Our timeline

Co-founder Justin Francis wrote his MSc dissertation on establishing a portal for responsible travel after being inspired by a village elder on a visit to Kawaza village in Zambia.

Launch with private investors including Anita & Gordon Roddick from The Body Shop.

First business in the world to talk about responsible travel, and first dedicated to promoting 'green', 'eco' or 'responsible' holidays on one site.

Offered one of the first carbon offset schemes in tourism.

Launched the world's first Responsible Tourism Awards

Successfully campaigned to persuade Thomson Holidays, Thomas Cook and MyTravel to publish policies for responsible tourism.

Justin joined speakers including the founders of The Big Issue and Innocent Drinks to give a talk at the British Library on being an 'Ethical entreprenuer'.

Annual holiday sales reached £4m.

Justin named one of The Times 50 most influential people in travel.

Offered 2,500 holidays from 270 tour operators - by far the biggest specialist green or eco travel business. Annual holiday sales reached £10m.

Published first audit of responsible tourism of the UK's biggest travel companies with The Daily Telegraph.

Awards attracted a record 1950 entries – Michael Palin says 'the responsible tourism awards are one of the most important ways that we can learn to travel better.'

Published the 4,000th independent traveller review.

Became one of the first travel organisations to remove CO2 offsetting, sparking a debate on carbon reduction with press in the Guardian, Independent and the New York Times.

responsiblevacation.com launched in the US, taking UK-based sister site Responsible Travel's 10 years of outstanding tourism experiences to a new audience.

Lifted 10 year Burma travel boycott and added first Burma holiday to the site.

Celebrated 10th birthday, growing from just 15 holidays on 6th April 2001 to almost 4,000 holidays in April 2011, and selling over $100 million of responsible holidays.

Donated 15% of profits to charity between 2006 and 2012, on average.

Celebrated the 10th year of the Responsible Tourism Awards by relaunching them as the World Responsible Tourism Awards, with new categories and a People's Choice award.

Moved to new offices in Brighton's trendy 'North Laine' and switches to green energy supplier Ecotricity.

Removed orphanage volunteering holidays from the site following concerns, sparking a conversation and coverage in The Telegraph.

Launched the first of many honest and easy-to-read 2 minute guides to popular locations and activities.

Launched say NO to orca circuses campaign with the World Cetacean Alliance to stop whales and dolphins being kept in captivity.

Sold more holidays to Cuba than all the holidays we sold in our first 2½ years! (Other top destinations this year included Croatia, India and Japan.)

Launches a guide to accessible tourism.

Sent Lyn cycling across India to celebrate her 10th year working at Responsible Travel (she's our accountant and also keeps us in tea and biscuits so she's Very Important).