10 years of Responsible Tourism

This year’s World Responsible Tourism Day marks two significant anniversaries for World Travel Market (WTM) and for the development of responsible tourism across the industry as a whole.

November 8th will see the celebration of the 10th anniversary of World Responsible Tourism Day, held at WTM in London every year since 2007. Over the last decade this annual occasion has grown considerably, so that events now takes place not only at WTM in London, but also across WTM's global portfolio in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

World Travel Market’s Senior Director Simon Press will open the day, assessing the impact of what has grown to become the world's largest annual event dedicated to responsible tourism. As well as reflecting on WTM's decade of commitment to promoting responsible tourism, Press will look at the other major anniversary — the fact that it is 20 years since South Africa published its groundbreaking White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa, widely seen as a founding document for the development of responsible tourism and the first time the principles were committed to by a country for the development of its destination.

To mark this year’s multiple anniversaries, 2016 will see the spotlight turned onto some of the pioneers of responsible tourism themselves.

WTM has assembled a panel of leading figures from around the world, all of whom have long been instrumental in developing responsible tourism. They are: Dr. Venu Vasudevan, Principal Secretary, Kerala Tourism, and responsible for the state’s development and promotion of responsible tourism. Dr. Auliana Poon, Managing Director of Tourism Intelligence International, and author of the original South African white paper. Justin Francis, founder of responsibletravel. and of the annual responsible travel awards held at WTM. Jane Ashton, Director of Sustainable Development at TUI Group. Adama Bah, Director of the Institute of Travel and Tourism of Gambia. And Dr. Harold Goodwin, organiser of WTM's responsible tourism programme and for many years a leading voice promoting responsible tourism around the world.