Page 118 - How We Lead Matters

The Temples

As we drove through the streets of Seim Reap, Cambodia, I reached into the
back pocket of the seat in front of me to track our route to the great temples
of Angkor Wat. Advertisements for restaurants and hotels ringed the border
of the tourist map, along with a black-and-white notice: “Sexual activity
with children in Cambodia is a crime.”
I was sickened and encouraged at the same time. Sex tourism involving
children is a growing scourge around the world, particularly in Asia, India,
and Latin America, where laws, if they exist, are not well enforced and
poverty invites this type of exploitation. As I looked out the car window, sud-
denly every child I saw was a target and vulnerable. And there were so many
children.
In 2004, I was approached by the U.S. State Department to sign on to
an international code of conduct for the travel industry on behalf of our
hotels and travel agencies. By signing the code, I pledged that we would edu-
cate our employees about this issue and advise our customers and partners
that Carlson would take any necessary action to prevent this illicit activity.
We would be the first North American–based global travel company to
become a signatory.
I was counseled by several colleagues and PR experts that this was too
unsavory an issue with which to be associated and that it might implicate us
in a negative way in the consumer’s mind. I listened, and then I traveled to
the United Nations, and I signed the code.
If you haven’t been to Angkor Wat, you must go. The temples are breath-
taking. You’ll never forget them. And now, you won’t forget the children either.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 101