Making Tourism Child-safe

Children living in tourist areas are especially vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, says Tourism Minister Faiyaz Koya.

He made the comment during the child-safe tourism stakeholders workshop held in Nadi last week.

“This workshop will help enhance our knowledge and capacity towards keeping children safe in the tourism sector,” he said.

Mr Koya said child-safe tourism was about being proactive and preventative, in order to promote tourism practices and activities that respected the rights of children.

“It is about putting in place the relevant measures that ensures tourism activities and practices are to keep children safe.”

He said sometimes because of ignorance, people failed to understand the consequences of things they did to children.

“Children rely on us as adults to keep them safe from harm’s way.”

Mr Koya said while the issue was not a major industry challenge in Fiji, “it was never too early or irrelevant to start the conversation on child safety”.

(Source: Fiji times news 26th October 2020)