Responsible Tourism Awards 2006

The First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards celebrate those doing their bit for planet and people, reports Richard Hammond...

BEST TOUR OPERATOR
Winner: Intrepid Travel (www.intrepidtravel.com, Australia, which runs small-group adventure holidays in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, The Middle East, Antarctica and Australasia.

Highly Commended: Wilderness Scotland (www.wildernessscotland.com), Scotland, which runs walking and adventure holidays throughout the highlands and islands of Scotland.

BEST LARGE HOTEL (more than 50 rooms)
Winner: Orchid Hotel, Bombay, India (www.orchid-hotel.co.uk, 00 91 22 2616 4040). This five-star, 245-room hotel next to Bombay airport describes itself as “luxury with responsibility”. It has introduced numerous innovative energy-efficient schemes, such as reusing all discharged water, adopting a “zero garbage” policy and using aerators and flow restrictors in all taps, which the hotel says reduces water consumption by 50 per cent.

Highly commended: Hotel de la Paix, Siem Reap, Cambodia (www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com, 00 855 6 396 6000), a boutique hotel that supports a number of local organisations which provide training and education for young Cambodians.

Bedruthan Steps Hotel, England (www.bedruthan.com/, 01637 860555), an eco-friendly hotel in Cornwall, which offers 10 per cent discount to guests arriving by public transport.

BEST SMALL HOTEL (fewer than 50 rooms)
Winner: Il Ngwesi Community Lodge, northern Kenya (www.lewa.org/ilngwesi_lodge.php, 00 254 64 31405). This is an eight-room luxury lodge on the edge of the Mukogodo Hills. It is co-owned by 634 Masai households, who share 40 per cent of the profits, and has become Kenya’s flagship community-owned lodge, providing the inspiration for socially responsible tourism initiatives throughout East Africa.

Highly commended: Posada Amazonas Lodge (www.perunature.com, 00 51 1 421 8347), a community-run eco-lodge in Peru’s Amazon rainforest, which supports forest and wildlife conservation and research.

Sukau Rainforest Lodge, Malaysia (www.sukau.com, 00 60 88 438300), an eco-lodge in Borneo’s jungle.

BEST MODE OF TRANSPORT OR INITIATIVE
Winner: Bittern Line Community Rail Partnership, (www.bitternline.com, 0845 6007245). This is a UK-based partnership between the rail industry, local authorities and other national organisations (such as the National Trust and RSPB), which has encouraged drivers to switch to public transport in the North Norfolk Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has promoted linkage between rail services and local bus services.

Highly commended: SolarLab, UK (www.solarlab.org, 020-8962 9425), a design company that has developed transport initiatives that use solar energy, from solar boats to photovoltaic- powered rickshaws.

First Choice Airways (www.firstchoice.co.uk, 0870 850 3999), is one of the few airlines that has disclosed data on its environmental impact and provided targets on how it intends to mitigate it.

BEST IN A MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT
Winner: Whistler Blackcomb Mountain Resorts, Canada (www.whistlerblackcomb.com, 001 604 932 3434). British Columbia’s premier ski resort has produced an environmental management system that addresses land stewardship, waste reduction, water quality, conservation and energy management of mountain areas. The report has become the guiding document in the industry. The company runs a car-pooling programme that has cut C02 emissions substantially.

Highly commended: Ski Club of Great Britain’s Respect the Mountain Campaign (www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/respectthemountain, 020-8410 2000) has raised awareness among skiers, snowboarders and the UK snowsports industry about climate change and the impact it will have on the mountain environment.

World Expeditions (www.worldexpeditions.co.uk, 020-8870 2600), a global adventure travel company that has pioneered porter protection in mountain environments, particularly in the Himalayas and Andes.

BEST IN A MARINE ENVIRONMENT
Winner: Wakatobi Dive Resort, Indonesia (www.wakatobi.com, 00 62 361 759669). A luxury dive resort on the island of Onemobaa in the Wakatobi archipelago in southeast Sulawesi, which has developed a grassroots conservation programme. Every guest pays £5, which goes towards a reef- management programme, which the company set up with the local villages to establish reef sanctuaries and encourage small-group dive ecotourism as an alternative to fishing. In the ten years since it was founded the scheme has helped to protect 12km of seagrass beds, mangroves and reef tops.

Highly commended: Basata Ecolodge, Egypt (www.basata.com, 00 20 69 500481). This ecolodge of tents, bamboo huts and mud-brick houses employs Bedouin and has set up an NGO to manage solid-waste management in the Gulf of Aqaba.

Dyer Island Cruises, South Africa (www.whalewatchsa.com, 00 27 82 801 8014). Promotes awareness of the effect of litter on marine wildlife and sea birds.

BEST FOR POVERTY REDUCTION
Winner: Ol Malo Trust, Kenya (www.olmalo.com). Book through Tribes (www.tribes.co.uk, 01728 685971). A community charity run with the Ol Malo Eco Lodge on a previously overgrazed cattle ranch in Samburuland, northern Kenya. The trust has helped to transform it into a conservation site, establish water sources and organise health clinics and surgical camps. The trust’s eye project has helped to eradicate trachoma in the area, where it affects more than 82 per cent of adults over the age of 30.

Highly commended: Guludo Beach Lodge, Mozambique (www.guludo.com, 01323 766655). An exclusive eco-lodge that is pioneering the adoption of the principles of fair trade in an area of extreme poverty.

Shinta Mani Hotel and Institute of Hospitality, Cambodia www.shintamani.com, 00 855 63 761 998), an 18-room boutique hotel in Siem Reap, which helps fund local community projects.

The Blue Yonder, India (www.theblueyonder.com, 00 91 92 8722 0333), a tailor-made travel company that has helped to raise funds to regenerate a dying river in the southern state of Kerala.

BEST FOR A PROTECTED AREA
Winner: Napo Wildlife Centre, Ecuador (www.ecoecuador.org). An upmarket eco-lodge that is helping to protect the lowland rainforest of Yasuni National Park — a Unesco Biosphere Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The lodge is jointly owned by a team of biologists and the local Anangu community, who use their share of profits primarily for education and healthcare.

Highly commended: Damaraland Camp, Namibia (www.wilderness-safaris.com, 00 27 11 807 1800). A small community-run camp that has ensured the survival of the Torra Conservancy — one of Namibia’s first protected wildlife areas.

BEST FOR CONSERVATION OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
Winner: Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa (www.tswalu.com, 00 27 53 781 9234. A conservation project at the foot of the Korannaberg Mountains, 300km northwest of Kimberley, which has helped to restore 1,000sq km of the Kalahari savannah. It has reintroduced cheetah and wild dogs to the reserve, as well as tsessebe antelope and mountain zebra, and the number of black rhino in the reserve has grown from 8 to 24.

Highly Commended: Wildlife Worldwide, UK (www.wildlifeworldwide.com, 0845 1306981), a worldwide wildlife-watching travel company that has raised £50,000 for saving critically endangered species and local communities living alongside them.

BEST FOR INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Winner: Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN), South Africa (www.benbikes.org.za, 00 27 21 671 4655). An innovative cycling-tour company operating township tours with a difference. The company uses locally run cycle workshops in the Xhosa community to recondition abandoned bikes, which it then uses to operate cycling tours of the Masiphumelele township in Cape Town employing local tour guides. The aim is to provide tourists with a more intimate experience than traditional air-conditioned bus tours, while helping to stimulate small township businesses.

Highly commended: Friday’s Place, India (www.kukimedia.com/fridaysplace, 01428 741510), a solar-powered eco- lodge in Kerala, which has developed a hydro- dynamically shaped building that the owner says is able to withstand a tsunami.

The Trelowarren Estate, UK www.trelowarren.co.uk, 01326 222105), a time-share property in Cornwall that has installed a biomass heating system, which saves 240 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

BEST VOLUNTEERING PROGRAMME
Winner: Biosphere Expeditions, UK (www.biosphere-expeditions.org, 0870 4460801). A voluntary conservation company that organises wildlife research and conservation expeditions worldwide. The company guarantees to spend at least two thirds of expedition income directly in the country it is visiting, uses local guides, cooks, drivers and porters, and puts up volunteers in locally owned accommodation. Significant achievements include the prevention of the cull of 50 wolves in the Carpathian Mountains.

Highly commended: Blue Ventures, UK (www.blueventures.org, 020-8341 9819), which works with local communities to protect marine resources in Madagascar, Tanzania, New Zealand, South Africa and the Comoros Islands.

BEST DESTINATION
A new award category for a resort, village or an entire country that manages tourism well for the long-term benefit of tourists, conservation and local people.

Winner: Aspen, Colorado, US. Aspen is not only one of North America’s top ski areas, but Aspen Skiing Company (www.aspensnowmass.com, 001 970 925 1220), which manages its ski resorts, is leading the way in showing how resorts can green up their operations. The company operates four ski areas (Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, and Snowmass) as well as two hotels (the five-star Little Nell and the Snowmass Club), as well as 15 mountain restaurants. It is the first ISO 14001 (an internationally recognised standard for environmental management systems) certified resort in the US, uses biodiesel in its snow groomers and offsets all of its electricity through buying wind-energy certificates.

Highly commended: The Green Box, Ireland (www.greenbox.ie, 00 353 071 9856 898). A membership organisation that has helped to develop an EU eco-label for accommodation providers in northwest Ireland.

Travel Foundation Tobago (www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk, 0117 9273049), the Tobago arm of the UK-based charity the Travel Foundation, which has helped to facilitate the use of local farmers’ produce by the island’s hotels.

OUTSTANDING PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION
Winner: Mark Smith, UK. Mark Smith is “the Man in Seat Sixty-One”, the lone inspiration behind the dedicated website www.seat61.com, which provides detailed information on organising and booking train travel to the Continent. He describes himself as a “career railwayman” and when he is not working on the day job (administering government regulation of fares and ticketing on Britain’s railways) he is off travelling the world by train. Harold Goodwin, chairman of the judging panel, said Mark impressed him because “his passion for trains through the creation of his website has led thousands to discover the potential of this low-carbon- emitting method of transport”.

Highly commended: Ian Craig, conservationist, who helped to set up the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya (www.lewa.org, 00 254 20 607 893), which has developed tourism alongside wildlife conservation with local communities.

Jake Grieves-Cook, who for the past 30 years has worked with the Masai in Kenya to create safe havens for wildlife at the boundaries of national parks. Jake runs Gamewatchers Safaris (www.porini.com, 00 254 20 712 3129) and is chairman of the Ecotourism Society of Kenya (www.ecotourismkenya.org).

The judges
Harold Goodwin, chair of judges, and professor of responsible tourism management at Leeds University; Cath Urquhart, Travel Editor, The Times; Fiona Jeffery, group exhibition director of the World Travel Market; Neel Inamdar, ecotourism business adviser, Conservation International; Tricia Barnett, director, Tourism Concern; Sue Hurdle, director, Travel Foundation; Justin Francis, managing director, "responsible travel.com"; Debbie Hindle, managing director, BGB & Associates; Andy Cooper, director general, FTO; Frances Tuke, PR manager, ABTA; Ian Reynolds, formerly of ABTA; Graeme Gourlay, publisher, Geographical magazine; Richard Hammond, journalist and editor of www.greentraveller.co.uk.

This article, by Richard Hammond, was first published in the Times.