Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing crimes in Canada, and tourism businesses can be unwitting facilitators in this exploitation. A report from U.S.-based Polaris found that 75% of human trafficking survivors in the U.S. have some contact with a hotel or a motel during their trafficking experience. Hospitality, and tourism more broadly, must take a more proactive role in the fight against human trafficking, given our position on the front lines and proximity to those most impacted.
What Is Human Trafficking?
The Canadian Criminal Code defines human trafficking as
- recruiting, transporting, transferring, receiving, holding, concealing, or harbouring a person; or
- exercising control, direction, or influence over the movements of a person
to exploit them or assist in facilitating their exploitation.
Simply put, trafficking is a crime against a person in which they are coerced, forced, or deceived into providing a service or labour for someone else’s financial benefit.
Traffickers rob victims of their freedom, their dignity, and their human potential, and reap huge profits in the process. They control their victims through a variety of means, including taking away their identity documents or passports, isolating them, threatening and intimidating them, and inflicting physical and sexual violence. Victims have to endure this abuse often for many years, or face potentially fatal consequences if they try to escape.
Tourism’s Role in Combatting Human Trafficking
Because human trafficking often involves the transportation of people between different locations, tourism businesses are often implicated, albeit passively. Traffickers are good at masking their actions, and good at staying below the radar. And there is no single profile of a trafficking victim: they can come from any walk of life and be of any gender or sexual orientation, regardless of race, colour, national origin, disability, age, education level, or socioeconomic background.
That said, tourism employees are uniquely positioned to recognize human trafficking, by nature of their roles as service providers. Front desk agents see who handles identity documents during check-in. Housekeeping room attendants have a behind-closed-doors perspective on guest behaviour. Servers in restaurants watch power dynamics play out between customers.
Many tourism and hospitality businesses are already mobilizing to equip their staff with the training they need to spot human trafficking and the policies to empower them on what to do when they suspect something is wrong.
Getting Involved
The first steps are to understand the scope and scale of the problem, and to recognize the key role that you and your business can play in stopping human trafficking. Reach out to one of the many groups that offers training on recognizing and addressing human trafficking in your region.
The following organizations have online resources and training, many of which are free:
- Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
- Hotal Association of Canada (HAC)
- Alberta Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), in collaboration with provincial hotel associations
- Ottawa Tourism
- Meeting Professionals International (MPI)
Now is the time to take action and prepare your staff to recognize acts of human trafficking. Moving forward, consider providing training on an annual basis to ensure skills are current and your business is doing everything it can. Not only is it good business practice, but you will be contributing to your local community and making it safer for all.
Together, tourism can make a difference.