Green Globe Certification associate, the International Tourism Partnership (ITP), has produced a guide to assist hoteliers understand human trafficking and compelled labor – what it truly is, the way it may affect them and what actions they may take to minimize the danger of trafficking of their businesses.
Human trafficking is the purchase of folks by improper means resembling force, fraud or deception, aiming at exploiting them. It often – but not always – involves people being taken from one country to a different, where they’re subject to sexual exploitation, forced labor or other forms of servitude. Briefly – it’s modern-day slavery. It is a relevant topic for hoteliers, since it can be guests or staff on the hotel who’re victims of this abuse.
Human trafficking is, by nature, a ‘hidden’ crime, however the scale is large. In accordance with the International Labor Organization (ILO) human trafficking is the third-largest illicit moneymaking venture on the earth, after drug dealing and arms trading, and over 30 million people worldwide are victims of trafficking. Figures at the impact at the hotel industry specifically are hard to come back by. However, government and law enforcement agencies pinpoint the hospitality industry as being ‘high risk’, and the increasing variety of national initiatives in lots of countries highlights the growing center around this issue as one that is especially relevant for hotels. Whether statistics can be found or not, there ought to be no threshold of interest and engagement with this issue – no level of human trafficking is appropriate.
Human trafficking has to forestall, and we as an industry use every power we need to end this scourge. The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and its members were active at the issue for some years now. Today, they may be proud to launch their Understand how Guide to addressing human trafficking to tell, encourage and support others inside the industry to sign up for the fight.