World Responsible Tourism Awards 2016: ‘Harder to Win than Ever’

Responsible Travel on Wednesday released the select 75 organisations longlisted for the 2016 World Responsible Tourism Awards to be announced at WTM London 2016 sponsored by the Belize Tourism Board.

Organisations in the running for the most rigorously judged awards for responsible tourism globally cover a diverse range of issues from campaigning and innovation to poverty reduction and the inclusion of marginalised people, from hotels with exemplary employment initiatives to wildlife and habitat conservation.

Representing a huge diversity of work in 30 countries worldwide, the longlist includes; a hotel in Dubai rescuing, rehabilitating and re-releasing turtles and educating guests and local children about conservation; an association of hotels and restaurants in Kerala working together to ensure food isn’t wasted and that no-one in their community goes hungry; a tour operator in India making heritage sites, street food markets and festivals accessible to all through sensory tours and tailored assistance; a campaign to stop child abuse in tourism in Cambodia; and a hotel offering employment, training and empowerment to refugees in Austria.

The 2016 list of finalists will be released in August, with the winners announced in a special ceremony at WTM London during World Responsible Tourism Day on November 8.

“We have an extremely strong field across all five categories and our judging panel will have some difficult decisions to make later this year… It is going to be harder than ever to win this year“, Chair of the Awards judging panel, Professor Harold Goodwin, said when commenting on the standard of the entries.

The full longlist is available at: http://www.responsibletravel.com/awards/media/longlist.htm

WTM London will run November 7 – 9.

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) is an official media partner of WTM London 2016.