Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2009

We are proud to announce the winners of our Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2009

A huge thank you to all of you who nominated in the 2009 Awards - almost 600 unique organisations, individuals and destinations were nominated from all over the world for making a real difference to local communities and the environment. The Responsible Tourism Awards are the most competitive and prestigious awards of their kind in the world and are a collaboration between online travel directory responsibletravel.com, who founded and organise the Awards, UK media partners The Daily Telegraph and Geographical Magazine, and World Travel Market, who host the Awards ceremony (read more about our Partners).

2008 saw a record number of nominations for the Awards, with over 1900 received from travelers around the world keen to share their knowledge on the best in the industry! This year we're calling on you yet again to tell us who you think is leading the way in responsible tourism. Read more about the Responsible Tourism Awards judging process.

Our panel of expert judges had a difficult job when it was time to choose the winners:

"Working our way through this year's long lists, we were impressed by the willingness of so many organisations to take responsibility and to do what they can to help make better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit. Despite the economic difficulties being faced by the travel and tourism industry, responsible tourism continues to move ahead and I'm continually impressed as more is achieved by more people. As judges we are all very aware of the great work that is being done by so many and our decisions are often very difficult and sometimes long debated."

Dr. Harold Goodwin, Director, International Centre for Responsible Tourism and Chair of Judges The judges declared Whale Watch Kaikoura, New Zealand the overall winner with the following statement.

"Rarely do we see a tourism initiative developed from the ground up by a local community to such a successful and grand scale – growing from modest beginnings to securing in a joint venture with Sea World on the Gold Coast of Australia to provide their whale watching.

Whale Watch Kaikoura provides consistently responsible whale watching tours with minimal impacts. The founding of the enterprise by four Maori families has demonstrated that the local Maori community can not only grow a considerable tourism business, but, more significantly, use that business to buy back their ancestral land for the benefit of the indigenous people and their cultural identity."

Watch a video from Whale Watch Kaikoura

Contact details: Whale Watch Kaikoura. Kauahi Ngapora, Chief Operating Officer, Kauahi@whalewatch.co.nz, +64 3 3197732

Photograph courtesy of Whale Watch Kaikoura

Check out the rest of our Award winners, past and present, on our official Responsible Tourism Awards winners page! For press releases and the latest information contact Claire Southern or Alex Lyons: press@responsibletravel.com Nominations for our Responsible Tourism Awards 2010 will commence in April. Want to keep track of the latest Awards news? Follow RTAwards on Twitter.com for our responsible tweets!

Want to chat with other travellers about the Awards, previous winners, and your nomination ideas? Login to Facebook and be part our Responsible Tourism Awards group, or sign up to IKnowAGreatPlace.com and take a look at our Responsible Tourism Awards forum!