Responsible Travel

Image: Arctic Sounds

I've just come across a great website called Responsible Travel.
They handpick inspiring holidays from all over the globe to give a fantastic experience to the traveller at the same time as making a real difference to local people and the environment.

I thought...so it's basically The Body Shop of travel agencies... then, when reading the 'About Us' section I discovered it was actually set up by a former Head of Marketing at The Body Shop (UK). responsibletravel.com was even financially backed by a small group of private investors including Anita and Gordon Roddick!

So how does it work?
From their website:
We do not claim to have addressed every single issue relating to responsible travel, as these are both complex and variable in each destination. Rather, we have created a way for the industry and tourists to work openly together to improve tourism for travellers and local communities.

All industry members have been screened to meet the required environmental, social and economic criteria for responsibletravel.com. You will find summaries of how they have achieved this, and their full responsible travel policies on the site. In addition, we require a short summary of the responsible travel aspects of every trip and form of accommodation on the site.


I like it.


I'm thinking about going to India in January for a holiday but also to visit Teddy Exports (the Fair Trade community where we get all our massagers from). I'm not sure if it works for people travelling from Australia but I'm definitely going to check it out.

www.responsibletravel.com