How Abbe Horswill works to evict human trafficking from the hotel industry

Tell us about your career, and how it led to your current role.

From an early age, my parents taught me that it is important to give back and help others. When I was in high school, I first learned about the issue of human trafficking, and the more I learned, the more I felt compelled to pursue a career supporting survivors.

Prior to my role at Marriott, I spent more than a decade in the anti-trafficking field, working at leading organisations, including Polaris, which operates the US National Human Trafficking Hotline, and the national and international centres for missing and exploited children. I am thrilled to be able to share this field-driven perspective and subject-matter expertise with Marriott to help make a meaningful impact.

How big an issue is human trafficking in the hotel industry? Or even in the wider travel industry?

Human trafficking is a pressing issue for the hospitality industry as hotels can be unwilling venues. Comprehensive and accurate data is difficult to find, given the hidden nature of trafficking. However, Marriott believes it is important to be proactive and prepared, so we require human trafficking awareness training for all on-property associates in both managed and franchised properties. To date, more than 1.5 million associates have completed that training, creating a global workforce that stands ready to address the issue. We have also made this training available, at no cost, to the entire hospitality industry, through Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT; formerly ECPAT-USA) and the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. To date, the training has been completed more than 2.3 million times outside of Marriott, via PACT.

And how do you define human trafficking? Are you guarding against different forms?

Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of a person for labour, services or commercial sex. Marriott references the US federal definition from the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the UN definition from the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. Marriott’s human trafficking awareness training describes two main forms of human trafficking, labour trafficking and sex trafficking, and also includes information on child sexual exploitation.

Is human trafficking becoming less or more common?

While data is somewhat limited, conversations about the issue of human trafficking are certainly becoming more common. Marriott is proud to have been one of the first companies to publicly discuss our efforts to combat human trafficking. Now, we see hoteliers are regularly administering human trafficking awareness training and increasingly working together to expand training tools and resources.

What does your day-to-day job entail, in terms of leading Marriott’s efforts in this area?

My role is to serve as Marriott’s subject-matter expert on human rights, and oversee our human trafficking awareness and survivor support initiatives. This includes a wide variety of work, from participating in working groups with industry peers to discuss collaborative approaches, to supporting our internal Human Rights Council of key leaders across disciplines and regions who oversee our human rights strategy, to developing and implementing programs, like our efforts to block child sexual abuse materials from guest internet networks in our hotels.

You’re at the frontline of a difficult issue – where does your personal passion come from?

As cliched as it may sound, the most rewarding part of my job is being able to make a difference in people’s lives and being able to make the world a better place, just as I learned from an early age. Marriott’s global reach, with its portfolio of over 9,600 properties across 143 countries and territories, gives us real opportunities to drive and inspire meaningful change on a larger scale. For example, through HotelHelp, a program that allows hotels to donate unused room nights to survivors of trafficking, we not only support individuals in need but also set a model that can be adopted by other hotel companies and make emergency housing more accessible for organisations supporting survivors.

What’s the emotional toll, or emotional lift, of what you do?

I focus on collecting success stories and reminding myself of the direct impact of Marriott’s work on the lives of survivors. For example, our nonprofit network shares updates about their clients who have secured interviews and jobs after completing the Marriott-developed Future in Training (FiT) curriculum for survivors of human trafficking interested in pursuing careers in the hospitality industry. Hearing about their professional success and the achievements they have made, as a result of having a stable income, makes the emotional toll well worth it.

I’m writing this for an Australian audience. Is Australia considered a location of concern in terms of human trafficking?

Human trafficking does not just happen “over there.” It happens in cities, suburbs and rural areas all over the world, including Australia. Marriott encourages associates to be prepared to recognise and respond to potential indicators of human trafficking regardless of where in the world they are located.

Marriott’s properties in Australia administer human trafficking awareness training to all associates, as required by the global brand standard. Many hotels have taken that commitment to the next level by volunteering and engaging in local anti-trafficking efforts, such as hosting awareness-raising events and fundraisers, providing cash donations and in-kind support to local human trafficking awareness organisations, and inviting guest speakers to help associates learn more about this important issue.

What do you do away from the office? How do you release stress or have fun?

In a career that is often filled with heavy topics, I think it is so important to have ways to escape to a lighter and more uplifting world. I volunteer with a local animal rescue and spend time with my two rescue dogs, Margo and Moxie (yes, that is a nod to Marriott’s brand, Moxy Hotels). As a creative person who builds social impact programs in my day job, I also enjoy building functional pottery, using lots of bright colors and whimsical decorations.