This year, to celebrate the World Tourism Day, the UNWTO invites its Member States, as well as non-members, UN agencies, businesses and individuals to celebrate tourism’s unique ability to ensure that nobody is left behind as the world begins to open up again and look to the future.  

In 2020, an additional 32 million people were pushed into extreme poverty.[1] The current crisis dramatically increases the vulnerability of children, particularly in countries that have traditionally relied on the income generated from travel and tourism.  

Poverty forces families to make difficult decisions regarding their survival.  Children are often at the receiving end of these difficult decisions and face life altering consequences such as being withdrawn from school to enter the world of work, forced into child marriage, or sent away, in the hope of attaining better lives. The reality is that these decisions only serve to increase their vulnerability to trafficking and sexual exploitation.  

As COVID-19 related restrictions ease and travel becomes more possible, child sex offenders that have increasingly sought online engagement are likely to seek offline contact to directly abuse and exploit children. INTERPOL recommends close monitoring of travel for registered child sex offenders when travel restrictions are relaxed to protect victims overseas.[2] Although no country, business, or destination is immune to sexual exploitation of children, offenders – both foreign and domestic alike – tend to target countries with more lenient legal and policy frameworks, and where families and children are more vulnerable to economic, social, and cultural factors.  

This World Tourism Day, ECPAT International with the Down to Zero Alliance[3] are urging governments and business to ensure that no child is left behind now, and during the post-COVID-19 recovery of travel and tourism.