interviews with 2007 Responsible Tourism Award winners
Best Volunteering Organisation
Winner: Azafady, UK / Madagascar
An interview with Mark Jacobs, Managing Director, Azafady:
What has changed for you as a result of receiving an award?
Winning the award has clearly increased the profile of Azafady and its work out in south-east Madagascar. When potential volunteers look at our website, the knowledge that we have been named “Best Volunteering Organisation” provides an extra assurance that our work has been vetted independently and found to be the best in its field. We have already received applications from volunteers who have cited the Responsible Tourism Awards as the reason they have applied to us and I've no doubt that winning the award will result in an overall increase in the numbers of volunteers going out to Madagascar.
What have been your greatest successes and greatest challenges since November 2007?
Azafady projects have moved from strength to strength in the period since November 2007. Probably the greatest achievement is receiving the funding for a large long-term project working with the European Union and Care International. The project is the first of its size to be granted to Azafady and the work will increase food security in remote rural areas of the project zone through a comprehensive programme of institutional strengthening, capacity building and awareness raising regarding nutrition and food security.
How have tourists and the local community reacted to your success?
A party was held in Madagascar and everyone in the Madagascar team is very proud of the achievement. It has clearly been recognised that winning the award has been an amazing team effort and the whole team has played a part in making it possible. Presentation of the award has provided a massive boost to the morale of the team and a fantastic vindication of the value of what Azafady has been doing in south east Madagascar for the past ten years.
madagascar.co.uk
Best for Poverty Reduction
Winner: Borana, Kenya
Nicky Dyer outlines her inspiration for setting up the mobile clinic:
Resike is a lady of 38 years old who is the chairwoman of the Nashiba Women's Group based at Lokuseru, Mukogodo Forest, East Laikipia. She has seven children and is one of many siblings. She is particularly good at organising her group collecting skins for my tannery and doing the beading which decorates some of my products.
About four years ago she became pregnant again, this time with twins, though she did not know this at the time. Towards the end of her pregnancy she became very ill and was sent into the Nanyuki Hospital - 40 kms away. One of the twins had died and the other died at the hospital. She had already confessed that she had not wanted anymore children, it was difficult enough feeding and supporting the other seven.
Seeing the trauma that she went through and the stoicism that brought her through the crisis, I decided that the only long term solution for her and the others in her community was to introduce them to contraception through family planning. So I went out and raised the money for the mobile clinic which first set out in March 2005. The clinic now services ten communities on a bi-monthly basis and is greatly appreciated.
borana.co.ke
Best for Poverty Reduction
Highly commended: communitychallenge, UK
An interview with Simon Albert, Director of communitychallenge:
What has changed for you as a result of receiving an award?
We have worked hard for many years to promote best practice in the field of responsible tourism. Doing the right thing environmentally often costs us more and so makes us less competitive, but to receive recognition for our work in this field really has given us a competitive advantage. We use the logo and text about the awards on our website (will be in our next brochure), and in all communications with new clients. Responsible travel has always been one of our USPs and now we have some industry credibility to support our ongoing efforts. Most importantly, it has given the entire team a real morale boost to receive the highly commended award.
What have been your greatest successes and greatest challenges since November 2007?
The travel market and our sector (adventure and volunteering) is getting increasingly competitive, so just doing business is getting harder and harder. However, we are leading the way in our sector, setting best practice and raising millions of pounds for charity. This is our greatest success.
How have tourists and the local community reacted to your success?
Our ground handlers have all been very supportive of our award and are keen to develop best practice in their areas of responsibility. They are very pro-active, and winning this award has shown that support for local peoples and communities is a key focus for the international markets.
charitychallenge.com
Best for Conservation of an Endangered Species
Highly commended: Earth, Sea & Sky/Ionian Eco Villagers/Nature World Travel
Here, owners Yannis & Helen, outline what impact their recognition at the Responsible Tourism Awards in 2007, has had for them.
Receiving an award in November has given us renewed enthusiasm for the hard slog fighting the short sighted views of most Zakynthians in respect of the preservation of the loggerhead turtle.
Recognition for our efforts was exceedingly welcomed, and rewarding. Our appeal to raise the 500,000 Euros needed to build a turtle hospital and rehabilitation centre on the island is more widely recognised now, having been acknowledged by a major name within the tourism industry, and has helped to boost the appeal, particularly within the Sea Life Centres throughout Europe who have been running the appeal for a year now. (Work has now started on the centre, albeit with a business loan to get things underway until the appeal reaches fruition. We will be open to receive our first turtle casualties this nesting season, but may not be ready for the visiting public until additional funding can be found.)
The response from the tour operators who service the island has now gathered more momentum than prior to the appeal, and we hope they commit to bringing visitors to the centre once we are ready to receive them, thereby generating the funds necessary to keep us up and running to return more injured turtles back to their natural environment, and provide research data that will benefit an international pool of knowledge, thereby securing the future of other turtle species around the world.
Some local Zakynthians are now, slowly, beginning to see that the loggerhead turtle is worth protecting, and offering more support for our efforts. But we still have a very long way to go to achieve full support from the majority.
natureworldtravel.com
Best in a Mountain Environment
Highly commended: Shakti Uttaranchal Tours Pvt Ltd, India
We were very surprised to have been nominated last year - we only began Shakti in 2004, and only a small outfit trying to dovetail servicing high-end clientele together with ensuring it is done responsibly and with sensitivity. It was a great pleasure to get included in your prestigious awards day, and to get 'highly commended'. As a result of this, we have certainly received greater exposure in the market place - Direct clients enquiring about Shakti, but also business opportunities through potential promotional tie ups. It has also helped us as an organisation to remain focused and committed to what we are doing - I found the series of lectures at the Responsible Tourism Day at WTM to be incredibly inspiring.
Our greatest challenge is that Shakti is developing into new areas of the Indian Himalayas - which although exciting is very challenging as it is in Ladakh, (most northern reaches of India) which has a prevailing temperature of approximately minus 30 - 37 degrees in the winter - which although not usually visited during this time, is necessary for us to guarantee everything ready and set up for its launch in July 2008.
Shakti continuing its momentum - replicating the same concept we began with in various other Himalayan villages and cultures - means that we feel we are doing our little bit to help support the communities and their environs. We are also trying to ensure our footprint is as small as possible - so the complete banning of all plastic from our operations is challenging, but certainly achievable.
The local communities are not so aware of our achievement with receiving the award - the important thing for them, is to see that we are still working with them, still plugging money in to help support more water harvesting systems, support systems in the schools etc. And not only has it continued, but it is strengthening. Tourists have been aware of the award, and it has certainly helped us with exposing our brand.
shaktihimalaya.com
Best in a Marine Environment
Winner: blue o two
Winning the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award for ‘Best in a Marine Environment’ has had a massively positive impact on us as a company in terms of the marketing opportunities and sales potential.
We have received nothing but positive feedback and praise from all of our customers and we have been able to expand into the market of eco-travel, therefore increasing our customer base.
blueotwo.com
Highly commended: Blue Ventures, UK
Richard Nimmo, Managing Director of Blue Ventures explains why the Award has been a helping hand.
The Responsible Tourism Awards are important for Blue Ventures as they highlight and reward our commitment to responsible tourism in Madagascar. Success in the awards has a definite marketing benefit as well as providing credibility to an operator.
Tourists certainly see the awards as a strong recommendation and we hope to build on the success of our commendations in 2004, 2006 and 2007 with a win in 2008!
blueventures.org
Best Destination
Highly commended: Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka
Interview with Charmarie Maelge, speaking on behalf of the Tourism Community of Arugam Bay, ABTA, Sewalanka & the Responsible Tourism Partnership:
What has changed for you as a result of receiving an award?
Arugam Bay has been rewarded for its unique community tourism offers, most of all, Arugam Bay people are now very proud of their achievements. The Award has helped them to get international publicity and for a long time to come they will cherish this Award. The formal tourism sector and the tourism authorities are now taking more interest in our work and want to help us.
What have been your greatest successes and greatest challenges since November 2007?
Safeguarding visitor numbers has been the greatest challenge. This is an area which is quite distanced from the formal tourism infrastructure and also geographically from the developed areas of Sri Lanka. The region and its people have been living on the edge of the long drawn out civil conflict and most recently faced total devastation by the tsunami.
The best thing that happened to Arugam Bay is this Award; it has made the formal tourism sector realize how important we are and recognize us as an important part of the destination.
How have tourists and the local community reacted to your success?
Arugam Bay is one of the most neglected and disadvantaged regions of Sri Lanka and the local community was very excited about the Award; it took them quite a while to believe that we have become the most recommended best destination in the entire world. They are very proud of what they have built up in their own imagination with the help of tourists.
ResponsibleTourismSriLanka.org, sewalanka.org, ecotourism-arugambay.org
Find out about all the winners of our Responsible Tourism Awards
