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RT Awards Global Winners 2023

There are eight businesses recognised in the 2023 Global Responsible Tourism Awards, all those that won Gold in the Regional World Responsible Tourism Awards from Africa, India and Latin America, were entered into these Global Awards.

Follow the links to the judges’ reasons and a short video about each of those being recognised 

  • Lemala – Best for Tackling Plastic Waste – Tanzania   link
  • Ngwenya Glass – Best for Local Sourcing Craft and Food – Eswatini link
  • Rede Batuc – Best for Diversity and Inclusion – Brazil  link
  • RT Mission Kerala, Best for Local Sourcing Craft and Food – India link
  • Soar Excursions, Best for Meaningful Connections – India  link
  • Uthando – Best for Meaningful Connections – South Africa link
  • Weeva – Best for Addressing Climate Change – Global, out of Africa link
  • Wildlife Act – Best for Nature-Based Tourism – South Africa  link

Today’s London Evening Standard has a great piece about the Awards 

Meet the Global Awards Judges

There were 6 Awards categories in 2023

  1. Best for Tackling Plastic Waste 

Plastic waste is one of the major environmental crises impacting the health of our planet. The tourism industry generates waste through single-use plastics. The sector also suffers from plastic waste generated by others which pollutes water courses and beaches and adds to littering in destinations. Destinations and tourism businesses can address plastic waste by banning single-use plastics, removing plastic from public spaces and nature, and disposing of it safely. Initiatives that upcycle waste plastic and sequester it, generating sufficient revenue to pay for waste plastic to be collected, can take the plastic waste out of our environment at scale. Our oceans require urgent action at scale. The judges are looking for examples where a tourism business or destination has developed ways of removing plastic waste.

  1. Best for Meaningful Connections

Some forms of tourism build relationships between visitors and communities through the experiences they provide, treating visitors as “temporary residents”; they generate repeat ‘guests’ who will return many times, some yearly. Storytelling plays a role in creating meaningful connections. These benefit both the host and the guest. Where the local community is empowered in shaping the tourism offer, they will, as hosts, encounter tourists who value their place and what it offers. The guests have a great holiday, recommend the place to their friends and relatives and are likely to return.

  1. Best for Local Sourcing, Craft and Food

Sense of place contributes to the tourist experience. Local tastes of food and beverages, soft furnishings, and art and craft souvenirs enrich the visitor experience and the local community by creating additional livelihood opportunities. These are complementary products that grow the local tourism economy. The livelihood benefits of tourism for local communities are greater when tourism businesses, tour operators, guides, accommodation providers, restaurants, cafes, bars and tourism authorities and local governments encourage the development of local craft and food production for visitors.

  1. Addressing Climate Change

Each year the impact of climate change becomes more evident and, for many, more extreme. Drought, floods, wildfires, and extreme weather conditions cause devastation for communities and businesses in destinations on all continents. The judges are looking for examples of initiatives which

  • reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport, accommodation, attractions and tourism services in destinations, and
  • Increase the resilience of tourism businesses and destinations in the face of climate change.

The Responsible Tourism Awards aspire to recognise businesses and destinations addressing climate change and to encourage others to adapt and adopt similar initiatives. We must increase our resilience to live with climate change and reduce emissions to avoid making it worse for our children.

  1. Best for Diversity and Inclusion

Tourism relies on diversity. We travel to experience other peoples’ places, climates, built heritage, lived culture and the world’s diverse nature. But how diverse and inclusive is our industry?

The judges are looking for examples of inclusive tourism, in employment and in the experiences offered to tourists. The judges are seeking to recognise

  • tourism businesses that avoid gender, ethnic and LGBTQ+ discrimination and which employ the differently abled; and
  • businesses and destinations which have created safe and meaningful visitor experiences for women, the differently abled, LGBTQ+  and travellers from the diaspora, making accessible to all our cultural diversity.
  1. Best for Nature-Positive Tourism

Wildlife and the natural environment are important motivations for travel. Nature is essential to our industry, those who transport travellers to wildlife destinations, those who provide accommodation, and the tour operators and guides who market it and make it accessible. The judges are seeking examples of tourism businesses and destinations that reduce negative impacts and positively impact the maintenance of the natural environment and biodiversity.

Original article published here.

To enter this year’s WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards, click here.

Africa Travel Week

Africa Travel Week (ATW) focuses on inbound and outbound markets for general leisure tourism, luxury travel, LGBTQ+ travel and the MICE/business travel sector as well as travel technology. Shows include: ILTM Africa, WTM Africa, EQUAL Africa, ibtm AFRICA, Travel Forward, Sports & Events Tourism Exchange and African Tourism Investment Summit.