It was in the wake of the International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations and the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in 2022 that the idea of International Centres for Responsible Tourism emerged. Originally country or destination-based, they grew into larger networks sharing experience, skills and knowledge about how to take responsibility and deliver.
The ICRT.global was launched in London on 4 November, and the Global Responsible Tourism Awards were presented in the afternoon. I wrote for Travel Tomorrow about this year’s winners across the awards in Africa, India, Latin America, South East Asia and the Rest of the World. The Responsible Tourism Awards were set up to identify proven best practices and to encourage their replication.
The regional ICRT networks share ideas and best practices amongst themselves. However, I have long wanted to find a means of sharing across the regions of the Global South. Back in 2008, I was invited to help Dr Venu, then Secretary of Tourism in Kerala, and his colleagues run the 2nd International Conference in Destinations in the state of southern India.
The declaration reports all the ideas and practices shared during the conference and concluded with a call to action: “We call upon those involved in the movement for Responsible Tourism to share their experience of what works and what doesn’t, to redouble their efforts to use tourism to make better places for people to live in and for people, and to engage with people, in industry, in communities and across government to achieve Responsible Tourism in destinations.”
Sixteen years later, that ambition is finally being realised with the launch of the ICRT.global this month. The 2008 Responsible Tourism conference was a turning point for the movement. Dr Venu organised Responsible Tourism experiments in four villages. Rupesh Kumar was the most successful in introducing Responsible Tourism in Kumarakom. Stimulated by Township Tours in South Africa, Rupesh developed Village Life Experiences and created producer groups of small-scale farmers to supply hotels and restaurants. Adama Bah had developed producer groups of this kind in The Gambia. Again Rupesh was stimulated to adopt and adapt the idea and make it work in Kerala. Adama has since been invited several times to India to share experience, knowledge and skills.
The Kerala experience demonstrated the value of sharing across continents. Responsible Tourism has now been rolled out across the state, and the ideas and practices are being adopted in Madhya Pradesh and other states. Although Adama and others from Responsible Tourism in Africa have been invited to share their knowledge and experience in India, we have not been able to fund Rupesh and others from India to visit Africa, although exchanges have taken place between India and Southeast Asia.
The ICRT.global will strengthen exchanges of proven best practices between the regional networks, acting as a global hub for knowledge exchange.
Early in 2025, we are launching professional development courses for change-makers, taught as lifelong learning at the Master’s level. We want to help people in the industry, government and communities to realise the ambition of Responsible Tourism.
