travel and tourism. For example, the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism continues worldwide. Although there are challenges for measuring the extent of sexual violence against children within this specific context, existing data on sexual violence against children onlin e and in person more generally – which include the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism – are very concerning. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that around 1 in 10 girls under the age of 20 have been forced to engage in sex or perform other sexual acts. The Special Representative has also been alerted to the increasing number of boys who are victims of sexual violence. Sexual offenders are known to misuse travel and tourism infrastructure and services, increasingly in combination with digital technologies, to commit their crimes. They often target children using these technologies, seeking online and in-person contact with children in their own countries and abroad. The sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism can happen in any kind of venue or location and in any country in the world. It may also be shifted away from a location when prevention efforts increase and relocated elsewhere. There is no typical profile for either victims or offenders. Offenders can be international or domestic tourists, young or old, male or female and wealthy or budget travellers and may be travelling for leisure or in transit for work. This form of sexual exploitation takes many forms, including temporary so-called “marriages” for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Child labour in the travel and tourism sector also has many faces, some of them well hidden. Children may be seen out in the open, selling souvenirs on the street or beach, carrying luggage, waiting tables and more. They may work behind the scenes, washing dishes or cleaning guests’ rooms. Or they may be completely hidden from sight in massage parlours, brothels or even their own homes, where they endure sexual exploitation. Despite the lack of current estimates of the total number of children employed in the formal or informal travel and tourism sector, approximately 25 per cent of the world's child labourers are thought to work in the services sector. This sector includes hotel employees and tour operators, transportation workers and porters, and a host of other service providers, many of whom work directly or indirectly for tourists. Child labour has risen as a result of the severe economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with an additional 9 million children thought to be at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022.

The travel and tourism sector is also misused for human trafficking, with traffickers moving their victims via aeroplanes, trains and buses and booking hotel rooms for their exploitation. Traffickers follow the movements of travellers and respond to demand, with child victims of trafficking and modern forms of slavery exploited for a variety of purposes, including sexual and economic exploitation.

Travel for business and work, including for large development and infrastructure projects, poses risks if it creates an environment in which violence is tolerated in locations around or near travellers’ accommodation, places of work or transportation hubs. It is also important to note the diverse aspects of transportation as possible channels for the facilitation of violence against children, including buses, trains, taxis, private transport, and other transportation-related services, such as those managed through online platforms.

Large influxes of visitors associated with major sporting or cultural events can heighten risks to children. In addition, vulnerable children and families may even find themselves uprooted as locations are “air-brushed” to enhance a country’s image before a major event. The development of travel and tourism infrastructure can also have wider social implications, in particular for communities experiencing poverty and social exclusion. While such development can enhance local prosperity, it can also exacerbate existing problems by displacing communities, disrupting their livelihoods or putting pressure on basic services. The impact on marginalized and Indigenous communities, in particular, can be marked.

The travel and tourism sector now has an unprecedented opportunity to embed the protection of children and the assessment of risks and impacts on children into every stage of its development and operating practices – throughout value chains and destinations – as it continues to rebuild after the pandemic. This opportunity cannot be missed. The sector can build upon the measures that it had put in place before the COVID-19 pandemic to spearhead solutions. These encompass child protection measures in services and infrastructure; staff training and “zero-tolerance” policies; regular due diligence processes and impact assessments conducted on children’s rights; strong reporting mechanisms; and cooperation with law enforcement.

Revisiting and revitalizing action

A solid foundation for action is already in place to confront the challenges and risks outlined above. Important steps have been taken by a wide range of stakeholders – including the travel and tourism sector itself – at the global, regional and national levels to ensure effective prevention, response and support for child victims of violence in the context of travel and tourism.

At the global level, the declaration and call for action resulting from the first International Summit on Child Protection in Travel and Tourism, held in 2018, served to outline key steps to ensure proactive, comprehensive, context-specific and sustainable prevention, as well as strong legal frameworks to ensure the protection of children and the prosecution of offenders. The declaration and call for action built on the findings and recommendations of the landmark 2016 report entitled Offenders on the Move: Global Study on the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism while encompassing forms of violence beyond sexual exploitation.

In the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights of 2011, the United Nations outlines the steps that companies should take to know and show respect for human rights (A/HRC/17/31, annex). The Children’s Rights and Business Principles of 2013 build on the Guiding Principles by setting out the actions that companies can take to protect children’s rights, including their right to freedom from all forms of violence in the context of travel and tourism. The Environmental and Social Framework of the World Bank is aimed at protecting people from potential adverse impacts – such as trafficking and child labour – that could arise from Bank-financed projects, including those related to the development of the travel and tourism sector.

The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism of the World Tourism Organization, which was a voluntary framework for responsible and sustainable tourism development, was converted into a binding instrument in 2019 entitled the Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics. Under the Framework Convention, States parties are invited to cooperate to criminalize offenders responsible for the exploitation of children both in their country of nationality as well as in the country where they commit their crimes, complementing existing child rights standards. As of June 2023, four States had acceded to the Framework Convention (Albania, Lebanon, Nigeria and Seychelles), and there was one further signatory (Indonesia).

The Regional Action Group of the Americas for the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism is an example at the regional level of tackling violence against children within and beyond the sector. It has been active in promoting national codes of conduct on child protection for the trav el and tourism industry, and there has been a gradual increase in their adoption across the region. The Regional Action Group, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of ASEAN and the South Asian Initiative to End Violence against Children have also endorsed an d committed to use a legal checklist developed by ECPAT International that supports States in ensuring a robust legal and policy framework to protect children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism.

States have introduced legislative and other measures to enhance the protection of children from violence in the context of travel and tourism. There has been some progress in ensuring the criminalization of the exploitation of children in the sector, including technology-facilitated crimes against children, and in ensuring extraterritorial jurisdiction to tackle impunity.

States have also taken steps to ensure that regulatory bodies with oversight or inspection functions incorporate the protection of children into their mandates, for example in relation to labour inspectorates tasked with tackling child labour and ensuring decent working standards. Some States have introduced mandatory codes of conduct and child protection standards for the travel and tourism sector. Requirements for companies to analyse their impact on respect for human rights – including in relation to trafficking, contemporary forms of slavery and child labour – have also been introduced as part of their due diligence obligations.

States have worked to ensure that national policies or strategies on travel and tourism include prevention of and response to violence against children as an integral component while supporting coordination across relevant government entities. This has been complemented by other measures such as awareness-raising campaigns targeting the public, the travel and tourism sector and other stakeholders and training for front-line professionals, including those in law enforcement. States have made efforts to tackle the lack of data by generating evidence, in collaboration with other partners. They have also continued to strengthen child protection systems to identify children at risk, support victims and ensure access to justice, as outlined in the present report.

The travel and tourism sector has been engaged in efforts to tackle violence against children. Child protection is increasingly recognized as an intrinsic element of a holistic approach to the development of sustainable travel and tourism. It has, for example, been included in the action framework for the travel and tourism sector of the World Travel and Tourism Council, on preventing human trafficking, and in the Global Sustainable Tourism Council criteria. At the national level, chambers of commerce are engaged in raising awareness and disseminating information among their members on the protection of children.

The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative that is aimed at raising awareness and providing tools and support to the travel and tourism industry to assess risks and impacts on children, understand the issue of sexual exploitation and take action to prevent this crime. As of March 2023, more than 400 member companies were implementing the Code criteria. The inclusion of companies working predominantly online – such as booking platforms for accommodation in private homes and for transport – among Code members is welcome. The financial sector is also making a contribution, for example through the development of indicators to help detect financial transactions relating to online child sexual exploitation.

A range of law enforcement measures are in place to stem violence against children in the context of travel and tourism. They include INTERPOL green notices: international alerts that notify all countries about a person’s criminal activities and their potential threat to public safety. In addition, INTERPOL mobilizes specialized experts to help police in its member countries to build their capacity to investigate child sexual exploitation, organizing training courses in every region. Topics covered include methods for the conduct of investigations in the online environment, the use of the INTERPOL International Child Sexual Exploitation database, victim identification, victim and offender interview techniques and the categorization and triage of child sexual abuse materials.

The Virtual Global Taskforce – an international alliance of 15 dedicated law enforcement agencies – was established in direct response to the rise in offenders targeting children worldwide through online social interactions and travelling overseas to commit contact sexual abuse. The Taskforce works with civil society and industry partners to deliver a programme of innovative global strategies to help protect children online, no matter where they are in the world.

Civil society organizations and networks continue to play a key role in raising awareness, generating evidence, providing guidance and support to States and industry, monitoring progress and providing services for victims and survivors. They also take a lead in ensuring the inclusion of children’s experiences and perspectives in the context of travel and tourism. A project in Thailand, for example, involves youth mobilizers receiving small grants to organize awareness-raising activities with their peers, enhancing the resilience and capacity of children and young people to defend themselves against sexual exploitation, to report cases and to access services. In Costa Rica and Ecuador, a project is aimed at developing child participation models for use by governments and the private sector as part of an initiative to build sustainable tourism destinations that protect children from sexual exploitation.

Notwithstanding the progress achieved, it is not happening at the scale, speed or consistency required to tackle violence against children effectively in the context of travel and tourism. We need to go further and faster, ensuring a true convergence of action that avoids parallel initiatives and duplication. To that end, it is necessary to pursue a multi-stakeholder, multisectoral and child rights-centred approach, in which the entire ecosystem of actors involved in this sector moves ahead as one on several fronts.

States should acknowledge the extent of the problem and continue to strengthen and effectively implement legal, regulatory and inspection frameworks to ensure children’s protection in person and online. This should include the enactment of comprehensive extraterritorial jurisdiction and extradition legislation and effective international cooperation among law enforcement agencies. It is equally important to ensure the provision of integrated, child-friendly services to victims, including access to justice and effective remedies.

If they have not already done so, companies involved in travel and tourism must incorporate child protection measures into their business models, conduct due diligence processes on children’s rights and support prevention and response to violence against children in their operations and throughout value chains, including businesses that operate online and with the informal sector. While voluntary action to raise child protection is important, this should be complemented by mandatory regulation and monitoring.

Other stakeholders also need to be fully supported and engaged to play their part. Law enforcement agencies need major investment to ensure that they have the capacity to deal with critical issues, including ensuring better exchange of information and improved collaboration to end impunity for offenders within and across national borders, as well as corruption. Civil society organizations need greater investment so that they can carry out their key roles, from conducting advocacy around violence against children to reacting quickly and ensuring the activation of national protection systems. Finally, all action must be informed by the views and experiences of children. Ongoing efforts to ensure the inclusion of children’s experiences and perspectives in the context of travel and tourism should be replicated and widely promoted.

The clock is ticking

The world is not on track to end all forms of violence against children and keep the promise made under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in this regard. Too many children are still left behind in all settings, including in the context of travel and tourism.

There is a greater need than ever to rethink what it means to make travel and tourism sustainable. It is not possible to deliver sustainable growth and development without investing in integrated, child- and gender-sensitive protection and violence prevention in every sphere. Equally, it is not possible to separate action aimed at ensuring sustainable travel and tourism from action aimed at ending violence against children, given the interlinked nature of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The travel and tourism sector can play a leading role in accelerating the 2030 Agenda, acting as a bridge between economic growth, environmental conservation and social development. The sector can provide significant benefits to local communities by creating job opportunities, ensuring decent work, preserving cultural heritage, tackling poverty and discrimination, developing infrastructure and investing in child and social protection services.

The travel and tourism sector can be a driving force for strengthening partnership and cooperation because it engages a wide range of stakeholders from the private and public sector, including local communities. Effective partnership is the only path to ensuring that the travel and tourism sector is truly sustainable, with child protection at its core.