about the Awards
The Responsible Tourism Awards were founded in 2004 by responsibletravel.com,
who run the Awards in partnership with Telegraph Travel, World Travel Market
and Geographical Magazine - the magazine of The Royal Geographical Society
(read more about our Partners).
Virgin Holidays became headline sponsors of the Awards in 2007 and we are
delighted to have their support again for 2008.The central tenet of the Awards is that all types of tourism – from niche to mainstream – can and should be operated in a way that respects and benefits destinations and local people. The Awards recognise individuals, companies and organisations in the travel industry that are making a significant commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and are providing a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation.
Our Responsible Tourism Awards are different from other awards schemes in that winners are nominated by tourists. One of the founding principles of the Awards is always to seek out new responsible tourism ventures that deserve to be celebrated and your nominations are fundamental to this process.
In 2007, over 1700 nominations were received across 13 categories and the winners were announced on Wednesday 14th November during the first ever WTM World Responsible Tourism Day at World Travel Market, London. Read all about our 2007 winners.
how the Awards are judged
- nominations
Tourism ventures are nominated by members of the public who are alerted to the launch of the Awards via The Telegraph, Geographical magazine, responsibletravel.com and worldwide media. This is in order to cast the net far and wide to discover new and interesting projects as well as the latest information on those that are better known. - long list
Due to the very significant number of nominations, these are then long listed (typically only 20 nominees per category) by The International Centre for Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University on the basis of the nomination, their responsible tourism policies and further background research. - questionnaire
Organisations long listed are sent a detailed questionnaire to complete covering the economic, social and environmental impact of their tourism venture (including their methodology for measuring this impact) and required to provide references. - assessment
The judges spend a month assessing the questionnaires and taking up references provided by the long listed organisations to create a shortlist for each category for discussion on the judging day. When deciding on their key contenders, the judges look particularly for examples of organisations delivering benefits to local people and the environment, creating widespread change with replicable initiatives or those that have real scale to them, are able to quantify their achievements and measure improvement, and are using their influence to encourage their suppliers to be more responsible too. - consultation
Independent of the references provided by the long listed organisations, the judges consult with an international network of contacts and organisations with responsible tourism expertise and knowledge in specific destinations. - judging day
The panel of judges meets at the Royal Geographical Society for a full day to debate and make a decision on the winners. In many cases one or more of the 13 judges will have visited the project, although this is not a requirement for one to win. - eligibility
The headline sponsor, Virgin Holidays, is not represented on the judging panel which means that other Virgin owned companies are eligible for entry. Sponsors of Awards categories are not eligible for entry.
