The World Responsible Tourism Awards were launched in 2004 by Justin Francies of Responsible Travel. I have had the honour of chairing the panels of judges for the awards for the last twenty years. Responsible Travel ran the awards from 2004 until 2016 when I took responsibility for them.
As Justin writes on their legacy page: “Responsible tourism is not all about the bad and the ugly. There is so much good out there that has to be celebrated. And that is why we founded the World Responsible Tourism Awards in 2004. Open to anyone in the world, winners have inspired many others who are working tirelessly to create a more responsible form of tourism […] nothing beats the smile when award winners’ names are announced. And rightly so.”
The Responsible Tourism Awards have always been free to enter, we have awarded major airlines and tiny homestay and cultural interaction initiatives. Our Awards programme will always be free to enter, the programme is not run as a business to make profit. Our purpose is to showcase examples of good and innovative practices and to encourage replication, The Responsible Tourism Awards have encouraged the growth of the Responsible Tourism Movement bey recognising those who are making tourism better and encouraging others to take responsibility too.
Every year we find, through the awards examples of good practice, of businesses and destinations making tourism better. We explain through the citations why the judges have chosen to recognise the Gold and Silver winners and Ones to Watch – the latter are great initiatives, often new ideas, and we hope to see them in the awards again which the idea is proven in practice.
Our judging criteria are clear. We are looking for examples that will inspire and challenge others to take more responsibility for managing tourism to make it more sustainable, minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive. The WTM Awards continue to use the same criteria that were used for the World Responsible Tourism Awards in 2016. We expect leaders in Responsible Tourism to have established practices with the following characteristics:
- Evidence-based: The panel is looking for evidence of real change, businesses which can convincingly demonstrate positive impacts, or reduced negative impacts, quantified wherever possible.
- Replicability: The Awards aim to inspire change; we seek to identify examples of best practices that can be replicated across the sector and around the world.
- Innovation: The judges are looking for innovative practices that make a real difference, the Awards highlight new good practices, which the judges believe, can, and should, become common practice.
- Influence: We look for businesses and organizations that are not only doing good work themselves but are using their influence to ensure their peers and suppliers do the same.
- Sustainability and longevity: The judges seek to Award those businesses that understand that taking responsibility for tourism is a long journey, that it encompasses the economic, social, and environmental impacts of their activities, and who have a clear vision for the long- term success of the work, with future targets and plans in place.
- Overall commitment to Responsible Tourism: Alongside the category-specific focus, there needs to be a clear overall commitment to positively impacting local communities, economies, cultures, and environments.
We have just completed the cycle for Africa for 2024 – the Gold winners will be automatically entered into the Global Responsible Tourism Awards sponsored by Sabre. You can find the winners and the citations which explain the judges’ decisions here.
The 2024 World Responsible Tourism Awards Categories
- Making Travel Inclusive
- Championing Cultural Diversity
- Nature Positive
- What are you doing about Climate Change?
- Increasing local sourcing- Creating shared value
- Employing and Upskilling Local Communities
Calendar
- The Sabre Global Awards are announced in November – last year’s Global, Winners are here
- Entry to all the regional awards, except Africa, is still open
- The ICRT India Foundation Awards are open until 30thJune enter
- The Latin America, LATA, Awards are open, they close on 10th May enter
- The Rest of the World Awards are open until 31st August enter
- The ICRT South East Asia Awards are open until 30th June enter
- The Gold winners in the Regional Awards are automatically entered into the Global Awards
Only those who enter can be recognised. If you know of businesses, destinations or organisations which deserve recognition please encourage them to enter.
