Here’s how to be child safe while travelling

G Adventures, and its non-profit partner, Planeterra, have joined forces with Friends-International’s ChildSafe Movement to raise awareness of child protection and welfare within the tourism industry.

After consulting a wide range of contributors, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the trio has launched a new set of guidelines called Child Welfare and the Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines.

See also: How a street kid changed the course of G Adventures

According to Beth Verhey, Senior Advisor, Children’s Rights and Business, UNICEF, these guidelines provide an essential, practical resource for all tourism companies.

“Travel and tourism are globally one of the most significant sectors economically and was highlighted in three of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” Verhey said.

“To achieve the sustainability potential of the sector, a concerted effort by industry bodies and individual companies is needed to understand how children are affected – both positively and negatively – by their business operations and value chains,”

G Adventures have released a simplified pictorial version of these guidelines, with a global consumer targetting campaign coming in November.

Child Welfare Guidelines infographic

These guidelines aim to educate the travel industry on how to interact with children when travelling, including taking pictures respectfully, not disrupting children’s education, and how to give gifts and donations in a manner that doesn’t promote begging.

The guidelines are also the latest in G Adventures’ ‘suite’ of responsible travel guidelines, joining Animal Welfare and Responsible Travel with Indigenous People, which were launched in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

According to Jamie Sweeting, vice president of social enterprise and responsible travel at G Adventures, the new guidelines are designed to encourage travel companies to do more and to educate travellers, who often believe they are doing the right thing when interacting with children, to act responsibly.

“As a travel company, we wanted to make sure we were doing the best we could and these guidelines are helping us make appropriate changes internally,” Sweeting said.

“We have swept all our digital assets and owned channels to ensure all our media complies, and we’ve removed all school classroom visits from our itineraries. We’re next about to embark on an internal training program with all staff, with the goal of becoming ChildSafe Certified by the end of the year.”

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

Child Welfare and the Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines ChildSafe Friends-International’s ChildSafe g adventures Planeterra