What is the organic or fair trade label worth?   more »

Thomas Cook is, I think, being misunderstood - WEF is the clue.   more »

Businesses which bring staff and children into close proximity need to consider their child protection polices and their implementation   more »

Headlines in today's Independent Holiday costs set to soar – even if you've already paid Travel giant to levy extra charges on travellers to cover the costs of currency fluctuations   more »

Titanic cruises are selling well. The oxymoron of “sustainable development” is giving way to “green growth”. A new aspiration but one we consistently fail achieve, many are not trying. We continue to lose the battle, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.   more »

2011 has been a good year for Responsible Tourism. In April in a spirit of Ubuntu, with cakes and ale, we celebrated ten years of Responsible Tourism. ........   more »

Where tourism threatens human rights enlightened companies address the issues.   more »

Orphanages and Child Trafficking in Cambodia and Indonesia . It is time for everyone in travel and tourism to take responsibility - claiming ignorance is no defence.   more »

Why should our museums be free to foreign tourists? It is a good question.   more »

There is good reason to be concerned about some of the potential negative impacts of volunteering   more »

I enjoyed it – you probably would too.   more »

Geotourism should be defined as tourism which sustains and enhances the identity of a territory, taking into consideration its geology, environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents. Geological tourism is one of the multiple components of geotourism.   more »

Our objective is to educate, inspire and to challenge the industry to take responsibility for making tourism more sustainable, this year there was a little more challenging, a little more controversy.   more »

The Armenian Orthodox Church, proposed a seven Year Plan to green the holy city of Etchmiadzin; the Muslims announced a plan for a network of Al-Kher cities (cities which are “beneficial, wonderful and beautiful”) and that Medina in Saudi Arabia would become a Green Pilgrim City alongside nine other Muslim cities; the Jewish Seven Year Plan proposes greening Jerusalem so that a place that is holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims around the world becomes a model of sustainability.   more »

Imagine if all the resources of time and money expended over the last two years in developing a list had been deployed on addressing issues on the ground.   more »

Veronica Tonge, one of the ICRT's alumni, organised a one day conference at the Ski & Snowboard Show at Earls ...   more »

Travel and tourism does not cause trafficking - but unless we are vigilant we can be used to facilitate it. Time to take effective action and to take responsibility.   more »

Will this reduce donations?   more »

The transparent process of reporting, the open forum for discussions about the programme to date and the willingness to have the programme externally reviewed has meant that the strengths and weaknesses of the initiatives have been assessed and the lessons learned, laying a strong basis for the extension of the approach across the state.   more »

Daily Mail confirms that APD is just a revenue tax it is not news, but now it is confrmed.   more »

In South Africa tourism product owners will be required to apply standards that promote and enhance the integrity of South Africa as a destination.   more »

The first weekend of the Masters in Responsible Tourism Management at Leeds Met coincided with our Indian summer. As usual ...   more »

Businesses would be well advised to discourage reviewers posting until they have left the premises   more »

ResponsibleTravel.com has played a major role in the success of the Responsible Tourism Movement in the UK and around the world.   more »

It is not clear to me what the GSTC adds to the many existing schemes, it may even detract – through the lowest common denominator effect. Comment here is welcome.   more »

So who is responsible? What is the truth?   more »

Listening to the presentations and the discussion it was striking how far ahead ABTA, the UK’s Travel Association and leading operators Thomas Cook and TUI are on CSR – they have realised that CSR is more than a bit of philanthropy, they have recognised that it is about how they do their business.   more »

From ethics to the exercise of responsibility - time for action? Transparency is at the heart of responsibility, it is not about the label or the words – it is about what we do. It is about how we manage our impacts, enhancing the positive and minimising the negative, we need to share that transparently with other businesses and with the consumers. We choose which issues we recognise and which we do something about. As Dawid de Villiers pointed out we all have a responsibility to do what we can make better places for people to live in and for people to visit – in that order.   more »

Over the years a number of business people have suggested to me that the government would abandon the Responsible Tourism strategy which has been doggedly pursued since 1996. On the contrary the new Department of Tourism under the leadership of the Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk has worked with the South African Bureau of Standards to produce a technical and legally enforceable standard about what Responsible Tourism means in South Africa based on the 1996 White Paper.   more »

“It’s not the sort of thing you want to see on holiday; there was a real stench. “My children were quite distressed by it. These people should be a bit more considerate to the holidaymakers.”   more »