Training course on ensuring safety for children at tourist sites

On August 7, in Ta Van Village, Sapa District, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), World Vision and Australian Aid organized training course on ensuring safety for children at tourist sites. It was a part of Project Childhood in order to enhance capacity to prevent child sexual exploitation in tourism.
Under message “Together we can prevent child sexual tourism” and “Vietnam said no to child sexual tourism”, the course was practical and meaningful to the local community. In recent years, Ta Van village is considered a model of community – based tourism and has attracted a large number of international tourists to experience daily living with local community. The tourism development has contributed to local social economic development but also increased risks including child sexual tourism.
In the training course, Mr. Nguyen Khanh Hoi, Project Childhood coordinator disseminated useful information in this area to tourism businesses in Ta Van village.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Vu Van Thanh, Deputy Director of Hotel Department (VNAT) said: Tourism development without preventive measures will also accompany with increased risk of social evils, including sexual abuse of children at tourist sites. Preventing child abuse is a difficult and complex matter. With the concept of "sustainable tourism development in combination with preserving cultural values and landscape, environmental protection and ensuring social security”, VNAT has been deploying activities to prevent child from sexual abuse at tourist sites. Vietnam tourism has been working closely with the other sectors to reduce and eradicate prostitution and child sexual abuse.