announcing the
winners of the Responsible Tourism Awards 2009
We are proud to announce the winners of our Virgin Holidays
Responsible Tourism Awards 2009 A huge thank you to all of you who nominated in the 2009 Awards - almost 600 unique organisations, individuals and destinations were nominated from all over the world for making a real difference to local communities and the environment.
The Responsible Tourism Awards are the most competitive and prestigious awards of their kind in the world and are a collaboration between online travel directory responsibletravel.com, who founded and organise the Awards, UK media partners The Daily Telegraph and Geographical Magazine, and World Travel Market, who host the Awards ceremony (read more about our Partners).
Our panel of expert judges had a difficult job when it was time to choose the winners:
"Working our way through this year's long lists, we were impressed by the willingness of so many organisations to take responsibility and to do what they can to help make better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit. Despite the economic difficulties being faced by the travel and tourism industry, responsible tourism continues to move ahead and I'm continually impressed as more is achieved by more people. As judges we are all very aware of the great work that is being done by so many and our decisions are often very difficult and sometimes long debated."
Dr. Harold Goodwin, Director, International Centre for Responsible Tourism and Chair of Judges
overall winner: Whale Watch Kaikoura, New Zealand
The judges declared Whale Watch Kaikoura, New Zealand the overall winner with the following statement.
"Rarely do we see a tourism initiative developed from the ground up by a local community to such a successful and grand scale – growing from modest beginnings to securing in a joint venture with Sea World on the Gold Coast of Australia to provide their whale watching.
Whale Watch Kaikoura provides consistently responsible whale watching tours with minimal impacts. The founding of the enterprise by four Maori families has demonstrated that the local Maori community can not only grow a considerable tourism business, but, more significantly, use that business to buy back their ancestral land for the benefit of the indigenous people and their cultural identity."
Watch a video from Whale Watch Kaikoura
Contact details: Whale Watch Kaikoura. Kauahi Ngapora, Chief Operating Officer, Kauahi@whalewatch.co.nz, +64 3 3197732
Photograph courtesy of Whale Watch Kaikoura
Check out the rest of our Award winners, past and present, on our winners page!
further information
Want to read more about our 2009 winners? Get the inside scoop, plus: the trip that changed Ben Fogle's life, our top 16 responsible holidays, how to travel the world at 3mph, and all our responsible tourism news, features, interviews and more by downloading our gorgeous 2009 Awards magazine, r:travel, produced by Geographical Magazine
About the Awards and judging process
press
For press releases and the latest information contact Claire Southern or Alex Lyons:
press@responsibletravel.com
nominate in our Responsible Tourism Awards 2010
Nominations for our Responsible Tourism Awards 2010 will commence in April. get involved
Want to keep track of the latest Awards news? Sign up to our emagazine to receive the latest announcements, nomination and updates, or follow RTAwards on Twitter.com for our responsible tweets!
Want to chat with other travellers about the Awards, previous winners, and
your nomination ideas? Login to Facebook and be part our Responsible
Tourism Awards group, or sign up to IKnowAGreatPlace.com
and take a look at our Responsible Tourism Awards forum!