A little bit more about us
Justin Francis and Harold Goodwin co-founded responsibletravel.com in April 2001. The idea was to create a place for tourists to find and book holidays from tour companies and accommodations who were committed to more responsible travel.
We were the first tourism business in the world to use the term responsible travel and our ambition was that one day responsible travel would be to travel what organic is to food – a growing international movement committed to better and more responsible products holidays.
responsibletravel.com launched from Justin’s front room in Brighton, England with funding from private investors including Dame Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop). We launched with 20 holidays from just 4 tour companies that met our criteria for responsible travel ( more). We were one of the first travel companies to offer carbon offset schemes for travellers ( more). We’ve always turned away far more tour companies than we accept but at the end of 2006 we have over 2000 holidays from 220 tour companies and 100’s of accommodations.
Despite intense scepticism from the mainstream tourism industry, who told us that tourists had no interest at all in the welfare of local people or the environment, we’ve grown very quickly as travellers have discovered that responsible travel provides more authentic and enjoyable holiday experiences ( more).
responsibletravel.com has now booked over 20,000 travellers on holiday, and is growing organically at 100% a year ('one of the fastest growing travel agencies in the UK.' The Times). We have over 100,000 travellers registered to receive our ezine.
In 2004 we created and launched The Responsible Tourism Awards with our partners The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical magazine. Now in their fourth year the Awards, sponsored by Virgin Holidays, are the largest of their kind in the world ( more). We hope the Awards will surprise and inspire tourists and the industry by what remarkable and passionate people and tour companies are able to achieve.
In 2004 we also conducted some research ( more) with mainstream tourists which revealed their beliefs that the big tour companies had a responsibility to protect environments and benefit local communities. Further research revealed that three of the biggest four tour companies in the UK had no policies for responsible travel and tourism. Based on this we launched a campaign targetting these companies ( more)
In 2006 we began lobbying Government (directly and via the media) to take stronger action to limit the CO2 emissions created by aviation. We believe that we were the first travel agent in the world to say that we need to fly significantly less than we do now. Read some of our press releases here ( more).
In 2006 we also partnered with US based NGO Conservation International to create a programme to support grass roots community based tourism ventures ( more).
The tourism industry is getting to grips with its responsibilities, and responsibletravel.com has welcomed our 14th member of staff ( more). Nearly 6 years on from when we first used it the term responsible travel has been adopted widely across the world by tourism businesses, Governments and the media. We are proud to be part of that movement.
Although much progress has been made we’ve a long way to go in helping to re-invent the tourism industry for the wider long term benefit of local people, tourists, the environment and the tourism industry. We are looking forward to the journey.