Industry wide initiatives
Campaigning
Many of the tour operators we now work with are subsidiaries of major companies in the industry and have made changes to their businesses in order to embrace responsible tourism principles.
In 2004, we ran a successful campaign against Thomson Holidays, Thomas Cook and MyTravel to persuade them to publish policies on responsible tourism. As a result, The Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) - who represent 70% of the market - made a public commitment that their members would publish policies for responsible travel and tourism within a year. Read about our 'Had Enough?' campaign.
Awards scheme
The Responsible Tourism Awards which we created in 2004 and have organised every year since, are a powerful tool for encouraging improvement within the tourism industry by demonstrating examples of best practice. The public nominates tourism organisations and the long-listed organisations are then required to fill in a detailed questionnaire which encourages them to assess the impact that they have on local environments, cultures and communities.
The judges particularly look for examples of organisations that deliver benefits to local people and the environment, create widespread change with replicable initiatives or those that have real scale to them, are able to quantify their achievements and measure improvement, and are using their influence to encourage their suppliers to be more responsible too.
Back to 'Our Responsible Tourism Policy' homepage
Many of the tour operators we now work with are subsidiaries of major companies in the industry and have made changes to their businesses in order to embrace responsible tourism principles.
In 2004, we ran a successful campaign against Thomson Holidays, Thomas Cook and MyTravel to persuade them to publish policies on responsible tourism. As a result, The Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) - who represent 70% of the market - made a public commitment that their members would publish policies for responsible travel and tourism within a year. Read about our 'Had Enough?' campaign.
Awards scheme
The Responsible Tourism Awards which we created in 2004 and have organised every year since, are a powerful tool for encouraging improvement within the tourism industry by demonstrating examples of best practice. The public nominates tourism organisations and the long-listed organisations are then required to fill in a detailed questionnaire which encourages them to assess the impact that they have on local environments, cultures and communities.
The judges particularly look for examples of organisations that deliver benefits to local people and the environment, create widespread change with replicable initiatives or those that have real scale to them, are able to quantify their achievements and measure improvement, and are using their influence to encourage their suppliers to be more responsible too.
Back to 'Our Responsible Tourism Policy' homepage