An industry first: ChildSafe community-based tourism

Social change com­mu­nic­at­or James Suth­er­land describes the rationale for and res­ults of the first con­cer­ted efforts to ensure the safety of loc­al and vis­it­ing chil­dren in the con­text of com­munity-based tourism.

Com­munity-based tour­ism (CBT) is rap­idly becom­ing a buzzword in the glob­al travel industry. Offer­ing dir­ect inter­ac­tions between people in com­munit­ies and the tour­ists and trav­el­lers vis­it­ing those com­munit­ies, it is a part of a grow­ing trend for exper­i­en­tial and hands-on products with­in the tour­ism industry.

The way that CBT ‘injects’ cli­ents dir­ectly into the loc­al com­munity offers eco­nom­ic bene­fits and oppor­tun­it­ies for all involved. How­ever there is also a poten­tial down­side. The sud­den influx of vis­it­ors brings with it an increased num­ber of risks for the chil­dren liv­ing in these com­munit­ies if the situ­ation is not man­aged appro­pri­ately and effectively. 

Most may imme­di­ately think of poten­tial sexu­al exploit­a­tion or abuse as the main area of con­cern here. Pred­at­ors look­ing to gain access to chil­dren out­side of main­stream tour­ism and urb­an­ised sup­port net­works is indeed a risk, but actu­ally one of many. 

We may also see chil­dren drop­ping out of school to cater for tour­ists, per­form­ing in shows in an unsafe or poten­tially exploit­at­ive man­ner, or chil­dren-led activ­it­ies being offered without adequate super­vi­sion from adults. Night-time per­form­ances and activ­it­ies also lead to tired kids who can­not con­cen­trate even if they remain in school.

Oth­er risks include inap­pro­pri­ate and cul­tur­ally-insens­it­ive con­tact with trav­el­lers, chil­dren being the sub­ject of obtrus­ive or exploit­at­ive pho­to­graphy — par­tic­u­larly in this age of the ‘selfie’ and instant social media com­mu­nic­a­tion — and also dis­rup­tion to their learn­ing by school vis­its from outsiders. 

In addi­tion, the safety of guests’ chil­dren may also be haz­ard­ous in some remote areas where trav­el­lers are simply not used to more ardu­ous nat­ur­al environments.

So, how can we address these new challenges?

We can ensure that CBT activ­it­ies are ChildSafe!

Child­Safe has reached out and engaged suc­cess­fully with CBT organ­isa­tions, empower­ing them to address the above risks. They can then enjoy tour­ism as a boost to the prosper­ity of the loc­al eco­nomy in a child-safe — and Child­Safe! — environment. 

Fully inclus­ive, the approach mobil­ises a broad range of stake­hold­ers through enga­ging, edu­ca­tion­al, and tailored activ­it­ies and train­ings to ensure the voices and needs of all com­munity mem­bers, the loc­al travel industry, and most import­antly the chil­dren them­selves are heard and met.

Chiang Mai case study

In a recent example from Chi­ang Mai, Thai­l­and, our goal was two-fold — to raise aware­ness of poten­tial risks to the com­munity, includ­ing those arising from trav­el­lers, and to empower the entire com­munity to devel­op and imple­ment their own action plan which would tackle these. 

The Child­Safe team first spent time with the com­munity and vari­ous oth­er stake­hold­ers to find out what they already knew about child pro­tec­tion issues and to under­stand how they inter­ac­ted with trav­el­lers. Through a series of work­shops the Child­Safe team could see that the issues and con­cerns raised by loc­al stake­hold­ers actu­ally mirrored the range of risks we iden­ti­fied in our earli­er paragraphs!

The res­ult­ing action plan developed by the com­munity along­side Child­Safe has led to some excel­lent and tan­gible res­ults to date, includ­ing schools installing sig­nage relat­ing to tour­ist vis­its and oth­er inap­pro­pri­ate beha­viours of vis­it­ors, and incor­por­at­ing child self-pro­tec­tion mod­ules into their curriculum. 

Home stays dis­play Child­Safe’s ‘7 Tips for Trav­el­ers’ along­side a child safety bro­chure they developed for guest children.

Tip 1 — THINK! Chil­dren are not tour­ist attrac­tions – let’s not treat them like they are.

Tip 2 — THINK! Volun­teer­ing with chil­dren feels good but could be harm­ful – look for bet­ter ways to help them.

Tip 3 — THINK! Chil­dren pay a price for your gen­er­os­ity – don’t give to beg­ging children.

Tip 4 — THINK! Pro­fes­sion­als know best – call them if a child needs help.

Tip 5 — THINK! Sex with chil­dren is a crime – report child sex tourism.

Tip 6 — THINK! Chil­dren should not be at work instead of school – report child labor.

Tip 7 — THINK! Pro­tect chil­dren – be a Child­Safe traveler.

Child­Safe’s 7 Tips for Trav­el­ers — thinkchildsafe.org/7‑tips-for-travelers

Loc­al found­a­tions have been promp­ted to review their child pro­tec­tion policies and media guidelines, and com­munity-based Child­Safe Agents have been trained and cer­ti­fied under the coordin­a­tion of the TAO Child Pro­tec­tion Committee. 

Com­munity stake­hold­ers have also been pro­act­ive in aware­ness-rais­ing through radio broad­cast­ing and loc­al events deliv­er­ing Child­Safe messages.

The com­munit­ies involved con­tin­ue to have full own­er­ship of their CBT action plan with the Child­Safe team provid­ing ongo­ing tech­nic­al sup­port and reg­u­lar check-ins with the Child­Safe Agents, com­munity mem­bers, and loc­al authorities. 

For more inform­a­tion on Child­Safe approaches to CBT, please con­tact info@thinkchildsafe.org.

Child­Safe Move­ment is a glob­al child pro­tec­tion ini­ti­at­ive powered by lead­ing social innov­at­or Friends-Inter­na­tion­al. Togeth­er they call on almost 25 years’ exper­i­ence in devel­op­ing social solu­tions that recog­nise the cru­cial import­ance of loc­al own­er­ship to drive effect­ive social change. 

In recent years the Child­Safe Move­ment has worked very closely with the travel industry to devel­op and imple­ment tools and resources to help ensure the wel­fare and pro­tec­tion of chil­dren in rela­tion to travel & tour­ism, includ­ing the pub­lic­a­tion, in 2017, of the first ever set of com­pre­hens­ive guidelines for Child Wel­fare and the Travel Industry (PDF).

Fea­tured image: Child­Safe Agent in the field. Source: ChildSafe.

Download

• Child Wel­fare and the Travel Industry: Glob­al Good Prac­tice Guidelines (PDF — hos­ted offsite)

About the author

James Suth­er­land is Inter­na­tion­al Com­mu­nic­a­tions Coordin­at­or at Friends-Inter­na­tion­al. James has been extens­ively involved in the devel­op­ment and roll out of the Child­Safe child pro­tec­tion advocacy cam­paigns since 2009.