RT Networking Report –ITB Next Stop Delhi with Global Webinar

At ITB, Berlin 120 people gathered to ‘engage, share and inspire’. This meeting of minds was another Fringe Responsible Tourism event, hosted by The Blue Yonder www.theblueyonder.com and co-organised by YourSafePlanet www.yoursafeplanet.co.uk .

These fringe events began in London two and a half years ago to answer the need for a forum in which grass root tour operators and travel organisations could meet and work together. The result has been a series of fantastic events resulting in responsible business being done and the proliferation of ground-breaking ethical tourism programmes.

Now the event is off to SATTE in Delhi via ‘The Best of Britain and Ireland’ in London.

The Delhi RT networking event will have a webinar operated by VISION on Sustainable Tourism so that the Responsible Tourism community around the world can join in – in real time. A truly sustainable global event!

A video of the ITB event is now online at travelmole.tv Watch Now

Those pitching at ITB included:

GoPhilanthropic is an innovative socially-conscious travel company committed to helping individuals and small groups create meaningful life experiences through Travel Philanthropy in some of the world’s most inspiring destinations. We help our clients arrange to support social and conservation initiatives in the communities they are planning to visit. During their travel, they spend a few hours or an afternoon visiting the local community and contributing books, materials, supplies, fresh water wells, micro-loans or student scholarships, and taking the opportunity to personally interact with locals not involved in the tourism industry.
www.GoPhilanthropic.com

atmosfair is an independent non-profit organisation based in Berlin, Germany and provides offsetting of air travel emissions on an established best practice basis. Individuals and companies can pay voluntary climate fees and therewith finance emission saving projects in developing countries that save the same amount of emissions elsewhere. In 2002 atmosfair has been established as a spin off from a research project of the German Federal Environment Ministry, with the aim to set high standards, making offsetting a trustworthy contribution towards climate protection.

atmosfair projects meet the highest environmental and climate protection standards regarding emissions calculation, project selection and funds allocation. Using serious monitoring mechanisms and detailed information, atmosfair guarantees that the money really goes where it should. www.atmosfair.de

Orange County Resorts & Hotels Ltd. is a public limited company that operates luxury resorts at Coorg and Kabini, in India. The core mission of the brand ‘Orange County’ is to provide enchanting, luxury holiday experiences, while preserving the purity of nature and culture at each destination. We truly believe that the concept of Responsible Tourism is a natural progression from the core mission of Orange County. With a sound RT poilicy in place, we hope to set new benchmarks for Responsible Tourism Initiatives in the luxury resorts segment.

Ethical Travel Portal (www.ethicaltravelportal.com) believes that the best way to learn about responsible tourism is to be in the destinations and learn from the “local experts” themselves. To give that opportunity we organise educational trips in responsible tourism together with local partners around the world. Our trips provide travellers learning experiences how tourism can make a difference and contribute to create better places. Aim is to give travellers an eye opening experience and knowledge to use in their (future) jobs, trips and to share with friends, colleagues and family back home.

ekoVenture is the only online adventure travel community that lets you find thousands of adventures from hundreds of the world’s best tour suppliers, book your trip online, and share your experiences with other travelers. 10% of profits are donated to sustainability organizations and to promote responsible travel.

"respontour.net is the media network for communicating responsible tourism initiatives from around the globe

The Fazendin Portfolio offers expertise in destination and travel industry marketing, sales and public relations with a solid track record and great respect in the travel industry. While our background is in marketing Eastern and Southern African travel experiences in the North American market, we foresee an opportunity to market a new portfolio that focuses on sustainable travel experiences not only in Africa but in India/Nepal and surrounding destinations. We envision combining like-minded small- to mid-sized travel companies that can benefit from shared/cost-effective increased marketing exposure in North America. If you’re interested in discussing further, please email [email protected]. We’ll continue to update the group as the idea is further developed.

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is a Netherlands-based international NGO that delivers capacity-building services to over 2,000 clients in 33 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Balkans. Tourism is a strategic choice in 20 countries with about 100 advisors.

In Ghana, SNV provides services to government, non-government and private sector organizations with the aim to broaden tourism interventions from supporting isolated and fragmented tourism activities to transform mainstream tourism as a powerful driver for creating income and employment for the poor in tourism destinations.

The pitch was to showcase Ghana’s new, still hidden but unique community based tourism enterprises in three remote Destinations of Ghana: Savannaland, WestCoast and Voltaregion; mostly Fringe communities around National Parks or Ramsar Sites are involved. This is a call for tour operators, networks and other initiatives to explore, get informed and put these products on the tourist map; a first step to link community based tourism products with the market is the recently opened GREET office (Ghana Rural Ecotourism and Travel Office) in Accra.

Traveltocare.com is a travel and holiday web-booking service that focuses entirely on environmentally, economically and socially responsible properties in South East Asia (though we are still trying to make headway in India!). Our ‘properties’ are across the board – ranging from homestays to private villas to beach resorts to Ayurvedic retreats – but what they all have in common, is that they make an effort to make sure that the ecological environment, local economies and communities around them are benefited by their presence, instead of being negatively impacted. For more information, please visit http://www.traveltocare.com or email [email protected]

socialtours.com is a three time Responsible Travel Award nominee and a soft adventure specialist outfit based in Kathmandu, Nepal. They lead responsible travel practice and promotion in Nepal and offer holiday experiences in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, India and Ghana. They were also nominees for the TravelMole Asia Web Awards 2008. Currently they are conducting an groundbreaking internal responsible tourism audit as well as exploring mechanisms to work jointly with other similar minded operators in the region for joint learning, hand holding, and increased exposure and visibility for the responsible tourism efforts in the region as a whole.

Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) is a policy-oriented research institute affiliated with Stanford University. We are committed to using tourism as a tool for poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. We offer a network of experts providing consultancies, research and field projects, publications, conferences and courses. Our core programs include Travelers’ Philanthropy, Market Research, Coastal and Marine Tourism, and Certification.

Green Visions is an eco tourism social enterprise, about youth tourism development in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Green Visions in a public private partnership with the GTZ (German development organization)has been developing a youth tourism network in Bosnia. the main aim is to support young people in developing sustainable tourism products and programs, as a way of addressing the high unemployment rate (45-50%) among the young. We focus on creating broad partnerships between ngo’s, go’s, business’ and (local & international)communities. ideas that are generated by youth are supported from start to finish. We provide education, training, lobbying, access to markets and creative linkages with both the profit and non profit sectors to all involved in the network.

The networking event was an important step to link the Bosnian open youth travel network to similar and complementary projects and products around the world.

Tour Dust www.tourdust.com is a new website offering authentic local experiences and free listings for RT companies

Incognito Mosquito www.lessmosquito.com a wonderful DEET-free product providing 50% DEET equivalent protection from mosquitoes and all insects using its unique formula. Produced with a sustainably sourced ingredients from Indonesian cooperatives, endorsed by Ewan McGregor and Davina McCall.

University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde
Sustainable Tourism Management

Our subject courses “Tourism, the Environment and Society” and “Tourism Economics” provide basic knowledge about sustainable tourism. In “Sustainable Destination Management”, "Sustainable Business Management" and “Ecotourism and Protected Area Management” you will learn how to combine economic, environmental and social aspects into an integrated management approach. “Marketing” as one of the most important tools of successful tourism development is another focus of our programme. Through the subject courses “Communication in Tourism” and “Tourism Information Technologies” you will gain more specialised skills which are nevertheless indispensable in modern tourism. At the end of the second semester we offer different elective modules (such as “Tourism in Developing Countries” and “Cultural Tourism”) which you may choose according to your specific personal interests.