Northstar

www.travelweekly-asia.com | 3 INDUSTRY VOICES Liz Manning is the responsible business manager at The Intrepid Group, and has been with the company since 2014. 12 6 8 Why does the industry need to end orphanage tourism? There are over eight million children living in orphanages and residential care facilities around the world. Four out of five of them have a living parent or family member. In Cambodia, the number of orphanages has grown by 75% over the past decade. Yet technically, the number of orphans has decreased. How is this possible? Most children living in orphanages, or residential care facilities as they are also known, are not orphans at all. Often, they're simply children from poor backgrounds. Families in remote communities are coerced into believing that sending their child away will give them a better education and a better life. In rural Nepal and Uganda, kids are taken by 'recruiters' to 'boarding schools' in the city, only to be sold into institutions as 'orphans', their papers falsified. Children have become a commodity. What's the role of the tourism industry? 'Orphanage tourism' and 'voluntourism' have become lucrative industries. The thing is, most travellers and volunteers often have no idea this is happening. Of course, not all orphanages are corrupt. But even institutionalisation itself is harmful. Kids brought up in residential care often suffer learning and developmental difficulties, as well as attachment problems. They are 500 times more likely to take their own lives and 50 times more likely to end up involved in crime, drug use or prostitution. These effects are life-long and intergenerational. What is Intrepid doing to help? Intrepid Group has a strong stance on child protection and removed visits to orphanages and schools from all itineraries in 2016. They have been working with child protection experts to educate travellers about the reality and implications of visiting and supporting overseas orphanages and are advocating for the introduction of a Modern Slavery Act in Australia. As a socially conscious business, we are working to raise awareness of this issue. We are a committee member of Rethink Orphanages, a cross-sector network aiming to prevent the unnecessary institutionalisation of children. Through the Intrepid Foundation, we are partnering with organisations that are working to keep families together, by providing skills training and employment opportunities for parents and caregivers, like Friends International. We have also partnered with Forget Me Not in Nepal, which rescues children from exploitative orphanages and works to trace and reintegrate children back into their families and communities. What can we all do to rethink orphanage tourism? Ask yourself: would it be OK if these children were my own? We wouldn't allow people to walk into our own homes and play with our children, so why do we think its OK to do so when we're travelling? Businesses that currently include visits to orphanages should seek technical support and advice on how to ethically transition and wrap up engagement. As an industry, we should be directing our support to initiatives that are fighting poverty, improving local education and employment opportunities and working to keep families together. CONTENTS 7 CRUISE Tips on selling cruising to consumers at CruiseWorld Asia 2018 10 PRODUCT Of hot-air balloons, helmet diving and 'glamping' 14 ITB ASIA 2018 All the excitement at this year's ITB Asia — in pictures 16 BEST OF GLOBAL WRAP The best of the news across Asia Pacific 17 HOSPITALITY Hilton's CSR push Above: The Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore will see more cruise passengers. Left: Abu Dhabi's tourism boom. Below: Guests at CruiseWorld Asia 2018. An end to orphanage tourism

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