Press Releases
Child Sex Tourism Remains the “Dirty Little Secret” of the Travel Industry According to Survey by ECPAT-USA. Travelers Say They Would Support Companies that Adopt Tourism Code of Conduct. Click here for the Press release.
NH Hotels, a major hotel chain in Mexico, signs the Code of Conduct for Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism. Read More.
ECPAT-USA partnering with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) to educate the industry about child sexual exploitation
Amazon Tours to Fight Child Sex Tourism in Brazil
Amazon Tours is poised to sign the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism. In so doing, Phil Marsteller, President and CEO of Amazon Tours, is demonstrating his commitment to take a stand against child sex tourism and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The son of missionaries, Phil grew up in the jungles of Northern Brazil. After founding Amazon Tours, he was appalled to see other fishing tour operators take tourists to indigenous reservations where they could “have their pick” of young indigenous girls as young as 12 years-old.
“I want to fight this cancer that is ruining not only my industry but the lives of those living in the land that I love.”
Carol Smolenski, Executive Director of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes-USA (ECPAT-USA) welcomes Amazon Tours to the growing network of businesses that have signed the Code. “We at ECPAT are thrilled that Amazon Tours is taking a stand. It is especially important for American companies to get involved because twenty-five percent of perpetrators of child sex tourism are American.”
Amazon Tours is a Texas-based company that owns and operates fishing destinations with luxury accommodations in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. In operation for 17 years, Amazon Tours boasts over 8,000 satisfied clients and seven International Game Fishing Association world records. Amazon Tours
(ECPAT-USA) End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes is part of an international child rights network working to protect children from commercial sexual exploitation: prostitution, pornography and trafficking. Collaborating with individuals, churches, children’s and women’s organizations, groups of all kind from around the world, ECPAT-USA seeks to end the exploitation of children through training, education, research and advocacy. ECPAT/USA
The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism (The Code) is an industry-driven, multi-stakeholder initiative launched by ECPAT in 1998, engaging the tourism private sector to prevent and combat child sex tourism. With over 800 members in 32 countries, The Code is recognized among tourism industry associations, child rights and protection organizations, governments and international organizations as the most reliable and efficient tool to prevent sexual exploitation of children in tourism. TheCode
