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Prevention through Awareness Campaigning on Child Sex Tourism: a Market Research Project

Document number
1419
Date
2004
Title
Prevention through Awareness Campaigning on Child Sex Tourism: a Market Research Project
Author/publisher
Julia Valdambrini, ECPAT UK
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Corporate social responsibility, Multi-stakeholder partnerships: Missing children, Internal trafficking, Forced labour, Identification, Domestic servitude, Sexual exploitation, Private fostering, Forced marriage, Child Trafficking, Child Prostitution, Child Pornography,
Summary
The aim of this research was three-fold:1. to identify the most effective way to raise awareness on the issue of child sex tourismin terms of the appropriateness of images and messages;2. to ascertain whether travellers would report incidences of child sex tourism to criminalintelligence services and;3. to establish where best to distribute awareness raising materials.Underlying this research were the aims of demonstrating that it is possible to raise awarenesson child sex tourism, and to do so without negatively affecting holiday sales, and that raisingawareness could be a beneficial aid to assisting in the process of crime prevention.The research focussed on gathering the views of UK travellers generally and did not targetthose who have sex with children whilst they are overseas. Research was carried out in the UK and three destination countries: Costa Rica, the Gambiaand Thailand. The study focussed on the views of UK travellers and the stakeholdersinvolved in awareness raising in the UK. The destination countries were chosen because ofthe substantial work already carried out there on the issue, which has resulted in anextensive amount of data to analyse. Added to this was the benefit of having established andreliable partnerships with the partner organisations and researchers in country. In terms ofimages and messages it was considered important to capture the differing views representedby the cultural and religious diversity of the three countries: Costa Rica as Catholic, TheGambia as Muslim, and Thailand as Buddhist. Geographically, these three countries spanthree very different continents giving the research a representative world view. All threereceive high tourist arrivals and are affected by high levels of poverty, both contributoryfactors to the incidence of child sex tourism. Accordingly, the results from these destinationscan be considered as appropriate models for awareness raising activities on child sex tourismglobally.
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