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The process begins now – the judges can only select from amongst those who are nominated, so play your part – encourage those you know to be taking responsibility for making tourism better to participate this year, they may be there are overall winner in London at WTM on World Responsible Tourism Day on November 8th. This year’s categories are:
Best accommodation for responsible employment
Best contribution to wildlife conservation – sponsored by Florida Keys and Key West Tourist Development Council
Best innovation by a tour operator
Best for poverty reduction and inclusion – sponsored by the Tobago House of Assembly
Best responsible tourism campaign
Click here to submit an entry into the 2016 World Responsible Tourism Awards.
The themes for this year's International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations is seasonality and water. RTD12 takes place in Jyvaskyla in northern Finland during the white nights. Can seasons be extended responsibly? Or how to make each season attractive in a responsible way? What do different dimensions of responsibility mean in practice within four seasons in nature? Participants come from the tourism sector and from academia to discuss seasonality and water and to look for practical solutions to these challenges. Keynote presentations from Professors Swarbrooke, Hall & Goodwin and from Finland Päivi Halinen, Terhi Hoo, Niina Pietikäinen, Matti Pollari and Kaarina Tervo-Kankare. Come to the conference and enjoy Finland’s northern beauty and experience the white nights. Conference website
There are two seminars at WTM Africa for accommodation providers and tour operators about how to gain business advantage from RT - the accommodation providers Business Seminar is just before the show opens at 08:00 on Wednesday 6th - the speakers include Matthias Leisinger who will be talking about Kuoni's purchasing and hoteliers. The Business Seminar for Tour Operators has speakers from SATSA. There are panels on resilience, the bottom line and wildlife.
The full programme can be seen online
The Atlantic Council has reported that the reduction in tourism revenues might knock more than half a percentage point off economic growth.
"Turkey’s tourism industry and economy are suffering following terror attacks in Istanbul and a chilling of the relationship with Moscow. Economists forecast that tourism revenue will tumble by a quarter this year, costing the country around $8 billion. While overall visitor numbers to Turkey fell by a relatively modest 1.6 percent last year, the signs are not good before the May to October peak season, when Turkey usually earns around 70 percent of its tourism revenues. Turkey has lost its number two market for tourism, Russians, amid an economic crisis at home and political tensions between Moscow and Ankara." More Greece is expecting as many as 900,000 Russians to arrive in Greece this year. and they are expecting to see a surge in late bookings in the eastern Aegean if the number of refugees landing on Greek shores keeps falling. More
The Africa Responsible Tourism Awards  will be presented at WTM Africa on Thursday 07 April at 16:30
You can find the longlist here. The winners will be posted here.
The regional government in Palma has determined that the new tourist tax, dubbed the Eco Tax, will be introduced from July 1st 2016. The tax will be charged by the hoteliers. The tax ranges from €0.5 to €2.00 per night in the season, between November and April the tax will be halved and after 10 nights the tax is halved. The tax will be distributed by a committee which has not yet been formed, used to develop tourism infrastructure, training, cultural heritage, investments in social and health facilities. With buoyant demand, it is widely assumed that this time, the tax  is here to stay.
Exploring the involvement of marginalised or less powerful groups in the production of tourism and the sharing of benefits from tourism. Examples will be provided from the North and South, e.g. a social enterprise involving refugees in Sweden, and how hotels are promoting community development in small island states.
Symposium on Inclusive Tourism in Gothenburg, Sweden 13-15 April 2016
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Government of the People’s Republic of China will organize the First World Conference on Tourism for Development in Beijing on 18-21 May 2016. Under the theme ‘Tourism for Peace and Development’, the event aims to kick start a high-level debate on the contribution of tourism to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Outlook Traveller has announced the winners of their Best of Travel Readers' Survey Awards in Delhi and announced that, with ResponsibleTravel.com and Harold Goodwin, they will be launching the Indian Responsible Tourism Awards later this year. Part of the family of World Responsible Tourism Awards, they will recognise those in India who are taking responsibility to use tourism to make better places for people to live in. They will be using the same criteria and methodology as we use for the WRTA presented at WTM in November each year on World Responsible Tourism Day.
The latest edition of Progress in Responsible Tourism has articles explaining the judges decisions for the 2015 World Responsible Tourism Awards; why sustainable tourism projects fail; risk management in the hospitality industry;  extreme weather events and the torusm industry; and two articles on communicating sustainability in hotels.
Responsible Tourism News is a newsletter of record carrying the 10 most important Responsible Tourism stories of the month. Please forward to those you think may be interested – you can subscribe here. If you wish to contribute a story email harold@haroldgoodwin.info or post it on our RTNews Facebook page.
Harold Goodwin’s Responsible Tourism Blog
Twitter: @goodwinhj  & @WTM_WRTD #responsibletourism
