Inter Press Service - December 6, 2001
Marwaan Macan-Markar

But much more than just training for work in the tourism industry, it also had another, longer-term aim: to provide more livelihood options for Thai girls and prevent them from having to turn to the sex trade.

"I have gained confidence, new information," said the soft- spoken Duen, who completed her training in October along with more than 90 other girls.

She has since been working with the hotel's housekeeping staff. "It has inspired me to study further, learn languages," Duen adds.

It has also helped her stand out in her small village -- comprising some 300 houses and nearby ricefields -- in north-eastern Yasothon province. "I am the only one from my village to be trained here," says Duen, her face breaking into a shy smile.

Sayjai Kaenseelar, who underwent training two years ago, says trainees of the Pan Pacific's Youth Career Development Programme are taught the skills required in some of the hotel's services, like laundry, housekeeping, food and beverages.

"I am lucky. It has offered me more career choices," says 21- year-old Saayjai, who now works as a waitress in the hotel.

Nattiya Chavengsaksongkram, education manager of the Pan Pacific's youth programme, says trainees like Duen and Sayjai were chosen due to specific qualities. "We place emphasis on selecting trainees who are in the worst situations, and they should not be receiving assistance and are at the greatest risk."

Equally important is preventing the girls from having any ties to the sex trade, she says. "We are careful to screen out girls who may have any form of association with Bangkok's sex industry."

This is something the hotel continually focuses on, which is why every two weeks, a group of Bangkok hotels combine for a joint training session on life skills topics, such as sex education and AIDS awareness," Nattiya affirms.

There are 18 hotels in Bangkok now involved in efforts to train some of Thailand's vulnerable children, part of a larger campaign increasingly seen in South-east Asia to bring the travel and tourism industry into prevention schemes to fight the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

In countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia, child-friendly tourism training has been included in courses for tourism students and workers. The past years have also seen airlines take more active part in discouraging child sex tourism.

Calls for such "good practices" in countries with vulnerable children gained currency at the First World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm in 1996 -- and will be discussed at the second congress in Japan later this month.

Between 1995, the programme's inaugural year, and this year, a total of 330 youth have been trained. Almost two-thirds of them work in the hotel industry.

In Thailand, many of the young girls going into the sex industry in Bangkok or the south have often come from the north. A good number are drawn into it by poverty, ignorance and lack of options.

"Poverty and social attitudes combine in northern Thailand to leave many girls at risk of being lured or forced into the commercial sex industry," notes Thailand's National Commission on Women's Affairs.

Some families "push their daughters to become involved in the sex industry, or other occupations which may lead in this direction" due to financial needs, it adds.

The involvement in the youth training schemes by the travel industry -- one of Thailand's biggest dollar earners -- is also not by chance. While tourism does not cause youngsters to go into the commercial sex trade, the tourism industry is often not far from it and its environment exposes its workers to it.

"In our preventive strategy, we see education and career development for vulnerable children as key factors," adds Kittiya Phornsadja, a child protection officer at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which helped conceive the youth programme with local hotels.

Indeed, according to Kittiya, the girls who have participated in the hotel-run initiative are aware that its mission is to offer a career option other than one in the sex industry.

"They told us why the programme was created and that is okay with me," says Sayjai, the former trainee. "In my village there are young girls who have got involved in the sex business."

Still, some say such efforts have achieved marginal success when seen against the reality of Thai children trapped in the sex trade. "There are an estimated 12,000 to 18,000 child prostitutes in Thailand," states a study released in October by the Bangkok-based non-governmental End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT).

In addition, there was a 20 percent increase in the number of child prostitutes between 1998 and 1999, adds the ECPAT study. "The demand for child prostitutes from both Thai men and foreigners, including tourists, is still high. Western European men are among the most numerous sex tourists in Bangkok and Chonburi (a province with beach resorts)."

However, two studies published in 2000, by the local Mahidol University and the Thai Red Cross Society, estimate the number of child prostitutes at 30,000 to 40,000.

Still, Edelweiss Silan of ECPAT says programmes like that of the Bangkok hotels do go some way in tackling this "huge problem". They underscore the need for hotels, who earn millions from tourists, to respond to the darker side of tourism, adds Silan.

"It is a new environment that is going beyond simply profit- making to one highlighting social responsibility," she adds. "But few, isolated hotels training Thai youth will do little to change the scale of child exploitation.

The programme has to be expanded, particularly to the smaller hotels."

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