About Us
We’ve hand-picked inspiring holidays from over 270 tour operators (and 100s of places to stay) to save you time. All the companies are specialists in their chosen fields, the best at what they do, and run by passionate people who care about your holiday and about the environment and local people. Read independent reviews of the holidays, and then use the site to contact the expert operators directly for more information or to book. |
| What is responsible travel? | How do holidays qualify as responsible? |
Responsible travel is more rewarding holiday experiences designed in a more thoughtful way to help you relax and rejuvenate or bring you closer to local people, their cultures and nature.Responsible travel helps local people to earn a fairer income from tourism, supports local conservation and social projects, and ensures that any negative environmental or cultural impacts are reduced.
Our most popular destination is the UK however we have 1000s of holidays in over 160 countries, covering 250 different types of activities. Read more here...
Every day we very carefully screen specialist tour operators and places to stay who share our values and add them to our site.There is no global accreditation scheme for responsible travel.Most of our lodges/hotels are chosen from one of many different green accreditation agencies globally. As there is no such scheme for holidays from tour operators we've designed our own approach with input from academics and NGOs. More information here...
| Our bigger purpose |
We intend to play our part in re-inventing the tourism industry for the long term benefit of tourists, local communities and the world's natural and cultural heritage. Together we can change the way we travel forever.
We were the first business to use the term responsible travel. There has been no route map for us to follow. We are not perfect, but we try to lead by example, and we welcome thoughts on how we can improve. Responsible travel is now a global movement which we are very proud to be part of. You can read more about our Responsible Business Policy here...
We were the first business to use the term responsible travel. There has been no route map for us to follow. We are not perfect, but we try to lead by example, and we welcome thoughts on how we can improve. Responsible travel is now a global movement which we are very proud to be part of. You can read more about our Responsible Business Policy here...
| The Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards |
We founded The Responsible Tourism Awards ( www.responsibletourismawards.com) in 2004 and run them annually. Our idea was to inspire tourists and the tourism industry with the very best examples of responsible tourism from around the world.They are now the largest and most prestigious Awards of their type in the world and provide examples of bright ideas and hope for the future.
| Campaigning for change |
Very often we see practices in our industry that concern us. Sometimes, because we care about our industry, local communities and destinations, we choose to campaign for change. Along the way we’ve had some successes which you can read about here... We also make donations to charity from every booking (and have done so from our launch and before we made any profits). We like small scale, local initiatives that might not otherwise get direct funding. Our contributions have grown as we have grown. Read more here...
| Who are we and how did we start? |
Take a look at our mug shots and read a little about us here!If you’d like to read the story of how the company started click here...
Want to join our friendly team? Read about our current job vacancies here
If you are a journalist, check out our media & press pages here