The Times story covering the 2007 Virgin Responsible Travel Awards available here.

Always a great way to find out about the cream of the crop from the sustainable tourism industry.

2007 was a big year for responsible travel, it is a growing market and undoubtedly 2008 will be even harder to judge.

Unfortunetly, the awards process really focuses on the larger shows in town, the example of Finca Esperanza, a small community based tourism project in Nicaragua is the only one of its kind. I know it must be hard to quantify the comparative 'sustainability' of the little finca and a 4 star hotel chain based in the UK, but I really hope to see a lot more small operators in next years competition.


Tourism values two things that are ignored by economic analysis from other businesses, namely unique culture and untouched natural beauty.



FACTS :


  • Tourism is one of the leading engines of economic growth, job creation and income re-distribution around the world today. Accounting for $ 883 billion USD in 2006, put another way, international tourism earns nearly $ 2.4 billion USD per day.
  • Between 1995 and 2005 the number of international travelers increased at a rate of 4.1 percent annually, exceeding 883 million in 2005 and is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2020. This represents the largest peacetime, non-migratory population movement in history.
  • Like any other industry in the 21st century, tourism has a powerful and transformative effect on local landscapes; economies, cultures and environments. Unlike other industries, tourism relies on the original attractiveness of local landscapes for its own survival. As such, the tourism economy cannot be as blindly developed as other industries, and requires unique attention to sustainable management if the benefits and revenues of tourism are to be ongoing.