06 June 2009

Travel Foundation gets UNWTO Prize

Mr Darko Prebezac of UNWTO presents the Ulysses special prize to Sue Hurdle of the Travel Foundation

The Travel Foundation was awarded a special Jury Prize at the UNWTO Ulysses Awards held in Madrid and hosted by UNWTO Secretary-General Mr Taleb Rifai.

The UNWTO Ulysses Awards are given to Governments, enterprises and NGOs in recognition of the programmes they have successfully carried out in the field of Innovation and Governance in Tourism.

The Travel Foundation won a Special Jury Prize for Innovation in Non-Governmental Organizations, for "Creating Destination Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism".

Travel Foundation Chief Executive Sue Hurdle, who received the award, said "It is a great privilege to accept this prestigious international award from the UNWTO in recognition of our innovative partnership approach. I am delighted to accept it on behalf of the Travel Foundation’s team in the UK and our programme managers around the world, who have done so much to change lives for the better in destination countries".

Jane Ashton, Head of Sustainable Development at TUI Travel plc said:

"We see our relationship with the Travel Foundation as a central part of our commitment to sustainable tourism. The projects run by the Travel Foundation in holiday destinations worldwide are also very valuable in establishing what best sustainable tourism practices look like ‘on the ground’, and serve also to involve and engage our destination colleagues and suppliers.

Since the 2003 launch of the Travel Foundation, TUI UK has raised approximately £1.5 million to support the Foundation's excellent sustainable tourism projects in 14 countries and across four continents."

Said Jonathan Mitchell, Programme Leader and Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (and a Travel Foundation trustee:

"The Travel Foundation directly practices what it preaches about the value of bringing different stakeholder partnerships together around issues of sustainable tourism…. I think that the approach of the Travel Foundation in developing ‘demonstration projects’ in destinations, at the same time as engaging with and creating best practice guidance for the whole outbound sector, has proved to be an effective strategy."

Valere Tjolle