The American Hotel & Lodging Association has launched a campaign to combat human trafficking, aiming to unite the U.S. hotel industry around a comprehensive approach. Titled No Room for Trafficking, the campaign outlines four pillars: Elevate issue awareness; assess protocols, procedures and technologies; educate to identify and report suspected trafficking situations; and support further partnerships with leading organizations.
Human trafficking is the biggest issue facing our industry, AHLA president and CEO Chip Rogers said at the recent NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference. He told BTN the campaign sends the message that "We will not tolerate [it] in the hotel industry."
The hospitality industry long has played an important role in awareness of human trafficking through airline and hotel employee training and signing on to The Code from ECPAT, formerly known as End Child Prostitution and Trafficking. Travel and tour companies can implement the voluntary set of business principles to prevent sexual exploitation and trafficking of children.
"There is still much more to do, and our commitment to training and education will continue to make a difference," Rogers said, adding, "I don't suspect there will ever be a finish for this. This will be forever. [Organizations] have been working on it for a long time and our industry has been working on it for a long time, but we believe bringing everyone together enhances what everyone is doing individually and magnifies the voice."
AHLA is providing new resources and materials for members, including:
- an action plan that trains staff on what to look for and how to respond should they notice a possible human trafficking situation, that displays human trafficking indicator signage, that establishes a companywide policy, that provides ongoing coordination with law enforcement and that shares success stories and best practices
- a member resource guide on ways to implement the AHLA action plan
- a companywide anti-trafficking policy template for members who may not yet already have policies in place
- strategic partnerships with national prevention partners, including ECPAT-USA, Polaris, Businesses Ending Slavery & Trafficking, SafeHouse Project, DC Rape Crisis Center and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
When asked how the industry can measure the effectiveness of its awareness efforts and training, Rogers admitted that the assessment pillar of the AHLA campaign has not yet been built out. "There clearly is an assessment process that needs to be in place that people are being trained and the time lines of their training, making sure it's not just happening once a year but when you have new employees coming on, making sure that training is impacting everybody across the spectrum of your employees. Where we need to be and will be in short order is specific training for specific job types. This is the start of it, but no action plan is ever going to be successful if you don't have a process for assessing if it's working or not."
ECPAT-USA director of private sector engagement Michelle Guelbart said her organization just finished benchmarking all industries, "including the hotel industry, which will be able to compare to other industries in the travel space and give feedback on their growth and effort." She added, "It's really great we are partnering together so we can be in contact about where the growth is, where the opportunities are and what potential we see with the industry."
The next step for AHLA is to make sure its members are adopting the plans outlined in the campaign. "We want training for every single employee in the industry with no exceptions," Rogers said. This summer into next year, the association will host an event in each Georgia, Iowa, Arizona, Texas and Florida and "work with local lawmakers to see ways we can implement policies that make sense across the board. It is necessary we be the leaders on this issue because as you look to the supply chain of how human trafficking occurs, hotels play a significant role, and we believe we can do our part to put a stop to it in the U.S. at some point."