Industry finally waking up to responsible travel

WTM 2004 Special: Exodus Travels took home the top prize at the inaugural Responsible Tourism Awards at World Travel Market, where the general feeling was that the responsible message is starting to get through.

The London-based tour operator, part of the First Choice group, shared the “Overall Award” with the Calabash Trust and Tours, a company that operates trips to townships in South Africa. Exodus also won the “Best Tour Operator” category.

Speaking at the Responsible Tourism Question Time, which followed the awards, Exodus managing director David Gillespie said: “We do try to act in a responsible manner and from surveying our customers we know that 90% of them believe that we do operate our holidays responsibly.”

Commenting on the win by Exodus, organisers of the awards, Responsibletravel.com, said: “Exodus is an outstanding example of how responsible tourism can become part of a company’s DNA and run like a thread through all the company’s activities.”

Other winners at the awards included the Casuarina Beach Club in Barbados in the hotel category, Eurostar in the transport category and Nature Trek in the “Best for Conservation of Endangered Species Category”.

Sponsors of the awards were The Times, Geographical magazine, WTM, First Choice Holidays, Active Hotels, the Energy Saving Trust, Fiji Visitors Bureau, Exodus, and Friends of Conservation.

The feeling at the Responsible Tourism Question Time was that tour operators and holidaymakers are beginning to wake up to responsible tourism by getting involved with organisations such as the Travel Foundation.

Mr Gillespie from Exodus was on the panel. He said: “The large tour operators are beginiing to take on board the impact that their businesses are having – it is about resource management, waste management and lessening the social and environmental impacts.”

But panel member Cornis Van der Lugt, from the UN Environment Programme, said there was still a tendency for larger tour operators to pass the buck. He said more needed to be done to encourage the public to make informed choices.

Also on the panel was Travel Weekly editor Martin Lane, who said he thought the message was getting through.

“Our evidence suggests that customers, when given an opportunity to choose a tour operator that practices responsible tourism, will go with that operator, even if it involves paying a bit more – but not a lot more.”

Moderator John Stapleton asked if this included the “bucket and spade brigade”, to which Mr Lane responded that many holidaymakers were making contributions through operators that take donations on behalf of the Travel Foundation.

While change is starting to be taken on at the tour operator level, it continues to be a challenge to get the message across at every link in the distribution chain.

Responding to a question about the treatment of animals in many tourist destinations, Mr Gillespie added: “These awards today show that there are many people in the travel industry that are making important steps towards being socially and environmentally responsible but we cannot always control what happens in the destination, including the treatment of animals.

“We cannot preach, moralise or demand change”, he said. 

Report by Ginny McGrath