Wild Asia's Responsible Tourism Initiative has been running for more than 10 years consecutively. We have discovered and highlighted outstanding examples and set benchmarks in sustainable tourism. From this year onwards, the initiative will be revised with a whole new structure as we find new ways to keep it fresh and innovative.

Written by Responsible Tourism Initiative on 13 Apr 2011 with 0 comments. Be the first!

In 1998 Wild Asia began scouting for pioneers and gems in responsible tourism (RT) across Asia, we worked to find relevant benchmarks in sustainable tourism and with that the Responsible Tourism Initiative was created. In 2006 we took an inquisitive and bold step to further develop the initiative as we set up the Responsible Tourism Awards. From its conception, we have had the privilege of gaining insights from over 170 operators across Asia, seen firsthand over 30 operators and been confident to award 33 finalists and 18 winners from countries such as Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. The Awards and the growth of responsible tourism as a topic has also lent us much interest on the media front. To date, we have helped publish nearly 300 articles both on our website and in the print media such as; Asian Geographic, Lifestyle & Travel, BBC, Action Asia, WHL Group, Travel Mole The Star and The New Straits Times. Over the past few years Wild Asia has also conducted a wide variety of RT talks and workshops, generating over 1800 participants. All of our efforts were to raise awareness of RT and to influence operators to work towards making tourism a force for good - to conserve nature, promote local economies, and empower communities.

Today, the Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Awards will take a minor detour. We have reflected on the growth and development of the Awards and decided that the best logical step would be to focus our time and resources on bridging the gap between theory, practice and the travel industry. Our approach is to create more channels for responsible tourism best practices to be put into action. How? Through training, audits and reviews, research and development, interactive communication material and stronger partnerships with relevant partners.

Therefore the Responsible Tourism Awards will continue but with a break in tradition! We will disperse checklists this year however, submission will be in 2012. We are going to focus more on operators' improvements in RT as one of the key criteria for awards. Categories will continue as before and include; Accommodation operator, Tour Operator and Community Based Travel Operators (see attached). The checklist has been revised with an expanded version on the 'Continual Improvement' section focusing on current and future efforts taken to advance in sustainability. In this section we will be looking for continual improvement over a span of two years (ie. 2010 - 2012). We strongly encourage you to download and begin completing the checklist as it will better prepare you for the Awards application next year. And for those interested in using the Responsible Tourism Checklist as a self-assessment tool for your operations, it will still be made available to you online.

We have received countless requests for checklist and realize the growing interest of the Awards. Our wholehearted thanks go out to our network of tourism professionals and partners who have supported the Awards and initiative throughout these years. Our work would not be possible without you.

The other major event we will be planning for this year is our Annual Responsible Tourism event in association with ITB Asia, one of the largest travel shows in Asia, which is held in Singapore in October. We are planning for a robust event that will benefit travel practitioners and professionals. Don't miss out on this and we would love to meet you there. Look out for more information in the coming months!