Travelucation

Early child development plays a pivotal role in shaping young brains and fostering lifelong learning abilities. At the same time unsustainable travel today poses significant challenges to our planet and communities. Travel is responsible for a staggering 11% of carbon emissions, contributing to climate change and environmental degradation. Moreover, the tourism industry often exploits workers, with many employees paid below a living wage and their rights not adequately respected including many child workers. Furtherrmore, traveling is essential for children in order to widen their horizon, connect with nature and get to know different cultures. Educating traveling children about sustainable practices as well as children working in the hospitality industry about their rights is crucial for society and child well-being.

Within the project Travelucation the participants experience a simulated accommodation. They interact with different actors representing holiday guests, cooks, cleaning personnel, natives, and many more characters who they meet in the fantasy hotel world. During the process, they note down their decisions in their booklets. Those include for instance calculating their travel CO2 footprint, creating their own non-food waste monster, interacting with the hotel staff and asking about their rights and social sustainable aspects. Above that, they get sensibilised to identify child labor in the industry, make sustainable friendly travel decisions in their whole life and convincing their family and friends to respect sustainable aspects while planning and booking trips as well. Above that, the gamified material will also be used for young people in the travel industry. This on the one hand helps them to build their knowledge on sustainable practices which will be important for shaping their future career and additionally, they will learn their own rights and be encouraged to stand up fora humane treatment.

The project directly targets people involved in the industry as well as identifies general child travelers as changemakers. Raising awareness and giving directly actionable aspects as well as setting inspirations for young to care about the environmental and social aspects when traveling will make it easier for acting in a way that shapes their positive future. For implementing the project it will be important to cooperate with several schools as well as accommodations and tourist regions. Free workshops will be offered to the participants at the cooperating schools. The simulation material, the booklets to keep track of the different stations and the playing cards will all be designed professionally and include the three mascots Ray, Holly and Chargy guiding the young children through the gamified education elements. In cooperation with the hotels and tourist regions, in particular those in Least Developed Countries and Small Island States, youth at risk will be identified who will be educated about sustainable aspects in the hospitality industry. Learning how to behave sustainable friendly in their potential later workplace as well as learning self care and principles of social sustainability, they become active Changemakers and advocates for children rights and longter leaders in the long term.