Slum like to be responsible

Travellers, thankfully, care more about the planet than ever before. And Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards prove they also care about creating better places for people to live in and visit.

The winner of the 2012 overall award, presented at World Travel Market at London’s ExCel this week, was Reality Tours and Travel for its tours of Mumbai’s Dharavi slums. The judges said: “We were really impressed by this fully integrated approach to realising the social purpose of using tourism to raise awareness of the reality of slum life, good and bad, and to raise money from its business and customers to assist the community in Dharavi to develop.”

Reality Tours and Travel (www.realitytoursandtravel.com) was set up in 2005 and offers city and village tours in Mumbai and beyond, with resources helping families in the community (above). Another 14 awards, in categories from wildlife conservation to carbon reduction initiatives, were presented by Justin Francis, MD of awards founders responsibletravel.com, and Amanda Wills, MD of headline sponsors Virgin Holidays.

Justin said: “We’ve cast the net far and wide and received over 1,000 nominations for organisations of all sizes and types globally. It gives me great confidence that responsible tourism is flourishing, and provides further inspiration for our industry.”

Amanda added: “The awards remind us of what can be achieved with ingenuity, passion and commitment. They are also an opportunity for us to stop, be inspired, and remember why being ‘responsible’ in business should be – must be – second nature.”

Visit www.responsibletravel.com/awards/winners/2012 to see all the winners.