About
A tourism standard built to protect children
The core team behind Child Safe Friendly Tourism brings together hotel and tourism businesses, government agencies and non-governmental organisations across Thailand, working in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lamphun, Bangkok, Chonburi and Phuket.
The challenge we share
The sexual exploitation of children, and the trafficking that enables it, affect how Thailand's tourism is seen. They erode confidence and leave visitors with a distorted impression of the country and its people, one that is not quickly undone. Some kinds of business, by their nature, make that exploitation easier.
This is why the response has to be clear and why it has to be shared. Thailand's standing as a destination depends on visitors arriving with confidence, and on that confidence being deserved.
What we set out to do
We build the capability of the people who work in Thailand's tourism businesses, so that they play a decisive role in creating an environment where every child is safe, and so that no business is used as cover for trafficking or for the sexual exploitation of children.
The programme puts active monitoring in place for high-risk behaviour and locations, trains staff in the skills that reduce risk and protect children, and helps businesses build a reputation for operating responsibly over the long term.
Our formal mandate
On 16 January 2022, Thailand's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Committee resolved to advance the Child Safe Friendly Tourism Project and appointed a sub-committee to drive it, under Order No. 1/2565 of the same date. That sub-committee brings together government agencies, non-governmental organisations and the tourism industry.
Its responsibilities are to
- Encourage Thailand's tourism businesses to operate with a sustainable commitment to social responsibility.
- Support the industry in creating an environment free from trafficking and from every form of child sexual exploitation.
- Develop a formal tourism standard for protecting children from trafficking and sexual exploitation, aligned with national anti-trafficking policy.
Key milestones
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29 May 2019
Chiang Mai signs, the first province in Thailand
The first memorandum of understanding on safe, child friendly tourism was signed in Chiang Mai, the first province in the country to do so.
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21 December 2021
36 hotels receive the Child Safe Friendly Tourism award
Thirty-seven hotels and accommodation businesses across northern Thailand joined the programme. Thirty-six passed assessment and received the award at a ceremony in Chiang Rai.
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16 January 2022
A sub-committee is appointed to drive the programme
The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Committee issued Order No. 1/2565, appointing a sub-committee to advance the programme, drawn from government, non-governmental organisations and the tourism industry.
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7 September 2022
21 agencies sign the national memorandum
Twenty-one organisations signed the national memorandum of understanding in Bangkok, spanning government, the private sector, non-profit organisations and stakeholders across the tourism industry.