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The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism – The Code

The Code is a consortium of governmental and non-governmental organisations, associations and initiatives. They jointly pursue the goal of preventing sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry.

Its members undertake to comply with a voluntary catalogue of criteria to protect children. Across the globe, local organisations support The Code in raising the awareness of and making tools available to the local travel and tourism industry, and assisting them to prevent sexual exploitation of children.

For many years, DERTOUR Group has taken a firm stance against all forms of sexual violence against children in tourism. In 2016, we also signed the code of conduct, “The Code”, to protect children against sexual exploitation in tourism. In doing so, we have committed ourselves to implementing the criteria of The Code.

Working Together to End the Sexual Exploitation of Children – ecpat

ECPAT’s global campaign to end child sexual exploitation was launched in May 1990 when a small group of concerned individuals gathered in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Organisations from across the globe heard this call to action and joined hands to provide support to combat this heinous problem. Since then, ECPAT has worked to better understand the web of child sexual exploitation through research and pushed for the critical systemic and social changes necessary to eliminate this scourge together with governments, intergovernmental institutions, the private sector, civil society and the general public, including children themselves.

For many years, DERTOUR Group has been working with ECPAT on the issue of child protection. The association advises and supports us in the development and implementation of our measures. Among others, an ECPAT trainer trains our employees and partners on child protection and the implementation of the code of conduct to protect children against sexual exploitation, or (The Code) for short.

Travelife for Tour Operators and Travel Agents

The Travelife Sustainability System has been committed to promoting sustainable practices in the travel and tourism industry since 2007. As a training, management, and certification initiative, Travelife helps tour operators and travel agencies monitor and improve their business operations’ social and ecological impact. The initiative, therefore, aims to play a role in the sustainable development and protection of the environment and culture in holiday destinations.

On the path towards consistently sustainable business practices, Travelife provides the industry with a wide range of services. This includes training or a sustainability management system that can be used to manage the entire sustainability activities, ranging from the current status to the action plan and its implementation to monitoring and reporting. What is more, Travelife enables corporate certification based on international sustainability standards.

The Destination Management Companies of DER Touristik DMC GmbH are Travelife members. That provides us access to Travelife’s expertise and resources. is a Travelife member. That gives us access to Travelife’s expertise and resources and we benefit both in terms of certifying our own hotels and those of our service providers.

Travelife Stay Better (Travelife Accommodation Sustainability)

Travelife Stay Better is an internationally recognised sustainability programme that is specifically tailored towards accommodation. Some 1,500 members in over 50 countries use the Travelife tools and resources to improve the ecological and social impact of their business operations.

To that end, verifiable criteria were developed for evaluating the performance of accommodation in the areas of human rights, working conditions, social engagement and environmental impact. A global team of independent assessors visits each accommodation to audit them based on the Travelife standard, which is also recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

Accommodation that meets this standard receives a Travelife Gold certification in the form of a logo and a certificate for responsible tourism. Sustainably certified hotels are labelled with a Green Leaf in the DER Touristik catalogues. Among the hotels labelled with the Green Leaf, there are also those that are certified with the Travelife Accommodation Sustainability Standard. Currently, hotels of the DER Touristik Hotels & Resorts are also applying for certification with the Travelife standard.