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.

Our Awards have a home!

We are pleased to announce that our awards this year will be held in conjunction with CSR Asia's Annual Summit, a gathering of CSR (corporate social responsibility) professionals from around the world.

This is what they have to say:

"Running for the 7th time in 2009, the CSR Asia Summit is our annual flagship event which aims to be the most innovative and challenging conference on CSR in the Asia-Pacific region. Amidst the global economic crisis, CSR is more important than ever. With the theme “Sustainable Business as the Road to Recovery”, the event will explore key CSR issues and strategies to demonstrate leadership in times of turbulence. The topics will be focused on Asia and bring new insights for businesses, governments, NGOs and other CSR practitioners."

For more about the event, click here.

Sign up for our annual workshop!

Our annual “RT in Action” (CSR in Travel) Training Workshop is a 2-day workshop and will be held on the 29th-30th October 2009.

This workshop provides a background to sustainability principles in tourism and numerous case studies from the region. The workshop aims to address property owners, managers and tourism professionals. The media will also be invited to attend the workshop in order to increase reach and make this a truly engaging workshop. By sharing the winners’ best practices, and demonstrating how easy and beneficial Responsible Tourism is to implement, we hope to inspire change with other operators.

Who should attend?
We are targeting the workshop at practitioners (managers or business owners) and will be focusing on practical examples from Asia. We also think people who sell tourism (marketing managers) would also benefit from the workshop. It will help you understand what you will be marketing and more importantly, help you market meaningfully.

Details ("RT in Action" Training Workshop):
Date: 29th-30th October 2009
Participation fee : USD120 ( 2-day workshop)
**Seats are limited so do book a place early to avoid disappointment!**

View the latest workshop programme.

Contact us and book today!!

** Want to know more about the "RT in Action" Training Workshop? **

Click here for more information!!

Supporters needed

Be a partner for this year's awards and help us make a difference!

Learn more about it from our website....we have sponsorship packages that range from title sponsorship to smaller contributions.

Please view our presentation online here.