Human trafficking is more prevalent than many people think. Nearly 21 million victims around the world – including in the United States – are currently trapped in modern-day slavery, according to estimates by the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency. The travel and tourism industry is in a unique position to address the problem, as trafficking commonly occurs on airplanes, trains and buses when victims are transported from city to city or from country to country. Much of the activity takes place at hotels and to young people, who are particularly vulnerable.

“Youth are strategically targeted and manipulated by pimps who use hotel rooms as venues to abuse children, believing that systems are not in place to protect the victims,” the non-profit organization ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) said. “With the use of online classified ads, child trafficking is both on the streets and behind the closed doors of local hotel rooms.”

In this country, slightly more than half of all hotels have training about how to prevent and disrupt child sex trafficking and 40% of all properties have access to ECPAT-USA’s training materials, the group said, “but there is still more work to be done.”

Read the full article by Tanya Mohn about stopping sex trafficking source article at Forbes Welcome