Tourism practitioners discuss sex tourism

Accra, Sept. 25, GNA - Participants at an International Tourism conference on Friday condemned tourists who exploit children sexually, pointing out that the act had legal implications.

Mr Abdul Razak Yakubu, Programmes Coordinator of Enslavement Prevention Alliance, West Africa (EPAWA) a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that advocates against sex tourism, stressed that in every country sexual exploitation of children by adults was against the law. He urged tourism practitioners to adopt a code of conduct on sex tourism and make efforts to educate tourists who patronised their service about the dangers of sex tourism.

"Tourism services can facilitate child sex tourism and such acts undermines sustainable tourism development," he said Mr Yakubu suggested that hotel and restaurant operators should provide brochures and warning signals at their various places of operations to inform potential sex tourists of the dangers associated such acts.

He said child sex tourism could lead to the lost of cultural identity or dependency of tourists' money, adding that those traits also promoted lost of self esteem among the affected people. Mr Modou Tala Jobe, Marketing and Communications Officer of Gambian Tourism Authority, who shared experiences of the situation of the Gambia, said there existed a tourism code of conduct in the country and those who violated it were punished.

He said the tourism code of conduct involved all hospitality facilities displaying warning messages on their premises to deter would-be sex tourists from indulging in the act. Mr Jobe urged stakeholders in the Ghanaian sector to adopt such measures to limit the rate of child sex tourism in the country. Mr Jacob Oti-Awere, Head of Wildlife Division of Game and Wildlife, urged participants to address the issue of child sex tourism at the community level to enable the people understand and fight against such practices.