Your green vote
The Times June 10, 2006
Been on a great eco-holiday? Enter it for the Responsible Tourism Awards — and win a prize trip. Kate Quill explains how
The award categories, the judges, how to nominate and your entry form Do you worry about the effect of your travels on the environment? Would you like to support projects that work to minimise this impact? And do you prefer holidays that help, rather than harm, the lives of people in your chosen destination? If so, you can make a difference simply by voting in this year’s First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards.
Now in their third year, the awards seek to reward tour operators and individuals who have a positive effect on the places and people they visit. They do this by offering holidays with direct benefits for wildlife, conservation projects and local communities.
Justin Francis, co-founder of the online travel agent responsibletravel.com, which helps to organise the awards, says: “We are expecting the competition to be hotter than ever this year as greater attention is paid to the issues surrounding poverty reduction and the preservation of our cultural and natural heritage. As in previous years, we very much hope that Times readers will help us to scour the planet for the most responsible tourism ventures and help us find some inspiring and worthy winners.”
In a year in which the environment has shot to the top of the political agenda — whether it’s climate change, offsetting aircraft emissions, or the Tories “going green” — the awards have never been more relevant to our interests and concerns.
For example, Climate Care , the carbon offsetting company, to which Times Travel pays a fee to cover the effects of our writers’ flights, has had a boom in business in the past year — at current levels the offsets for 2006 will be almost double those of 2005. Airlines are also showing a keen interest in adopting large-scale carbon-offsetting initiatives to reassure customers, according to David Wellington of Climate Care.
Francis says that bookings for responsible holidays with his company have doubled in the past year, while Dermot Blastland, executive director of First Choice, the main sponsor of the awards, says that there has been a change in attitudes in the wider travel industry. “This is no longer the domain of just the niche market,” he says.
So if you have travelled with a company or come across a tourism project that returns benefits to the local community or habitat, we need to hear from you. You can nominate a project in any of the 13 categories, anywhere in the world. It’s a vote that not only rewards companies that care but sends the right message to the industry.
For inspiration, you may also read articles on our previous winners - Calabash Tours in the townships of South Africa was our 2004 winner, while Tribes Tours picked up the accolade in 2005. There is also a full list of winners for 2005 online.
To encourage you to enter, we have two fantastic prizes to give away. The winners will be chosen from those who have nominated any of the winners in any category, and are the first to have their names drawn.
This year’s first prize, from the tour operator Peregrine Adventures, is a ten-night Antarctic Explorer voyage for two people, worth £9,000. You will explore the Antarctic peninsula by ship, Zodiac boat and on foot. The trip is a wildlife lover’s dream, with a chance to see penguins, albatrosses, and, if you’re lucky, the mighty blue whale.
As a second prize, the Evergreen Bed and Breakfast in Inverfarigaig, Scotland, with views of Loch Ness, is offering two nights’ B&B in a superior room, with en suite Jacuzzi.
The awards are run by responsibletravel.com with The Times, the industry trade show World Travel Market, and Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society. A panel of 13 judges, which includes leading experts in responsible tourism, will draw up a shortlist from your nominations, interview the finalists and select the winners in each category. Winners will be announced in The Times on November 11.
It has never been more important, more relevant — and more fashionable — to travel responsibly. So click on the nominating link and make a difference.