The Future Of Fighting Trafficking In The Travel Industry - A Q&A With Michael Dominguez

In honor of World Tourism Day, ECPAT-USA reached out to Michael Dominguez, the president and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International, to talk about how the travel and tourism industry is fighting sex trafficking and his commitment to protecting children from exploitation across the country.

(Responses have been edited for clarity and space.)

When did you first become aware of the issue of sex trafficking, and what compelled you to get involved?

It was about 5 years ago when I watched a news report about the trafficking issue. It is interesting that when you become aware…well…you become aware. Started to see stories everywhere and the final driver was my youngest daughter who has been doing social work since she was 22. We started having many discussions about the issue and I realized the massive platform our industry has to assist with this critical issue.

What are some of the intersections you see between child trafficking and tourism? Why do you believe this issue is an important one for both ALHI and the travel industry to take a leadership role?

The travel industry is so broad-based and far-reaching. We literally are in every destination in every country which amounts to a lot of “eyes” to help identify the problem. We tend to have the ability to bring great focus to issues and promote change when we are driven towards a common goal. How quickly did we get rid of plastic straws when it was a singular focus? I just see a tremendous opportunity.

You’ve been in various sectors of the travel and tourism industry for over 20 years. How have you seen the industry change when it comes to raising awareness of and preventing sex trafficking?

It has been over the past decade that I have seen a dedicated focus to educate, train, and discuss the challenges around combating trafficking. To know that keynotes are being delivered at so many meetings to bring awareness to the problems just shows tremendous progress for our industry.

While you were serving as Chief Sales Officer of MGM Resorts International, the company became a member of The Code. How involved were you with that decision? Why was signing The Code an important step for the company?

The push originally started from sales as the focus from the industry brought the issue front and center for us. MGM has always led so visibly with so many issues in our industry from diversity to fighting hunger. This just became another important fight and as expected, they led.

Preventing human trafficking is something that you’ve stated you hope to work with the entire industry to address. How have you brought this passion and leadership on this issue to ALHI and what plans do you have to continue this work in the future?

This will be a main focus of our human impact efforts in 2021 as well as combatting child hunger. We would like to see how we bring this focus to the forefront of the industry and industry organizations to continue to drive awareness to save victims.

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