9 - 11 April 2025
Cape Town
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Ignite Responsible Tourism
#IgniteAfrica

Celebrating Excellence in Responsible Tourism

Welcome to the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards – where we celebrate the trailblazers driving positive change across the African continent through sustainable tourism practices. In an era where responsible tourism is more critical than ever, these awards shine a spotlight on those who are not just meeting the demands of today’s eco-conscious travellers, but are pioneering initiatives that promote social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

The primary goal of the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards is to identify, honour, and amplify the efforts of businesses, destinations, and individuals whose initiatives are fostering transformation within Africa's tourism industry. By highlighting these remarkable contributions, we aim to inspire a broader movement towards responsible tourism that benefits local communities, preserves natural ecosystems, and creates lasting positive impact across the continent.

By celebrating and promoting the winners of these prestigious awards, we hope to inspire more businesses and destinations to follow suit, ensuring that responsible tourism becomes the standard, not the exception. Together, we can drive the change that Africa’s tourism industry needs to create a more sustainable future for all. 

The WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards are now open for applications. Submissions close on the 19th of March 2025 and will be presented at WTM Africa on 11th April, 2025.

We encourage you to enter the awards—remember, the judges can only choose from those who apply. If you know of businesses, destinations, or organizations that should be recognized, please encourage them to enter. Each year, the judges discover and showcase exceptional examples of those taking responsibility to #MakeTourismBetter.

To enter the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards, download the application form and submit it to [email protected]. The form is in Word format, so you can download it at your convenience and submit it with any supporting materials.

What sets these awards apart is not only the recognition of excellence on a continental scale but also the opportunity for winners to showcase their achievements on the global stage. Gold winners of the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards are automatically entered into the Global Responsible Tourism Awards, giving them the chance to amplify their success and inspire responsible tourism practices worldwide.

The Global Responsible Tourism Awards are sponsored by Sabre

How to Apply:

To apply for the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards, please follow these steps:

  1. Download the relevant application form by clicking the Download button below for the category you wish to apply for.

  2. Complete the form with the necessary details and supporting information.

  3. Submit your completed form to [email protected].

We look forward to receiving your application and learning more about your outstanding contributions to responsible tourism!

2025 Responsible Tourism Awards categories:

CAN AN ALL-INCLUSIVE BE RESPONSIBLE?
ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE
INCREASING LOCAL SOURCING – CREATING SHARED VALUE
PEACE & UNDERSTANDING
MANAGING WASTE: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, UPCYCLE
NATURE POSITIVE

1.   CAN AN ALL-INCLUSIVE BE RESPONSIBLE?

All-inclusive holidays and resorts are widely criticised, but other all-inclusive travel experiences are not. There are all-inclusive safaris in Africa, many in national parks, yacht charters in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the Americas, and all-inclusive cruises. There are all-inclusive holidays for the disabled and their families too. 

The criticism often appears to be tinged with disdain, dismissed as an inferior form of tourism denying economic opportunities to local businesses and delivering a third-best experience for those who book them, unless, of course, it is a luxury all-inclusive. They remain popular, a Disneyland Resort offers “a dream trip … that fits your family’s preferences and budget.”

With mounting concern about the impacts of overtourism on the guest experience and on local communities, are there all-inclusives that contribute to reducing negative impacts and enhancing the positive? 

Are there all-inclusives that 

  • Are genuinely and practically inclusive, enabling families with low or modest incomes to take a holiday knowing that the costs are within their means.
  • Provide holidays for the differently abled travelling alone or with family.
  • Prioritise sourcing locally produced food and beverages, soft furnishings staff uniforms etc.
  • Employ local staff on full-time or seasonal contracts, decasualising their employment and providing additional staff benefits.
  • Employing local people to provide entertainment and sports activities
  • Encouraging the purchase of local arts and crafts by showcasing local products and the work of artists and crafters within the hotel or resort. 
Download the Entry Form

2.   ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

The consequences of climate change are increasingly evident in storms and floods, drought and wildfires, and rising sea levels. We need to make more rapid progress in reducing emissions. Our burning of fossil fuels in the sector and our supply chains is contributing to generating global warming.  Businesses need to continue to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, not least because of the risks of stricter regulation likely to follow as people’s lives are impacted by extreme weather. In Valencia over 100,000 protested, demanding the resignation of the head of the regional administration “chanting ‘we are stained with mud, you are stained with blood’".

In common with other sectors, we now need to reduce our carbon emissions and protect our businesses and the destinations on which our sector depends against climate change. This year, we are broadening this award category to include both mitigation and adaptation.

We are looking for businesses and destinations actively contributing to the decarbonisation of tourism operations and exploring innovative ways to protect against threats to ensure business continuity.

This includes but is not limited to

  • Proven examples of emissions reduction in the travel & tourism sector.
  • Products, services or business models designed to limit, erase or counter the negative impact of travel and tourism-generated greenhouse gases on the environment.
  • Innovative strategies to future-proof destinations and businesses against the effects of climate change
  • Projects or experiences that engage tourists and/or communities in climate change awareness and look to inspire and influence others to reduce emissions
Download the Entry Form

3.   INCREASING LOCAL SOURCING – CREATING SHARED VALUE

As one of the world’s leading consumption sectors, tourism provides many economic benefits, including employment and business opportunities. Far too often, the money does not recirculate in the local economy or provide any benefit to the local people or environment. Tourism businesses can grow the local economy by spending on local goods and services and procuring services and products locally.

We are looking for businesses that have local purchasing practices in place and are actively working to create and promote local businesses and sole traders through their own supply chain and encouraging visitors to buy locally produced crafts and souvenirs.

This includes but is not limited to

  • Businesses that have created opportunities for local people as sole traders or SMMEs to profit from tourism, supporting them to start or grow local enterprises
  • Those that have created and encouraged visitors to purchase locally sourced souvenirs, use local services and employ local guides, surf schools and cooking classes are examples of how visitors' spending can improve local people's livelihoods.
  • Businesses that implement robust local supply chain policies that minimise economic leakage and support growth in the local economy. 
Download the Entry Form

4.   PEACE & UNDERSTANDING

Mark Twain argued that travel broadens the mind: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” Jost Krippendorf, in his seminal book The Holiday Makers, reminded us that “every individual tourist builds up or destroys human values while travelling”.  We all make choices about how we travel and about the tours and opportunities that we provide for our clients and guests.  Are we, in the words of the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter, providing tourists with the opportunities to make “more meaningful connections with local people and a greater understanding of local history and culture, and social and environmental issues” and/or offering “culturally sensitive experiences engendering respect between tourists and hosts, and building local pride and confidence.”

This includes but is not limited to

  • Efforts to promote understanding of “the other” and to encourage meaningful connections.
  • Initiatives designed to reduce conflict in destinations by using forums to benefit excluded or disadvantaged groups or to benefit the deprived. 
  • Tourism experiences designed to educate tourists about the causes of war and to foster peace 
Download the Entry Form

5.   MANAGING WASTE: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, UPCYCLE

Our businesses and supply chains produce waste; often, our guests bring it with them and “give it” to us. They leave it behind for us to deal with.

This year, we want to discover examples of good practice. We all know the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle, upcycle. The challenge is to do it.

We are looking for proven practical examples of how our sector can reduce waste and particularly where it can be used to create value in the community or be sequestered, providing use or commercial value.

This includes but is not limited to:

  • Providing waste to crafters to turn into products which can be sold to tourists and locals 
  • Supplying potable water in glass bottles and removing plastic from your operations
  • Upcycling waste glass, plastic bags etc
  • Selling upcycled products and using them in your business
  • Upcycling and sequestering waste plastic by turning it, for example, into furniture or using it to provide walkways or hard surfaces, bat or bird boxes etc
  • Collecting waste to prevent it from entering water courses and adding to the gyres of waste in the oceans. 
Download the Entry Form

6.   NATURE POSITIVE

Wildlife and the natural environment are important drivers for travel. The travel and tourism sector depends on nature's beauty to provide its goods and services, yet tourism can negatively impact the places we visit.

The tourism sector has a responsibility to contribute to the reversal of biodiversity loss and protect nature for future generations by promoting a regenerative approach to tourism.

We are looking for businesses that act as guardians of biodiversity and take a regenerative approach to their operations.

This includes but is not limited to

  • Businesses that contribute to rebuilding and replenishing the natural environment and reduce the negative impacts caused by tourism
  • Businesses that have developed ways for people to have meaningful and close encounters with wildlife without causing harm to the species or their environment  
  • Businesses and protected area managers that ensure that local communities benefit from nature-based tourism and that they, too, can experience the value of it
  • Educate travellers and raise awareness of the importance of protecting the environment.
Download the Entry Form

Why enter the Awards

Glynn O'Leary of Transfrontier Parks Destinations on why it makes business sense to enter the Awards

Our Judging Criteria

We are looking for examples that will inspire and challenge others to take more responsibility for managing tourism to make it more sustainable, minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive. The WTM Awards continue to use the same criteria that were used for the World Responsible Tourism Awards in 2016. We expect leaders in Responsible Tourism to have established practices with the following characteristics:

1. Evidence-based: The panel is looking for evidence of real change, businesses which can convincingly demonstrate positive impacts, or reduced negative impacts, quantified wherever possible.

2. Replicability: The Awards aim to inspire change; we seek to identify examples of best practices that can be replicated across the sector and around the world.

3. Innovation: The judges are looking for innovative practices that make a real difference, the Awards highlight new good practices, which the judges believe, can, and should, become common practice.

4. Influence: We look for businesses and organizations that are not only doing good work themselves but are using their influence to ensure their peers and suppliers do the same.

5. Sustainability and longevity: The judges seek to Award those businesses that understand that taking responsibility for tourism is a long journey, that it encompasses the economic, social, and environmental impacts of their activities, and who have a clear vision for the long- term success of the work, with future targets and plans in place.

6. Overall commitment to Responsible Tourism: Alongside the category-specific focus, there needs to be a clear overall commitment to positively impacting local communities, economies, cultures, and environments.

2024 Responsible Tourism Award Winners 

WTM Africa’s Responsible Tourism awards spotlighted champions in the space for initiatives truly making a difference. Our winners have been judged critically based on evidence and we hope will further encourage the industry to follow suit.

These are the reasons that the judges chose to recognise these businesses and organisations in the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards.  The Gold winners are automatically entered into the Global Responsible Tourism Awards. 

Nature Positive
 

Gold: Denis Private Island – Seychelles

Silver: ! Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre – South Africa

One to Watch HBD Príncipe - São Tomé and Príncipe

One to Watch Plett Ocean – South Africa

Employing and Upskilling Local Communities

2024 GLOBAL AWARD WINNER: Grootbos Lodge & the Green Futures College – South Africa

Silver: Save Wildlife - Uganda

One to Watch Matoke Tours – Uganda

One to Watch HBD Principe - São Tomé and Príncipe

Making Tourism Inclusive
 

Gold: Warrior on Wheels Foundation – South Africa 

One to Watch: Bontel Adventures – Kenya 

What are you doing about Climate Change?

Gold:  Ecodrop – Zimbabwe

Silver: Century City Conference Centre – South Africa 

One to Watch: Sunsail and The Moorings

Increasing Local Sourcing
 

Gold: Okavango Gin

Silver:  Muhabura Cultural Experience and Craft Centre – Uganda 

Championing Cultural Diversity

Gold: Trip to Help - Kenya & Tanzania through an online agency registered in Spain

Silver: Traditional African Homestays - South Africa

One to Watch: Come Make We Go – Nigeria 

One to Watch: Cultural Oneness Festival Ghana

Interested in learning more about Responsible Tourism and travelling sustainably? Here's a good start:

► Website - http://responsibletourismpartnership....

► RT Hub - Responsible Tourism Hub - Responsible Tourism Partnership

► Blog - http://haroldgoodwin.info/

► Twitter - https://twitter.com/NewsRtp

► Amazon - Responsible Tourism 2nd Ed. http://bit.ly/RespTourism

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