Justin Francis Managing director,
responsibletravel.com,
responsiblevacation.com.
Justin graduated from Exeter University where he
studied Geophysics. He started his career with 8 years at the advertising agency
J. Walter Thompson. As Account Director he managed key accounts including Kelloggs, Nestle Rowntree and Rolex. He worked in both the London and New York offices. In 1991 he took a sabbatical year and travelled widely throughout
Africa; many of his experiences provided inspiration for the business which he would go on to set up.
After leaving JWT, he joined
The Body Shop as Marketing Manager for The Social and Environment Agenda and then went on to head up Worldwide Marketing where he was responsible for all in store promotional materials for Body Shop stores around the world. He worked closely with the campaigning team, on campaigns against animal testing, Shell and on women's issues. He also worked closely with the Community Trading team.
He then went on to complete an
MSc in Responsible Tourism at the University of Greenwich. With the academic grounding in responsible tourism and a keen understanding of the difficult issues that faced the travel industry, the idea for
responsibletravel.com was borne out of a camp fire conversation with a village headman in Zambia.
The business was
launched in 2001, with Anita Roddick – Founder of The Body Shop – as an investor. It was the first, and remains the world's leading travel agent for responsible, green, eco or sustainable tourism. In 2004 Justin founded the world's most prestigious Award scheme for responsible holidays - the Virgin Holidays
Responsible Tourism Awards – and was one of the founding trustees of
The Travel Foundation in the UK.
In 2008 Justin founded a travel community, iknowagreatplace.com. In 2009 he was invited to join the Advisory Board of The International Centre for Responsible Tourism (
ICRT) at Leeds Metropolitan University and the Advisory Board of Hidden Britain. In 2010 he launched responsibletravel.com's US sister site
responsiblevacation.com
In 2011 Justin was invited by Norfund to become a Non-Executive Director of
Basecamp Explorer Kenya, a safari business based in the Masai Mara that has partnered with 500 Maasai families to create the Naboisho Conservancy.
He was named one of The Times
50 most influential people in travel, and is one of the Courvoisier Future 500. In 2010 Thames and Hudson included him in their book of 60 global 'Innovators Shaping our Creative future'. Justin is widely quoted in the media. Appearances have included CNN, BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC News 24, BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Excess Baggage, BBC Radio 5 Live. He has written on travel for The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent.
Company timeline
