There are so many amazing sights to see in the world, but without responsible tourism, they may not be around forever to enjoy. In the hopes of encouraging tourism to be more respectful to the planet, the World Responsible Tourism Awards celebrates those locations that exemplify these beliefs. They will also be showcasing the best examples of Inclusive Tourism, with Disabled Access Awards being presented to those who endeavor to include people of all abilities.
These awards seek to highlight and honor locations that respect the culture, biodiversity, and the inclusion of people with a disability who are seeking a holiday that includes and caters to their needs and desires as well. Responsible tourism is the only way to make sure that locations can be enjoyed for generations to come by all people and these awards hope to spread awareness to encourage tourism preservation and respect for all people and cultures.
Last year’s big winner at the event was the LooLa Adventure Resort, located in Indonesia. They are pioneers in the region with regards to social responsibility, ecotourism, and sustainability. LooLa Adventure resort surpasses even the self-proclaimed leaders of green businesses on the island in these fields. They are also unique in the fact that they employ a staff of locals to keep the local community working but they also fully support their staff to become entrepreneurs on their own in order to find success. They really are role models in the industry and are a company that others should aspire to.
For the animal lovers out there, the big winner of the Best Animal Welfare Initiative was the Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH). This organization is hoping to end the practice of canned hunting that is popular in South Africa.
An important category to our readers is that the World Responsible Tourism Awards celebrates the Best Accommodation for Disability Access. It is encouraging that these awards support those tourism locations to be accessible by people of all walks of life, whether they have a disability or not.
In the ‘Best Accommodation for Disability Access’ category, the 2015 three winners are accommodations where inclusivity is so ingrained that guests with all kinds of disabilities are quite simply, just guests. They offer unique, aspirational holiday experiences and include mobile tented safari camps in remote areas of Southern Africa, a chain of Scandinavian hotels offering chic-design and stylish city-breaks, and beautiful rural apartments in Spain offering on-site activities such as quad-biking and horseriding.
The 2015 top winners in this category were:
Scandic Hotels, a series of hotels found within the Nordic countries, Poland, Belgium and Germany, takes hospitality in this field to a whole new level. They excel in the field of wheelchair accessible travel holiday. Scandic Hotels have a link on their website called “Special Needs”, where they discuss traveling with all types of accessibility issues. They also have wheelchair friendly rooms, though they offer them in a different manner than the typical generic statements. They offer measurements and other resources to help travelers make decisions that are right for them.
Endeavour Safaris, located in Northern Botswana but offering safaris to South Africa and Namibia as well. They cater to people with a varying level of disabilities to help them get the best experience possible while enjoying the great outdoors. It is all inclusive so everyone can enjoy a vacation with them. Check out the African holiday for wheelchair users Travel Deals offered by Endeavour.
RuralSuite Hotel Apartamentos in rural Spain won the Silver Tourism Awards for their apartments with accessible kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. The common areas, from the outdoor Jacuzzi to the restaurant are also designed with accessibility in mind. Activities at the hotel are inclusive, with adapted quad bike trips around their vast estate, horseriding and cycling just a few of the things to do here.
To see more on the Disabled Access Winners, check out the category here.
The entries for the World Tourism Awards 2016 will open up on Tuesday, March 29th 2016. If you would like nominate or to keep up to date with these awards, you can follow @RTAwards or #WRTA2016 on Twitter or keep up with their website at http://www.responsibletravel.com/awards/ .