ASF Tourism Governance & Policy · TOUR-POL-10

Safeguarding Children & Vulnerable Guests

Part of the ASF Tourism Governance & Policies set. Adapted from ASF-POL-27 (institutional Safeguarding Children and Adults at Risk), for the specific moment a Surveyor or Monitor is present at a facility where guests — including children — are staying.

Everyone who stays at or visits a facility — including children, and including any guest in a vulnerable situation — has the right to be safe. Everyone acting for ASF Tourism has a duty to recognise and report harm, and to conduct itself during a facility visit so that it never becomes a safeguarding risk in its own right.

1. During a facility visit

A Surveyor or Monitor is never alone with a child guest out of sight of others, including while assessing the Children’s Play Area / Kids’ Club module.
A photo or video of any guest — adult or child — is never taken for ASF Tourism’s own records or public use without that guest’s clear consent, or a parent’s consent for a child, with the guest’s own face never used in published material without it.
No guest’s name, room number, or other identifying detail is recorded, published, or shared beyond what the assessment itself requires.
A Surveyor or Monitor does not contact a guest privately or exchange personal contact details with one met during a visit.

2. What this policy checks for, directly

The Standard itself builds safeguarding into what a facility is assessed on — a real supervision and sign-in/out policy for any Children’s Play Area or Kids’ Club, age restrictions for unsupervised use of a fitness room, and a genuine barrier or supervision policy for pool access by unaccompanied minors. A Surveyor or Monitor verifies these the same way as any other criterion: by checking the real practice, not taking a facility’s word for it.

3. Screening for the role

Anyone certified as a Surveyor or Monitor is screened before certification, in addition to the conflict-of-interest declaration required under TOUR-POL-01.

4. Responding to a concern

If a Surveyor or Monitor sees or is told something concerning during a visit, the response is: make the situation safe first — call local emergency services if anyone is in immediate danger — then record what was seen or said, in plain factual terms, with date and time, and report it to ASF Tourism within 24 hours. This is handled as a serious incident under TOUR-POL-04, separately from and alongside whatever that day’s accreditation criteria otherwise showed.