Tourism stakeholders across Africa have just one month to get their entries in for the WTM World Responsible Tourism Awards 2021. This year, regional awards have been introduced for the first time – including Africa, India and Latin America.
Furthermore, in another first, all the Gold winners will have a chance to win an inaugural WTM World Responsible Tourism Global Award. Each of the six categories will have its own global winner, chosen from the four regional winners. The regional Gold and Silver Awards recipients, and the new global winners, will be announced at WTM Virtual, taking place between November 8 and 9 this year.
Winners will be chosen by a group of industry experts, led by Harold Goodwin, Responsible Tourism Adviser for WTM, who will meet online to allow for an internationally diverse panel.
This year’s categories reflect the relationship between tourism, responsibility and COVID-19:
- Decarbonising Travel & Tourism
- Sustaining Employees and Communities through the Pandemic
- Destinations Building Back Better Post-COVID
- Increasing Diversity in Tourism: How inclusive is our industry?
- Reducing Plastic Waste in the Environment
- Growing the Local Economic Benefit
Entries must be submitted by August 31 online by clicking here.
Conservation and community are Africa’s key tourism assets, says Megan Oberholzer, Reed Exhibitions South Africa Portfolio Director – Travel, Tourism & Creative Industries. As such, the continent is a leading example for responsible tourism and the awards provide a platform for worthy initiatives to get well-deserved international recognition.
Launched in 2002, the awards seek to recognise and reward businesses and destinations that are contributing to a more sustainable and responsible tourism industry, based on the simple principle that all types of tourism, from niche to mainstream, can, and should, be organised in a way that preserves, respects and benefits destinations and local people.