ECPAT-USA, an American nonprofit working on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children, honored 19 Top Member companies earlier this month for their work to integrate child-protection practices into their business in 2015. To be considered Top Members, all 19 companies implemented all six criteria of the The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation, a set of voluntary guidelines for travel and tourism companies to follow to combat the problem.
One of the Top Members, Nix Conference & Meetings Management, a leader among meeting planners worldwide to help end sex trafficking in hotels, also recently released a new, free mobile app through the social action organization the company founded called Exchange Initiative. The app, TraffickCam, allows travelers to anonymously photograph hotel rooms and upload data to a national database used by law enforcement and investigators to locate victims and their captors. The app has already been downloaded about 70,000 times in the past couple weeks.
In addition to Nix, here are the other 18 Top Member companies in the travel and tourism industries honored for fighting the cause.
- Adventure Travel Trade Association
- Altruvistas
- Caribe Royale Orlando
- Carlson
- CorpTrav Management
- EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services
- Envision Meetings & Incentives
- Hilton Worldwide
- Hospitality eResources
- International Tour Management Institute
- Lotus Nomads
- Maritz Travel
- Meaningful Trip
- Meeting Professionals International – WA State Chapter
- Platinum Travel & Events
- Real Hospitality Group
- Sabre
- Society for Incentive Travel Excellence
