During this year’s Global Business Travel Association Convention in Orlando, Fla., the GBTA Foundation earned enthusiastic crowd support when it announced a new partnership with ECPAT, the leading anti-trafficking policy organization fighting sex tourism, focused on eliminating child exploitation.

“The GBTA Foundation and ECPAT stand shoulder-to-shoulder against the trafficking and exploitation of children,” said Daphne Bryant, executive director, GBTA Foundation. “In making this commitment, the GBTA Foundation will work with ECPAT to educate the travel industry about the warning signs of sex tourism and child exploitation. Working together, our industry can make a significant impact in ending child exploitation.”

Approximately 100,000 children have been sexually abused and exploited in the United States in the past year, with millions more exploited around the world, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Commercial airlines and buses are sometimes used in trafficking and exploiting to transport children, while hotel rooms can be the sites of abuse.

In its efforts to mobilize the travel industry against child exploitation in travel, GBTA encourages the business travel industry to adopt and implement ECPAT’s Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism the only voluntary, industry-driven set of guidelines focusing on the elimination of children exploitation and trafficking.

“I welcome GBTA’s commitment to fully support ECPAT’s mission to help children all over the world,” said Michelle Guelbart, director of private sector engagement, ECPAT. “With the business travel industry’s support, we can make a difference.”