Nominations for the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2008 closed on Monday 16 June. Nominations were up on last year with 1900 nominations received. Evidence that interest in Responsible Tourism is growing, and make the job of the judges more challenging.

Katie Frewing of Responsible Travel adds "We have seen some great nominations come in – some old faces but some brand new ones too! - with a good spread across the 13 categories.

The nominations are now with the team from Harold Goodwin’s International Centre for Responsible Tourism.  They are going through them, checking responsible tourism policies and doing background research to decide who should make the long list in each category.