December 2021
Where this partnership began
Thirty-seven hotels and guesthouses across northern Thailand joined the programme, and thirty-six were awarded the Child Safe Friendly Tourism mark.
The Child Safe Friendly Tourism Project was founded by the Foundation of Child Understanding (FOCUS) at a difficult moment for Thai tourism. The sexual exploitation of children and the trafficking connected to it were damaging the country's reputation and leaving visitors with a distorted view of Thailand and its people.
The two years before had been hard. The COVID-19 pandemic hit tourism businesses directly, and hotels and guesthouses in particular were carrying heavy costs simply to stay open. Even so, more than thirty-seven businesses across the north chose to take the problem of child sexual exploitation seriously.
Ben Robert, Chairman of the Foundation of Child Understanding, described tourism as a double-edged thing. It develops the economy and helps communities recover. Without policy to govern it, it can also do real damage to a society, above all by opening the door to the sexual exploitation of children.
FOCUS worked with government and private sector partners to create a mark that states a shared intention plainly: to protect children from the chain of trafficking. When a visitor sees that mark, they can be confident that children are safe in the place they have chosen.
Each participating hotel nominated a representative who was trained to run the online training system internally, then encouraged every member of staff to complete it. Hotels also ran their own awareness sessions on child protection, including how to notice people and situations that do not look right.
On 21 December 2021, thirty-six hotels received the Child Safe Friendly Tourism award at a ceremony in Chiang Rai, confirming that the businesses that joined the programme and passed assessment are safe and welcoming places for children.