Myanmar Polestar Travels & Tours first to join The Code to protect children from sexual exploitation in Myanmar

PRESS RELEASE

Yangon, Myanmar: 9 May 2013 – We are proud to announce that Myanmar Polestar is the first travel and tour company in Myanmar to join The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism [The Code].

Myanmar Polestar was born as a family business in 2001 with the aim to provide excellence in the tourism sector in Myanmar. In September 2012, the Minister of Hotels and Tourism granted the award of Best Performance to Myanmar Polestar for the hard work and excellence in service provision during the whole year. Throughout these years, the local tour operator has specialized in the Japanese market and today is considered one of the leading inbound tour operators for this market, however the management is currently exploring new avenues, such as the Russian-speaking and Scandinavian markets.

“Myanmar Polestar is aware of both the negative and positive impacts that rapid tourism growth may entail in emerging nations, as in the case of Myanmar. To this end, our company is determined to protect the interest of those who happen to be mostly ‘unheard’ when dealing with tourism development, for this reason we are extremely excited to join forces in order to protect children from the negative impacts of tourism, being sex tourism one of them. In an attempt to preserve our children from sexual exploitation, Myanmar Polestar is willing to do the extra mile and thus we are ready to cooperate with The Code to raise awareness in our country and to contribute to a healthy and long-lasting tourism development.”

“The Code applause the foresight of Myanmar Polestar to take the initiative to learn about the issue of child sex tourism, how their staff can assess and respond to possible cases and what to inform travellers about the issue. Since tourism is rapidly expanding in Myanmar, this partnership is timely and a most welcome collaboration.” Andreas Astrup, General Manager of The Code.

By joining The Code, Myanmar Polestar has committed to focus on implementing The Code’s six criteria and work against the issue of child sex tourism. The six criteria which members of the tourism industry must adhere to once they join The Code are:

To establish a policy and procedures against sexual exploitation of children;
To train employees in children’s rights, the prevention of sexual exploitation and how to report suspected cases;
To include a clause in contracts throughout the value chain stating a common repudiation and zero tolerance policy of sexual exploitation of children;
To provide information to travellers on children’s rights, the prevention of sexual exploitation of children and how to report suspected cases;
To support, collaborate and engage stakeholders in the prevention of sexual exploitation of children;
To report annually on their implementation of Code related activities.

As Myanmar Polestar takes the lead in a child protection focus responsible tourism, we welcome and hope to reach out to other tourism business in Myanmar in the near future.