Green Tourism Award Winners

The winners of the inugural Green Tourism Awards. Happy Days!The winners of the inaugural Green Tourism Week Awards were announced yesterday evening at a ceremony in London hosted by Tony Juniper.

Goldstar Winners: The winners of the 'Goldstar awards' (sponsored by Beacon Purchasing), ie. the ten highest GTBS achievers of the last 12 months in terms of innovation, ambassadorship and cost savings, were:

Maximillion Events, Edinburgh
Arcola Theatre, London
Battlesteads Hotel, Northumbria
Cote How Guest House, Cumbria
Cwmbiga Farm Partnership, Powys
Dolbeare Park, Cornwall
Lochranza Youth Hostel, Isle of Arran
Strattons Hotel, Norfolk
Treshnish & Haunn Cottages, Isle of Mull
Wheeldon Trees Farm Holiday Cottages, Derbyshire

Best Performance for Lowest Carbon Footprint (in categories of: hotel, bed and breakfast, guesthouse, self-catering and holiday park), sponsored by Ecover:

Dolbeare Park, Cornwall (Holiday Park)
Treshnish & Haunn Cottages, Isle of Mull (Self-catering)
Lifton Hall Hotel & Village Inn, Devon (Hotel)
Signal Rock Cottage B & B, Glencoe (Bed and breakfast)
Silversprings, Devon (Guesthouse)

Best Performance for Carbon Reduction for a Hotel Chain (sponsored by the BSI hotel, travel and meetings management business): 
Ramada Jarvis

‘Green Traveller’ Award: 
Nicholas Crane

The awards were hosted at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in London. Endorsed by VisitEngland, the week and awards have been organised by the Green Tourism Business Scheme tourism eco-label with the aim "of highlighting the bottom-line benefits of green-mindedness to tourism businesses". 

The judges were:
Tony Juniper - also patron of Green Tourism Week
Richard Hammond of greentraveller.co.uk
Andrea Nicholas and John Proctor, Green Tourism Business Scheme
John Firrell, Director of the Considerate Hoteliers Association

left to right: John Proctor, Andrea Nicholas and Tony Juniper. Going green is good for business!Tony Juniper, patron of Green Tourism Week, said: "Going green sometimes seems to involve sacrifice, or somehow going against the interests of good business. The winners of the Goldstar award for Green Tourism demonstrate that the opposite is in fact the case.

"The winners, including name of business here, have demonstrated how it is not only possible to go green while attracting customers, but makes good business sense in any event. By cutting emissions and waste it is possible to cut costs and increasingly attract those customers who are looking to lighten their impact on the Earth.

"I have been hugely impressed by the efforts made by name of business and am delighted that their pioneering efforts are paying off in terms of customer loyalty and increased bookings."

Richard Hammond of greentraveller.co.uk, said: ‘We're delighted that Nicholas Crane has accepted the greentraveller award. Through his journalism and television work, he has inspired millions of people that travelling with a lighter footprint - on foot or by bike, bus and train - is not only the more environmentally friendly way to travel, but that it can also be great fun."

Andrea Nicholas, managing director of the Green Tourism Business Scheme, said: "Many congratulations to all of our winners. In judging these awards we have seen so many impressive achievements, initiatives and innovations – as well as attitudes.

"We wanted an opportunity to highlight some of the exemplary practices undertaken by GTBS members and the cost savings they have made and to help educate and inform those businesses who have not yet made a green commitment. Holding a focused Green Week with an awards ceremony for some of our greenest members is a great platform to get out the message that being green can benefit your bottom-line."

Congratulations to all the winners from The Greentraveller Team.