Carlson Wagonlit Travel CEO: Vigilance needed to tackle human trafficking

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

As summer unofficially begins, so will travel across the world. Also on the rise will be human trafficking, a global problem that is being addressed by a recent study of the World Childhood Foundation, the United Nations, and Kurt Ekert, President & CEO of Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT).

Human trafficking is a global problem of huge dimensions and unfortunately, it presents many opportunities for child abuse. This includes the large tides of migrants, to the luring of children through the Internet to move to other places for โ€œemployment opportunitiesโ€ that never materialize but result in many forms of enslavement and prostitution.

Today, technology presents new ways to capture the attention of young people, create false hopes, and entrapment. Child pornography on social media platforms is yet another form for child sexual abuse.

The travel industry has an enormous responsibility to monitor and clean their sites to prevent these abuses and protect children worldwide. To achieve the UN goal of ending child abuse by 2030 requires active involvement by companies in these sectors to eliminate this plague from their sites.

If you are interested in learning more about what the travel industry can do to eliminate human trafficking, contact Peter Collins at (908) 499-1200 for an opportunity to speak with Kurt Ekert.

Kurt Ekert has more than twenty yearsโ€™ experience in global travel, tourism and technology, with leadership and governance positions at Cendant, Continental Airlines, eNett, GTA, Orbitz Worldwide, and Travelport. Kurt also serves as Vice Chairman of the U.S. Department of Commerce Travel & Tourism Advisory Board, is a director of Carlson Inc., Passur Aerospace, the World Travel & Tourism Council, and the UNGA Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, and is an advisor to Freebird Inc.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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