WASHINGTON—American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) President and CEO Chip Rogers and ECPAT-USA CEO Lori Cohen announced at an American Hotel & Lodging Foundation (AHLA Foundation) World Day Against Trafficking in Persons event that over 500,000 hotel workers have been trained through the hotel industry’s free human trafficking awareness training since it was released in early 2020.
That number is in addition to nearly 100,000 Marriott workers who have completed the training, titled “Your Role In Preventing Human Trafficking: Recognize the Signs” in 2020. The training was produced by Marriott International in collaboration with ECPAT-USA and Polaris and was made available to the industry for free with the support of the AHLA Foundation, an ECPAT-USA corporate partner in protection.
“Training plays a critical role in human trafficking prevention and the fact that we educated nearly 600,000 employees during such a difficult year is a testament to our industry’s commitment to this important cause,” said Chip Rogers, president and CEO of AHLA. “The hotel industry is united in ending the scourge of human trafficking, and our No Room for Trafficking education and awareness efforts will continue until we reach that goal.”
The event highlighted the hotel and lodging industry’s long-standing legacy and commitment to combatting human trafficking and featured an announcement by Marriott International Global Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer Tricia Primrose Marriott that the company would make its new enhanced human trafficking awareness training available industry-wide in early 2022 to help further educate the entire hospitality industry. The event also featured a short human trafficking prevention training session showcasing Marriott’s enhanced training.
“ECPAT-USA is honored to be part of this astounding achievement,” said Lori L. Cohen, CEO of ECPAT-USA. “We thank AHLA, Marriott International, and all our partners in the hotel industry who have made ending human trafficking a priority at their organizations. To have been able to make such an impact in just over a year is an incredible example of the industry’s commitment to child protection.”
Launched three years ago, AHLA and AHLA Foundation’s “No Room for Trafficking Program” is designed to help unite the industry around one comprehensive approach to prevent human trafficking with the goal of training every employee in the industry. The AHLA Foundation will continue to offer additional resources to members to raise public awareness and facilitate collaboration on best practices for policies, procedures, and training to enhance our human trafficking prevention efforts.
