Each week the the Daily Telegraph choose a company they feel is making serious waves in the business world for their Disrupter’s column.  Last week it was our turn, and here is what they had to say:  

Eco-tourism site setting a good example around the world

“I very much see what we are doing as disrupting the tourism industry,” says Justin Francis, co-founder of Responsible Travel.

“One day I hope ‘responsible’ will be to travel what ‘organic’ is to food. What we are doing is coming up with a more responsible range of choices for consumers that are better for them and better for the planet.

“By setting a good example, we want to inspire change at firms in the industry. It’s an ambitious target, as tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world and it is incredibly fragmented. The World Tourism Organisation suggests that one in 12 people around the globe is employed in tourism, so it’s a very big sector.”

Mr Francis, 43, says a lot of his inspiration for Responsible Travel came from The Body Shop, where he was head of marketing and worked closely with the late Dame Anita Roddick, who founded the chain of ethical beauty stores. She and her husband Gordon became investors in Responsible Travel.

“Anita said: ‘Write down on one side of paper all the things about tourism that you don’t like. And on the other side, break all those rules’,” recalls Mr Francis “A lot of tourism really fits tourists into enclaves that are entirely separate from local places and local people and strives to retain as much money in foreign hands as possible, flying in the food and all the reps.

“In contrast, responsible travel is all about generating a better environment for the local communities. We were the first business in the world to use the term – that was back in 2000, and since then it has become a description of consideration of sustainable development.

“It’s not just about the environment; it’s about an ecosystem that’s better. It’s about the environment, local people, and it’s also about the way that tourists behave.”

Responsible Travel doesn’t run any holidays itself, but its website www.responsibletravel.com is an online travel directory that includes 270 tour companies and more than 1,000 hotels that provide breaks in 160 countries.

All the holidays on the site go through a rigorous selection process and the website invites travellers to submit reviews on just how responsible the holidays really are, with 17 companies so far being removed from the online listings because their holidays are deemed not to live up to Responsible Travel standards.

The company also ran a successful campaign to get the big four travel firms to publish responsible tourism policies; created the Responsible Tourism Awards; and helped produce an audit of 40 travel companies, grading them on aspects of responsible tourism.

It is showing that it’s possible to be responsible and make money, too, declaring turnover of £10m last year, on which it made commission of £920,000 and profits of just under £100,000. “Last year, our sales growth was 45pc and that’s been our target this year as well,” says Mr Francis.

“The big tour operators were initially sceptical: ‘You’re going nowhere with this; tourists don’t care about the environment, they just want a cheap fortnight under the sun’. But, bit by bit, we have proven that to be wrong through our success.”


Published in the Telegraph Sept 2008. Read the whole article here