The Awards were founded in 2004 to surprise and inspire tourists and the tourism industry by the best of the best in responsible tourism – tourism that creates better places to live in and visit. 2013 sees the awards growing to be called the World Responsible Tourism Awards. We want to celebrate the shining stars of responsible tourism – the individuals, organisations and destinations working innovatively with local cultures, communities and biodiversity. But more than that, we want their examples to inspire others.

That’s why we’ve got the most rigorous judging process around, and work with the best partners in the industry to help us get the word out – to ensure that their stories provide an example to the industry. Rather than pick the nominees ourselves, we rely on travellers and the industry to nominate those tourism ventures with exciting stories to share. This makes our Awards unique – we don’t pre-decide the winners, we let you tell us who should be in the running.

All it takes for someone to be considered for an Award is one nomination in any of our 7 categories. It isn’t a popularity contest; one nomination is enough to be entered.

Some of our previous winners

2009: Selena Travel LLC for the Best Conservation of Cultural Heritage	2009: City of Cape Town for Best Responsible Tourism Destination	2011: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, Malawi for Best for conservation of wildlife & habitats
2006: Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa for Best for Conservation of Endangered Species	2006: Intrepid Travel for Best overall joint winner	2012: Nature Observatorio Amazing Treehouse winner of Best Responsible Tourism Innovation