Seattle, WA – Summer 2026 will bring exciting international soccer-related events, with an influx of fans expected in Seattle and across the Puget Sound region. Unfortunately, wherever there is an increase in crowds, there is a higher risk of human trafficking. Criminals take advantage of crowded areas that can hide their schemes. When multitudes gather, traffickers are more confident in their ability to elude security. For public-facing businesses, this means that it is essential more than ever to prepare for preventing human trafficking.
Today the Seattle Hotel Association (SHA) is launching an “Anti-Human Trafficking Game Plan” campaign in partnership with Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST). The purpose of this campaign is to motivate business leaders across the Puget Sound region to start preparing now to prevent human trafficking before, during, and long after the soccer matches that will take place in Seattle this summer. Preparation is essential, because publicly-accessible businesses in Seattle and around the region could be targeted by human traffickers looking for premises where they can conduct their exploitative crime.
“The Seattle Hotel Association created this campaign to prompt the leaders of all kinds of public-facing, tourism-impacted businesses to be proactive in countering human trafficking,” according to Whitney Brown, Seattle Hotel Association board member.
“Member hotels in the SHA are already training our staff to counter human trafficking. Every other business with premises open to the public needs to train their staff too, to help safeguard our communities,” says Mike Andring, Seattle Hotel Association board member.
“Hotels are very aware of the detrimental impacts of human trafficking on their industry, and most hotels equip their staff to recognize and respond to indicators of human trafficking,” says Kirsten Foot, CEO & Executive Director of BEST. “But human traffickers also abuse many other types of legitimate businesses. For example, restaurants are coopted as meeting places for traffickers, their victims, and clients. Retail stores suffer losses from organized theft in which victims of human trafficking are forced to shoplift. And human traffickers force their victims to commit financial fraud through banks and credit unions. There are actions that leaders of every type of public-facing business can take to prevent human trafficking, and now is the time to begin.”
The “Anti-Human Trafficking Game Plan” campaign will run for the rest of January and into February. This custom-designed sign will be displayed on transit vehicles and in the hotels of SHA members.