In the last ten years the Northeast of Brazil emerged as a popular (international) tourism destination. In 1997 over 850.000 tourists visited the state Rio Grande do Norte, in 2007 this amount grew to over 2.000.000 tourists. More than ten percent are international tourists (SETUR, research on tourism in Rio Grande do Norte). The Northeast is considered to be one of the least developed regions of Brazil and the growth of (international) tourism is highly stimulated by the local government. This resulted in massive investments of foreigners in building resorts for mass tourism, but did not generate as much job opportunities as expected.

Northeast Brazil emerged as a popular destination in the same period that destinations such as Thailand or the Philippines lost there attraction to particularly single men from Europe. This resulted in a shift of sex tourism with minors towards Brazil. Fortaleza was first hit by this form of tourism around ten years ago and in a short period of time the destination was internationally known as a place to find young and willing girls for low prices.

This project focusses on awareness raising and to make the tourism sector corporate social responsible, in order to make it safe for children.

1. To influence local and European stakeholders in their sustainability performance and social responsibility, with special focus on their responsibility to eradicate sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.

2. To improve youth employment in the local formal labour market, particularly the tourism industry;

3. Strengthen the resilience of children, adolescents and their parent to address sexual exploitation in tourism through prevention actions in the municipality of Timbau do Sul (Rio Grande do Norte) and seven municipalities in the southern coastal area of Pernambuco.

The duration of this project is three years in which ECPAT works together with Plan the Netherlands, TUI the Netherlands, ANVR (Dutch Tourism Association), Plan Brazil, Brazil Childhood Foundation, the Ministry of Tourism and Resposta in Brazil.