Harold is WTM’s Responsible Tourism Advisor, he puts together the flagship Responsible Tourism programme at WTM London which attracted 4000 participants in 2020 and the programmes run at WTM Africa, WTM Latin America and Arabian Travel Market. Harold has worked on 4 continents with local communities, their governments and the inbound and outbound tourism industry. He is Managing Director of the Responsible Tourism Partnership and chairs the panels of judges for the World Responsible Tourism Awards and the other Awards in the family, Africa, India and Latin America. Harold works with industry, local communities, governments, and conservationists and undertakes consultancy and evaluations for companies, NGOs, governments, and international organisations. He is also a Director of the Institute of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he is an Emeritus Professor, and Founder Director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism promotes the principles of the Cape Town Declaration which he drafted.
There is more coverage of the issue of overtourism in the mainstream press than in the trade press. Understandably destination marketers and many governments dislike the word “overtourism” being associated ... Read more
The Responsible Tourism programme of talks, presentations, discussions and interviews held across all four WTM shows reflects the broad agenda of Responsible Tourism. At WTM London last week there were ... Read more
Organised by WTM London To become a Finalist in the World Responsible Tourism Awards is a significant achievement, it marks you out as a leader in Responsible Tourism; it carries ... Read more
Every year many of the world’s leaders in Responsible Tourism gather at WTM London and participate in the Responsible Tourism programme which forms a major part of the show, culminating ... Read more
Tomorrow is Global Ethics Day, inspired by Earth Day and established by the Carnegie Council. It is an opportunity to explore the meaning of ethics in international affairs. Much of ... Read more
The judges have deliberated long and hard after reviewing all the applications, longlisting and then shortlisting, the finalists for this year’s World Responsible Tourism Awards have finally been decided. There ... Read more
Most of the focus on overtourism has been on cities, but it is also a challenge in rural areas. I am writing this at RTD14 which is looking at the ... Read more
While there is little discussion of overtourism in the travel trade press and many destinations are in denial, the issue is hot in the national and local press. The issue ... Read more
Jost Krippendorf is the father of Responsible Tourism. In his seminal work on Holiday Makers, published in 1987, he foresaw the growth of the new form of tourism which had ... Read more
The overtourism issue has a great deal in common with the issue of climate change. We’ve known for a long time that the problem of overcrowding exists and that no ... Read more
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the progress TUI is making in implementing their 2015-2020 Better Holidays, Better World strategy. They have understood that, to make real progress ... Read more
The TUI Group operates in 180 destinations, employs 67,000 people in more than 100 countries and provides holiday services to around 20m people. In size, they are world leaders. With ... Read more
Yesterday activist travel company Responsible Travel launched Crowded Out, a documentary about the growth of overtourism which is a consequence of exponential growth in travel and tourism bumping up against ... Read more
Tourism and the hospitality industry are often criticised for creating local quality service employment. There are three major reasons for this. People tend to waiters and room attendants as the ... Read more
The judges can only select from amongst those that apply – if you know good candidates nominate them, phone or email them, and encourage them to apply. Don’t forget the ... Read more
The World Responsible Tourism Awards to be presented at WTM London in November are now open for nominations and applications. They close on 6th August and are free to enter. ... Read more
Responsible Tourism is about taking responsibility to address the issues that matter whether in a particular place or one that occurs in many areas. This year in WTM’s World Responsible ... Read more
Recent research published by TUI clearly shows that consumers expect the industry to take responsibility for ensuring that their product is sustainable. Research by booking.com found that 87% of global ... Read more
TUI recently published survey results on UK consumer demand. 62% of UK holidaymakers agree it makes them feel better when they know their holiday was organised with respect for nature ... Read more
As Jane Ashton, then with First Choice, said in a newspaper interview back in 2006 “‘The product we sell is the people and environment – so we have an obvious ... Read more
Thomas Cook has just launched a new three-year sustainability strategy, promising to “Make a Difference with Every Holiday”. Their ambition is to make a positive contribution to the destinations they ... Read more
Fifty years ago my father took me for a day trip to Boulogne, just across the channel from Ramsgate. He headed us straight for the back streets to see how ... Read more
There is mounting concern about orphanages and tourism around the world, but the response has been patchy. Our world is a diverse place and our understanding of orphanages varies between ... Read more
Globally aviation emits around 2% of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, bring its total emissions to around 5% of the global total; if aviation were a country it world rank ... Read more
It is a kind of pollution. There are of course several contenders. Carbon emissions and consequent global warming, soil degradation, overpopulation, biodiversity and plastics. It is not easy to decide ... Read more
2017 was the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. Taleb Rifai’s tenure of office as Secretary General of UNWTO closed at the turn of the year and I asked ... Read more
Looking back over 2017 the issue of governance has come to the fore. The challenge of overtourism has emerged as a cause of significant concern in part because it boiled ... Read more
The concept of the “curate’s egg” was first used in the British satirical magazine Punch by George du Maurier in November 1895. The curate was too timid to complain of ... Read more
At WTM London this month the least well-attended session of the Responsible Tourism programme was the one addressing climate change. We chose a panel of speakers from industry with experience ... Read more
Tuesday the 14th November 2007 was the first WTM & UNWTO World Responsible Tourism Day, today we are ten years on. This year at WTM London we looked back at ... Read more
With a new Responsible Tourism Theatre in the Africa Section (AS580) the Responsible Tourism programme is now firmly established down on the show floor. An experiment last year it was ... Read more
World Responsible Tourism Day is on Wednesday this year and our main focus is on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Tanya Beckett will be interviewing tourism leaders from UNWTO, TUI ... Read more
2017 is a transition year. responsibletravel.com has decided to pursue other priorities and to pioneer creative projects to deliver change through our business; our activism and Trip for a Trip ... Read more
With the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development focus on travelling with respect (#TravelEnjoyRespect) we have focused on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Respect is one of the core ... Read more
Word Responsible Tourism Awards have been presented at World Travel Market in London since 2004. Each year we have seen the bar rise, competition has been tough and the successive ... Read more
Modern slavery is an underground issue in the UK, it is hidden from view. Trafficking is at the heart of much of it. I know of no evidence that children ... Read more
Last Saturday the London Times led its front page with a photo of Mo Farah winning the 10,000m at the IAAF world championships. But the headline on the front page ... Read more
When you are working in the field trying to improve the livelihoods of local people this is the kind of email you want to receive: ““Hi – Peter , sorry ... Read more
The concept of shared value emerges from the writing of Harvard Professor Michael Porter– well-known for his previous work on competition strategy, value chains and cluster theory. In 2011, in ... Read more
Tourism and hospitality are labour intensive, with 8% of the global workforce employed in the sector. As the ILO has pointed out there are many highly skilled well trained professionals ... Read more
At the heart of Responsible Tourism are commitments to transparency and accountability. Responsible Tourism is about what people do, individually and collectively in businesses, to move towards sustainability. It is ... Read more
The purpose of consumer facing certification is presumably to assure the guest or client that the hotel they are planning to stay in, or the operator they plan to travel ... Read more
For many years the industry has asserted its economic and social importance. The WTTC suggests that travel & tourism is 10.2% of world GDP and that the sector employs 292 million ... Read more
The first Responsible Tourism panel on market access for SMEs and emerging entrepreneurs drew an audience of 90 to hear Enver Mally – originally an SME and now part of ... Read more
WTM, supported by the UNWTO, has sought to present examples of good practice to educate, inspire and challenge business and destinations to deliver on sustainability through WTM Responsible Tourism and ... Read more
How does a small archipelago cope with becoming Britain’s most successful cruise destination? In 2011 there were 36,000 cruise passengers, last year there were close to 100,000, projected to hit ... Read more
The Resolution of the 70th United Nations General Assembly to designate 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development has shone the spotlight on tourism. Tourism will either ... Read more
From a consumer or traveller perspective there are many answers, but it is not difficult for a traveller or holidaymaker to say why they are travelling. It could relate to ... Read more
The simple answer of course is that we should, because tourism is what we make it. We can make tourism better, we can use tourism to make better places to ... Read more
In 2008 when the Second International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations was held in Kerala there was overt and mounting hostility to the tourism industry in some of the ... Read more
Responsible Tourism is about using tourism to make better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit. 2017 is the UN’s International Year of Sustainable ... Read more
2016 brought the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump to be the next President of the USA, the full impact of these momentous changes in the government agendas ... Read more
Well almost. Thanks to the UK government’s Newton-Picarte science funding and the Economic and Social Research Council’s Impact Acceleration fund I was invited, through Bangor University, to Puerto Williams in ... Read more
We travel to enjoy other peoples’ places, the brochures and websites show us images of their natural and cultural environment the buildings and cafes the landscapes and wildlife. Increasingly those ... Read more
Airbnb is only one of many new distribution channels which are creating new opportunities for suppliers and consumers. Like previous disruptors it will probably face competition from other web based ... Read more
Simon Press, Senior Exhibition Director World Travel Market, toasted the ten years of Responsible Tourism at WTM and thanked all those who have become part of the WTM Responsible Tourism ... Read more
Responsible Tourism is about using tourism to make better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit. 2017 is the UN’s International Year of Sustainable ... Read more
A new challenge and a new word: “overtourism.” First used on twitter as #overtourism back in August 2012 it’s likely to become commonplace over the next few years. Its meaning ... Read more
Since 2004 when responsibletravel.com launch Responsible Tourism Awards I have been privileged to chair the judges for the Awards presented at WTM in London on World Responsible Tourism Day each ... Read more
Looking out of the lodge window at Rushaga in southwest Uganda close on the border with Congo and Rwanda the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest home to the fabled mountain gorillas presents ... Read more
Every year at WTM London we have about 2,000 participants across the various Responsible Tourism events, it is a big success but we want to reach still more people and ... Read more
The 2016 Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday 6 August, they were in London in 2012 and they will be in Tokyo in 2020. For 2024 there were originally ... Read more
The terrorist attack in Nice on Bastille Day celebrations last Thursday was shocking, the third mass casualty terrorist incident in 18 months in France. First the Charlie Hebdo, 12 dead; ... Read more
At this year’s WTM in London we shall be looking back at 20 years of Responsible Tourism in South Africa and in the UK – critically assessing how much progress ... Read more
There are winners and losers but more losers than winners. Back in 2014 Iceland’s Prime Minister said that climate change would be good for Iceland, melted ice caps would, he ... Read more
In the last few days the dependence of tourism on the wider economy and the disruption caused by conflicts within them has been highlighted. As 500,000 British holidaymakers headed for ... Read more
The panel on business resilience at WTM Africa last week explored the range of issues from drought to reputational risk that can threaten a tourism business. Two films which I ... Read more
20 years ago South Africa became the first country in the world to adopt Responsible Tourism as a central part of its national tourism development strategy. And 10 years ago ... Read more
I have been reminded of the feel good 1969 tv musical Silver Skates – it popularised the story, first published in 1865 by American author Mary Mapes Dodge, about the ... Read more
In 2013 the UN General Assembly decided to proclaim 3 March, the day of signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), ... Read more
The tourism industry facilitates travel creating wonderful opportunities for people to experience other peoples’ places and their cultures. Most of those who travel will be wealthier than those they encounter ... Read more
Tourism is by its very nature a difficult business to be in. Accommodation and transport providers, tour operators and guides are all more dependent for their business and their livelihoods ... Read more
Two big and difficult words – what are the implications of disintermediation for responsible tourism? ABTA, the British travel trade association, endorses responsibility in two areas. One of the key ... Read more
The last couple of months have seen dramatic weather events in all parts of the globe. Bush fires in Australia, flooding in India, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Honduras, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, ... Read more
I do not subscribe to the “great men or women” theory of history, but some people see the world differently, understand it differently ahead of the crowd. Generally, they are ... Read more
Child protection is an issue which is not going to go away – the industry cannot turn a blind eye to it. The challenge for the industry is much broader ... Read more
The Sackur panel interview last week at World Travel Market faced up to the challenge confronting us as a species. Derek Hanekon, the South African Minister of Tourism, argued that ... Read more
Many in the industry would probably say no. We often describe ourselves as travellers and visitors, in the same way that people complain about traffic without recognising that they are ... Read more
Responsible Tourism is about businesses, destination managers and travellers taking responsibility for the impacts of tourism, minimising the negative ones and maximising the positive. This year’s Responsible Tourism programme at ... Read more
The simplest definition of Responsible Tourism is that it is about using tourism to make better places to live in and better places to visit; in that order. At the ... Read more
In November 2014 ECPAT launched a new global Taskforce to tackle the rapid acceleration of sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism. Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, former UN Special ... Read more
2015 already looks set to be the hottest year on record. It means the three warmest years since records began in 1880 – 2015, 2014 and 2010 – will all ... Read more
Tourism can give rise to conflicts between local people whose home it is and groups of tourists who, despite being in the same place, sometimes have wildly different ideas about ... Read more
Today sees the publication of the finalists for the 2015 World Responsible Tourism Awards at WTM, the awards will be presented at World Travel Market London on World Responsible Tourism ... Read more
There have been protests in a number of honeypot European cities in the last couple of years. In Venice there is an anti-cruise ship campaign, in Berlin the local government ... Read more
I live in Faversham in Kent, a working town at the end of the motorway, traffic speeds by to Canterbury with its cathedral and World Heritage sites; to Margate with ... Read more
The origin of this often quoted maxim dates back at least to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), who is credited with “Hell is full of good intentions or desires.” It ... Read more
Last week was Child Protection Week in South Africa, but for the tourism industry child protection should be seen as a year-round issue. In just the last few weeks there ... Read more
Responsible Tourism and sustainable tourism are not the same thing. Sustainability is hard to define; it is an abstract idea of a better future for us, our children and our ... Read more
In this the 12th year of the Responsible Tourism Awards, 206 tourism businesses, organisations and initiatives from a record 69 countries have made the longlist.
There is a great deal more going on in Arabia than most people assume. The United Arab Emirates is a hard environment for man to survive in, as is much ... Read more
More and more mainstream tourism companies are embedding sustainability as a core part of their business. The arguments for doing so get stronger by the year
The case for responsible business has been long established and the advent of social media and user-generated content has amplified that case. For example, in the UK outbound operators have, ... Read more
As the judging begins for the inaugural African Responsible Tourism Awards, Harold Goodwin reflects on the significance of responsible tourism for the continent
As Garry Wilson, Mainstream Product & Purchasing Director for the TUI Group, argues in the above video, in an interview specially recorded for Cape Town and Africa, Responsible Tourism is ... Read more
Time is running out to nominate yourself or someone else for the World Responsible Tourism Awards. Help the world’s best tourism companies get the recognition they deserve