Vienna, 2024 – On 3-4 October 2024, ECPAT International hosted the first global workshop to equip tourism education professionals to integrate child protection into their training curricula. The workshop was organised as part of a contribution to the 15 years of the mandate of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children.
23 experts from the education sector and the travel & tourism industry representing global organisations and 16 countries* exchanged experience, learning, and best approaches to effectively integrate child protection into the training curricula of travel and tourism academies, hospitality schools, and vocational training institutions around the world, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.
The workshop took stock of the unique position of tourism academies, schools, and training institutions in integrating competency-based courses on child protection as part of their curricula and activities. The goal is to train the young workforce entering the Travel & Tourism industry, ensuring that education creates a long-term, sustained impact. This also ensures the entire ecosystem is better equipped to meet international standards for protecting children from all forms of violence, including trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The group shared commendable practices while considering the impact of the evolving trends in the travel and tourism sector on children’s rights. This included the risks resulting from unregulated forms of tourism domestically and abroad, such as online platforms, community tourism, or unskilled voluntourism. The workshop also considered the opportunities from the evolution of global regulations on due diligence and sustainable development to prioritise child protection.
With World Teachers’ Day celebrated every year on 5 October to empower teachers in transforming education, ECPAT and the partners of the global workshop, call for valuing and hearing the voices of tourism teachers and professionals to integrate child protection into educational curricula, policies and practices to influence systemic change and prevent child exploitation.
* Australia, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, UK, Cambodia, India, Nepal, The Philippines, The Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and USA.
For any requests please reach out to communications@ecpat.org