Awards now open!

"Nominations are now open till 21st June 2009! "
Submit YOUR ENTRIES now!

Wild Asia is looking to hear from accommodation operators from across Asia (big or small, privately run or community driven). The awards, now in it's fourth year is one of the only awards for Responsible Tourism that's actually driven by Asians! All entries are screened by Wild Asia's team using a self-assessment checklist (now aligned to UNWTO's Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria) and all finalists are visited by a team of fact-finders. The winners will be announced this year at CSR Asia's Annual Summit in Kuala Lumpur 28-30th October 2009.

For more information on this awards, visit our website: Wild Asia.

**Any inquiries about this awards, request for the Entry Form or need to submit the entry form, do send email to : "rt@wildasia.org" **

The Judges for RTA 2009

The judging for the 2009 RT Awards will be led by :

• Dr Reza Azmi and Su Mei Toh (http://www.wildasia.org)
• Ian Hall (http://arkitrek.com/)
  
• Mei Leong (http://rethinktravel.blogspot.com).

Our judges and a team of "fact finders" will be sent out to visit all finalists and to collect more evidence of best practices. These site visits will be reported back to the judging panel whom will be tasked with selecting a winner from each category.

As with previous years, emphasis will be placed on the following criteria:

+ Sense of place — whether tourists understand their destinations better through operators’ efforts.
+ Sustainability — whether these RT efforts are long-term.
+ Involvement of guests — do the operators involve their guests in their RT practices?
+ Internalisation — how much is sustainability part of the day-to-day operations?
+ Reach — are the ideas and practices shared across the destination or industry?

What makes the awards different is that our site visits are as much about us learning from real practitioners, as well as, a chance to share best practices we have learnt from our trips. All visits are documented and used to develop educational resources (training/leaflets) and used to generate stories on each property.

What the judges found last year: Earth friendly retreats.