Child safe tourism
THE Child Safe Volunteering Hub yesterday presented a Child Safe Tourism Community toolkit to industry stakeholders, which has been termed as a first for the Pacific.
Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport permanent secretary Shaheen Ali said the toolkit was specifically designed to provide Fijian communities guidance to strengthen child protection measures.
In his address to stakeholders at the Child Safe Tourism Stakeholders workshop held at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, Mr Ali said the toolkit was expected to build on an inclusive approach to child protection by creating a sense of empowerment and respect that would drive community action.
“The intent was to launch the toolkit initially. But what we want is a more robust—inclusive framework that has your experiences and your recommendations included,” he said.
Mr Ali said they wanted to see child protection policies across all our sectors and tourism being the largest and a leading sector of the economy, should be at the forefront.
“What you learn today will equip you to provide child-safe experiences to tourists, whilst protecting Fijian children from the risks that come with service industries.
“That’s why the Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport is working with partners, like CSV Hub, to strengthen child safeguarding in tourism.”
Mr Ali said the ministry was doing this by supporting tourism stakeholders in implementing child safe policies and giving them the training to build capacity among their teams.