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.