WTTC awards back controversial “gamechanging” or “greenwashing” web mogul

Judgement time for Tripadvisor Green Leaders scheme in Tourism for Tomorrow Award

Accused of both greenwash and greenrinse, the controversial Green Leaders scheme launched by Tripadvisor, is up for a Tourism for Tomorrow award.

The new board of judges, headed by Fiona Jeffery, ex boss of WTM, and including Graham Miller of Surrey University, has announced the latest 15 finalists for this year’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards.

The awards scheme is run by WTTC – which is composed of the CEOs of the world’s 100 largest travel and tourism organizations.

The Tourism for Tomorrow finalists include such initiatives as Ljubliana (destination award), Jordan’s Fenyan Ecolodge (community award) Soneva Group (environment award) and Spain’s Confortel (people award). The giant Tripadvisor is up against  ABTA’s animal welfare scheme and Mexico’s RED sustainable travel in the innovation award section.

Controversy about the Tripadvisor scheme is hotting up today on Facebook  and on Linkedin’s Responsible Travel and Tourism

The main arguments against the Tripadvisor scheme are that existing third-party green certification schemes are excluded and that web or physical visitors are less able than trained auditors to evaluate deep sustainability – in particular behind house initiatives such as boilers and energy use. On the other hand luminary Professor Harold Goodwin of ICRT lauds the scheme as being so big it’s "Gamechanging" and others say that Tripadvisor’s vast footprint will make more travel people aware of sustainability in general.

Concerning this year’s awards in general- Lead Judge, Graham Miller, said; "The calibre of applications this year was exceptionally high and the judges were particularly excited by the diversity of organisations who applied. This year, the finalists include excellent examples of a slum tour, city and accessible tourism, as well as eco-lodges which have been leading the way in sustainable tourism development for many years."

The Finalists of the 2015 WTTC Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are:

Community Award finalists, whose organisations are committed to sustainable tourism leadership in local community development, empowerment and cultural heritage

• Fenyan Ecolodge, Jordan
• Grootbos Nature Reserve, South Africa
• Reality Tours & Travel, India

Destination Award finalists, who show commitment to supporting and delivering sustainable tourism best practices in their destinations:

• Ljubljana,  Slovenia
• Northeast and Yilan Coast, Taiwan
• Sozopol,  Bulgaria

Environment Award finalists, whose organisations and companies achieved environmental best practice through biodiversity conservation, protection of natural habitats, addressing climate change, and green operations:

• Laguna Lodge Eco-Resort & Nature Reserve, Guatemala
• Rivers Fiji, Fiji
• Soneva Group, Maldives and Thailand

Innovation Award finalists, who provided innovative solutions to overcoming the challenges faced by Travel & Tourism in implementing sustainability in practice:

• ABTA Global Welfare Guidance for Animals in Tourism, United Kingdom
• RED   Sustainable Travel, Mexico
• TripAdvisor, GreenLeaders, USA

People Award finalists, who are dedicated to the development of capacity building, training and education to build a skilled tourism workforce for the future.

• Confortel, Spain
• Global Travel & Tourism Partnership, USA
• Mountain, Shepherds Initiative, India

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