Our relationship with our members
We screen tour operators and accommodations against responsible tourism criteria before they can become members and be marketed on responsibletravel.com. Read the social, environmental and economic criteria for becoming a member.
Companies must be transparent in their policies for responsible tourism at a company level and on a holiday by holiday basis. Each tour company is required to write a detailed policy for responsible tourism which must meet our minimum criteria. Our members must also write a paragraph on how the specific holiday ‘makes a difference’. Travellers can find this text included on every holiday page featured on the site.
Since our launch in 2001 we have worked with hundreds of tour operators and accommodations to help them develop and implement effective responsible tourism policies. Through our work with these companies we have actively encouraged the spread of best practice within the tourism industry and now work with over 270 tour operators and over 550 accommodations.
Monitoring responsible tourism
There is no global accreditation scheme for responsible tourism and we do not aim to be this. We have examined hotel accreditation schemes and many of the hotels on our site have been accredited by some of the best schemes out there. As there is no accreditation scheme for tour operators, we have had to devise our own approach. At responsibletravel.com, tourists act as the eyes and ears of the industry. Our travellers are invited to comment on their experiences regarding a particular operator or accommodation’s responsible tourism policies on their return from their holiday, in the form of ‘travellers' reviews’. All of these reviews are sent to the tour companies and hotels as a form of consumer-driven auditing in order to encourage continuous improvement.
Organisations that are found to have misrepresented their practices are removed from the site but far more commonly, we have found that tour companies and hotels have listened to customers’ concerns and made changes to improve the sustainability of the holidays. In these cases, evidence of such changes is then published on the site.
Read a report on this here.
Back to 'Our Responsible Tourism Policy' homepage
Companies must be transparent in their policies for responsible tourism at a company level and on a holiday by holiday basis. Each tour company is required to write a detailed policy for responsible tourism which must meet our minimum criteria. Our members must also write a paragraph on how the specific holiday ‘makes a difference’. Travellers can find this text included on every holiday page featured on the site.
Since our launch in 2001 we have worked with hundreds of tour operators and accommodations to help them develop and implement effective responsible tourism policies. Through our work with these companies we have actively encouraged the spread of best practice within the tourism industry and now work with over 270 tour operators and over 550 accommodations.
Monitoring responsible tourism
There is no global accreditation scheme for responsible tourism and we do not aim to be this. We have examined hotel accreditation schemes and many of the hotels on our site have been accredited by some of the best schemes out there. As there is no accreditation scheme for tour operators, we have had to devise our own approach. At responsibletravel.com, tourists act as the eyes and ears of the industry. Our travellers are invited to comment on their experiences regarding a particular operator or accommodation’s responsible tourism policies on their return from their holiday, in the form of ‘travellers' reviews’. All of these reviews are sent to the tour companies and hotels as a form of consumer-driven auditing in order to encourage continuous improvement.
Organisations that are found to have misrepresented their practices are removed from the site but far more commonly, we have found that tour companies and hotels have listened to customers’ concerns and made changes to improve the sustainability of the holidays. In these cases, evidence of such changes is then published on the site.
Read a report on this here.
Back to 'Our Responsible Tourism Policy' homepage