*By Gustavo Pinto

The travel and tourism sector in Latin America has made great progress in its efforts for a more responsible industry since the beginning of the pandemic caused by COVID-19. The awakening by the “build back better” is evident in the demand for the content produced by WTM Latin America throughout this year, also the award ceremony of the first edition of the WTM Latin America Responsible Tourism Award (which you can see and review here), broadcast in April, and the 05 responsible tourism panels that were part of the programming of the virtual edition of the event, held last August (available here).

In addition, we broadly see the desire for industry-wide accountability. EMBRAER has just announced it has plans to have its carbon neutral operations by 2040; Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations have announced their plans to become “single-use plastic free“; innovative digital platforms such as Komu were designed, uniting Latin America for more professional and strong community-based tourism in the market; and the Instituto Vivejar ,of which I am president, has had since the beginning of the pandemic more than 800 professionals from the industry enrolled in its course “Responsible Tourism: Taking your Project off the Paper.”

With so many advances, WTM Latin America is proud to support the adoption by tourist destinations and enterprises of strategies that make our activity a strategy for sustainable development in our continent.

Therefore, we announce the second edition of the WTM Latin America Responsible Tourism Award, scheduled for the 2022 edition of the event, next April.

This year we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Cape Town Declaration for responsible tourism, a historic milestone that represents the union of the various industry players for real advances in sustainability and taking responsibility for all who work in our industry.

Following the celebration of this date, which takes place in the next edition of WTM London next November, the Latin America Responsible Tourism Awards will present awards in 06 categories:

. Decarbonization of the travel and tourism industry

. Support for employees and communities during the pandemic

. Destinations that support more sustainable post-COVID reconstruction

. Increased Diversity in Tourism: How inclusive is our industry?

. Reduction of the use of plastic in the environment

. Increased local economic benefit.

Those applying for the global award are already automatically included as competitors for the Latin American edition. But we want to hear even more stories!

Whether your story can inspire others in the travel and tourism industry in our competitor; if you have created strategies that make places in better destinations to live and visit – or if you know any initiative that could compete for our award, do not hesitate: send your application by day 30 November.

And we await you at the awards ceremony in São Paulo, in the next edition of the Responsible Tourism Award. We are waiting for you!