Nominations are open for the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2008, founded and organised by responsibletravel.com with UK media partners Telegraph Travel and Geographical Magazine, and World Travel Market, hosting the Awards ceremony in November 2008 in London. The deadline for the nominations is Monday 16 June.

Justin Francis, founder of Responsibletravel, announced that there are 13 categories this year including, for the first time, Best Responsible Cruise Operator. He said: ‘the cruise and ferry industry has received a great deal of attention recently concerning its impact on local environments and our aim is to encourage and reward positive and innovative changes’.

As I have commented on responsibletravel’s blog and Planeta’s Forum, I think the inclusion of this category in an award that ‘celebrates the future of travelling in a sensitive, sustainable way - that benefits local people and destinations’ is totally inappropriate. Even though some cruise operators are planning to improve their energy efficiency and waste management, the industry is still one of the most unsustainable examples of tourism, both for its heavy impact on the environment and for its all inclusive formula.

Francis said that if there is not a credible ‘winner’ they will not make an Award in this category, which would make a statement in its own right. I am wondering what sort of credible winner they are looking for.

There has been a 30% increase of cruise holidays in the past year and I don’t think this growth should be encouraged any further. I am not against rewarding positive changes, but including this industry in a responsible tourism award might sound a bit like legitimating green-washing.

I am not sure also about the category ‘Best in a marine environment’ (awarding an organisation related to a beach or other marine environment, such as turtle conservation or a marine eco-tourism trip) being sponsored by Royal Caribbean…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 8:43 am and is filed under conservation, responsible travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.