I’ll give you three good reasons to visit www.responsibletourismawards.com/ and nominate your choice for the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2009.

1. It rewards companies and individuals who are actively doing something to keep tourism and travel sustainable and help preserve the environment.

2. Paul Theroux says for you to support the awards. He says he supports the awards because “In the past, awards were given for Best Meal, Best View, Most Grovelling Staff, Biggest Ballroom, or whatever. It’s encouraging that tourism organisations and individuals are being rewarded for doing something that is ethically right or supporting a position that will help the planet. That’s the greatest lesson of travel: it is a very small and easily bruised planet.”

3. You could win a free 8 day safari holiday in Kenya. More details here.

In their own words, “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.”  

In case you’re thinking just what or who you should nominate, there are 13 categories,  including best destination, best cruise or ferry operator, and best small and large hotels, among others.

So if you’ve recently been on a trip to a destination where the city and the tourism providers work together to help preserve the local environment, then you could nominate the destination. Last year, New Zealand won the overall award for “using tourism to help make better places to live and to visit.”

Last call for nominations on June 15, 2009.

About:- The Responsible Tourism Awards were founded in 2004 by responsibletravel.com, who run the Awards in partnership with The Daily Telegraph, Geographical Magazine - the magazine of The Royal Geographical Society, BBC World News, and World Travel Market. Virgin Holidays became headline sponsors of the Awards in 2007 and have continued their support right through to 2009.

Related Links:-
Responsible Tourism Awards 2008 Winners Announced

Posted on June 4th, 2009 by PLing
Filed under: Sustainable Travel