Booking your next holiday? Consider these six trailblazing travel firms making the world a better place

This year’s Global Responsible Tourism Award winners demonstrate that travel can be inclusive, climate-friendly, nature-positive and a positive force for local communities.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Responsible Tourism Awards are a standard bearer for the positive side of the travel industry. Run by the non-profit International Centre for Responsible Tourism Global, the awards aim to showcase the benefits of tourism and inspire other firms to do the same.  

Awards like these are particularly important at a time when tourism is under pressure. With global travel and tourism numbers back to pre-pandemic levels and one in 10 people employed in the industry, the need to improve the sector’s environmental, economic and cultural impact is clear. Lifting up businesses that give back to their local communities creates a win-win for tourists and locals alike. And for travellers interested in supporting local culture, having extraordinary nature experiences and a ensuring a responsible travel industry, the winning firms have demonstrated their ability to do that and more. 

Tess Longfield, head of sustainability communications at Sabre, who sponsors the awards, commented that extraordinary work is being done by all the winners to create a more sustainable and equitable world through tourism. “It’s a testament to the power of responsible travel to make a real difference,” she said.

From a private ecolodge in South Africa to a volunteering organisation in a Peruvian biosphere reserve, these are the firms to book with in 2024 and beyond:

This five-star ecolodge set in 3,500 hectares of South African wilderness is constantly researching pioneering ways of doing things to improve the lives of the local community and protect the fragile landscapes and wildlife that surround it.

As well as offering unique tourism experiences to guests, such as guided walks to the flora-rich fynbos and coastal safaris in in waters teeming with great white sharks and dolphins, Grootbos’ lodge provides ecotourism jobs to the local community. Profits from the lodge fund the Grootbos Foundation, which gives free skills and business training for hundreds of local people in the areas of hospitality, horticulture, entrepreneurship and biodiversity. It creates a ripple effect that’s much needed during a period of serious unemployment in South Africa.

The judging team called Grootbos “an exemplary business that others can learn from”, praising the way that it constantly pushes the boundaries and explores new ways of developing responsible tourism. 

“Grootbos cares about community and conservation,” said Phil Murray, fundraising, donor relations and communications manager at Grootbos Foundation. “Neither can be ignored, and both can mutually benefit from programmes and a responsible tourism business that prizes people and planet.”

Rajasthan Studio curates art experiences with master artisans in Rajasthan, allowing travellers to experience, understand and value the local culture of the place they are visiting. Travellers can visit master artists at their homes and studios, meet their families, see the process behind making local handicrafts and co-create a personalised souvenir with the crafter.

The experiences include an insight into rare and unique art forms like puppetry and the blue pottery of Jaipur, pichwai art and sea foam carving of Udaipur, leather juttis and tie dye of Jodhpur and much more. The idea is to build a community of artists and scale the business to different parts of Rajasthan, and eventually across India. 

“Rajasthan as a state is blessed with a wonderful art heritage and travellers are eager to explore every bit of it,” said company founder Kartik Gaggar. “But why should we limit it to exploring? We asked the same question and the answer was: let’s turn it into an experience.” 

The judges were impressed with how Gaggar has created an immersive cultural experience that both economically benefits artists and enriches travellers. They called it a “highly replicable approach”.

Today, the company offers more than 20 hand-on art experiences in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur, with plans to include artists from Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Bundi and Kota in the near future.

As this year’s protests have been demonstrating, tourism has an impact on local people as much as visitors. Sivatel Bangkok was this year’s winner for its innovative approach that brings together local providers to directly help the community.

The hotel sources 70% of its ingredients organically and partners with more than 50 local farmers through the Sivatel’s Farmer Friends Network. It also supports local producers and fosters a sustainable ecosystem through the “Sivatel Sustainable Market”, a pop-up market within the hotel where local artisans and food producers can sell their wares to travellers. Uniforms are designed by Folkcharm, a local sustainable fashion brand that supports local artisans.

Perhaps most uniquely, it runs a “From Kitchen to Chicken” programme, diverting hotel food scraps to feed black soldier fly larvae, which are then used as protein for organic chickens at a local chicken farm, where the hotel then sources its meat.

The judging panel found Sivatel Bangkok’s structured programme based around regenerative agriculture and funding impressive, along with the way it sources and trains local providers. 

“We believe that to live on this Earth, we cannot live alone but must support each other,” said Sivatel CEO Alisara Sivayathorn.

With a business that serves more than six million holidaymakers a year, TUI is one of the best-known tourism brands in Europe. Its deep and comprehensive commitment to inclusivity impressed the judges: the tour operator has devised a unique way to help those with access needs book their accommodations.

Among TUI’s many initiatives, they have 90 dedicated agents in their contact centre who have had specialist accessibility training; the team has partnered with AccessAble to survey hotels and develop detailed access guides; and also works with Sign Live to provide interpreting services for British Sign Language Users. 

“Around one in four of the UK population lives with a disability or condition that impacts their daily life,” said Marina Snellenberg, TUI’s accessibility manager, “and the prevalence of disability rises sharply with age. It’s important that TUI consider the needs and expectations of the disabled community, allowing for a sustained and deliverable customer experience for years to come.” 

Judges were pleased to see a major tour operator address the needs of those with access needs so comprehensively, and hope that others will follow their example.

This award celebrates a small hotel group in Sri Lanka that is actively decarbonising its operations, showing that even smaller players can take meaningful steps towards sustainability and inspire others while doing so.  

In a tropical climate like Sri Lanka, air conditioning can consume up to 60% of a hotel’s energy needs. Across its 19 hotels, Jetwing Hotels uses renewable energy from biomass, solar PV, solar thermal and biogas for power. In 2023, the hotel group generated the equivalent of the power needed for about 13,490 households through renewable energy alone. The company has also shortened its supply chain, reducing transport emissions, and is now sourcing 40% of their inputs locally to their hotels.

“By reducing energy costs and promoting a culture of environmental responsibility among our staff and guests, we ensure that our business practices are not only beneficial for the environment but also economically viable,” said managing director Dmitri Cooray, “Our success shows that even the smallest efforts can create a ripple effect, encouraging others to make impactful changes.”

The award founders believe that the travel industry has a responsibility to contribute to the reversal of biodiversity loss and protect nature for future generations by promoting a regenerative approach to tourism. CREES, a Peruvian company offering tours and volunteering opportunities in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, is this year’s winner of the Nature Positive award.

This educational tourism operation is working to benefit local people and conserve biodiversity at its three research stations in the Manu National Park that are home to one of the longest running and largest biodiversity studies in the Amazon. Guests get to witness conservation efforts first hand, exploring the rainforest in the company of the centre’s naturalist guides, and participating in ongoing projects like checking pitfall traps, monitoring birdlife and taking visual surveys of reptiles and amphibians at night. Many of the projects monitor the life of the forest in newly regenerated forest areas, replanted by the team’s conservationists, as a way to understand species recovery. 

Judges were particularly impressed by how CREES approaches its work, citing its broad and holistic agenda aimed at promoting sustainable alternatives that respect human rights, intergenerational rights, biodiversity rights and the rights of species to ensure long-term sustainable economic development, as key factors in its win.