Childsafe tourism in South-East Asia : a case study of Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

Abstract

The tourism industry is a significant revenue contributor to economies of Least Developed Countries such as Cambodia. However, its development brings about inevitable negative externalities, most significantly the exploitation of children, who remain the most vulnerable group of indigenous stakeholders. This paper serves to highlight this issue by providing a case analysis of child exploitation in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. A field study was undertaken and the current effective community participation level was determined to be instrumental with reference to an existing prominent child safe tourism project- the ChildSafe Network. Challenges limiting the effectiveness of child tourism projects in general were identified; significant ones being the lack of education and awareness about responsible tourism for the local and tourist community respectively. The key recommendation for the improvement of effective community participation of child safe tourism projects is a three-pronged educational approach involving the tourists, parents and children, so as to align with the Cambodian government’s aim of promoting child-safe tourism to protect the children of the Kingdom of Cambodia.