Irish missionary priest Fr Shay Cullen has threatened to ‘‘name and shame’’ well-known hotel chains whose premises are allegedly involved in underage sex tourism across Asia, writes John Burke. 
The Nobel Prize nominee runs Preda, the Philippines-based child protection agency.
He said that Preda would publish the names of prominent hotels and tourist businesses on internet website YouTube to highlight the practice of top hotels in
Asia offering ‘‘young girls’’ to foreign businessmen and tourists.
Preda became aware of the practice after receiving complaints by foreign guests who were staying at a five-star hotel in the Filipino capital, Manila, Cullen said.
‘‘The Preda foundation offered to give free child protection seminars to the hotel
management and staff, but they were refused.
‘‘Next time, the offers of sex in the hotel will be videotaped and posted on YouTube. Naming and shaming is perhaps the only way to protect the children," Cullen said.
The priest’s comments came after he delivered a speech at the annual conference of the International Tourist Agencies in Berlin, where Preda gave its support to the implementation of a new code of conduct among travel agencies to fight child sex tourism.
Cullen said one of the benefits of such a code would be the
‘‘blacklisting of the offending resort or hotel’’ where such practices were uncovered.
While the numbers of Irish tourists travelling to the Philippines is relatively small, there is a large number of Irish visitors annually to other Asian destinations such as Thailand, where sex tourism is rife.
Some 80,000 Irish visitors travel to Thailand every year, based on the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s estimate that the country has a 0.9 per cent share of the 7.7 million overseas trips taken by Irish holidaymakers annually.
The global child-protection agency Ecpat International estimates that there are tens of thousands of underage child
prostitutes working in Thailand, as well as several multiples of this figure in neighbouring countries that are also popular with Irish backpackers.
Tourist associations and travel agencies which agree to sign up to the code of conduct will agree to send their customers to countries that have ‘‘clean’’ tourism and child protection as a priority.
A full list of all industry and non-industry members which have signed up to the code has been published online at www.thecode.org.
The Nobel Prize nominee runs Preda, the Philippines-based child protection agency.
He said that Preda would publish the names of prominent hotels and tourist businesses on internet website YouTube to highlight the practice of top hotels in
Asia offering ‘‘young girls’’ to foreign businessmen and tourists.Preda became aware of the practice after receiving complaints by foreign guests who were staying at a five-star hotel in the Filipino capital, Manila, Cullen said.
‘‘The Preda foundation offered to give free child protection seminars to the hotel
management and staff, but they were refused.‘‘Next time, the offers of sex in the hotel will be videotaped and posted on YouTube. Naming and shaming is perhaps the only way to protect the children," Cullen said.
The priest’s comments came after he delivered a speech at the annual conference of the International Tourist Agencies in Berlin, where Preda gave its support to the implementation of a new code of conduct among travel agencies to fight child sex tourism.
Cullen said one of the benefits of such a code would be the
‘‘blacklisting of the offending resort or hotel’’ where such practices were uncovered.While the numbers of Irish tourists travelling to the Philippines is relatively small, there is a large number of Irish visitors annually to other Asian destinations such as Thailand, where sex tourism is rife.
Some 80,000 Irish visitors travel to Thailand every year, based on the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s estimate that the country has a 0.9 per cent share of the 7.7 million overseas trips taken by Irish holidaymakers annually.
The global child-protection agency Ecpat International estimates that there are tens of thousands of underage child
prostitutes working in Thailand, as well as several multiples of this figure in neighbouring countries that are also popular with Irish backpackers.Tourist associations and travel agencies which agree to sign up to the code of conduct will agree to send their customers to countries that have ‘‘clean’’ tourism and child protection as a priority.
A full list of all industry and non-industry members which have signed up to the code has been published online at www.thecode.org.
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