World Travel & Tourism Council Names Tourism for Tomorrow Award Winners

At the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) 12th Global Summit in Tokyo, three companies and one destination from four continents were recognized for their best practices in sustainable tourism as winners of the Tourism for Tomorrow awards. The four winners were selected from 12 award finalists and announced onstage during the opening ceremony of Global Summit.

The WTTC’s Tourism for Tomorrow awards recognize companies, organizations and destinations around the world for outstanding sustainable tourism achievements. They are the only global sustainable tourism awards that include on-site evaluation inspections of all finalists, conducted by a team of expert international judges. The 2012 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards winners come from South America, North America, Europe and Asia. The winners are:

Community Benefit Award: Saunders Hotel Group, U.S.A., a local family-owned hotel group that has been a leader in sustainable tourism practices as far back as the early 1980s, when it converted an old police building in Boston into an historic hotel and worked with local community partners to build affordable housing in the same area. Through initiatives that are driven and supported by all levels of their staff, the group supports dozens of local charity and non-profit groups with a combination of financial backing, volunteer time and in-kind resources that goes far beyond most corporate social responsibility efforts.

Conservation Award: Inkaterra, Peru, which has long-term conservation stewardship of 38,000 acres of rainforest in the Amazon basin and 25 acres of cloud forest within the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary. Founded in 1975, Inkaterra has grown into a renowned biodiversity research and conservation tourism company operating five hotels in the Sanctuary of Machu Picchu and the Madre de Dios area of the Amazon rainforest. As well as providing a 100 percent carbon neutral hotel stay for every guest, Inkaterra has continued to implement many self-supported, sustainable tourism projects to facilitate a better understanding among tourists and local peoples about the need to protect fragile habitats in the Andes and the Amazon of Peru.

Destination Stewardship Award: Destination Røros, Norway, which provides a multi-stakeholder approach to creating a thriving sustainable tourism destination in the old mining town of Røros, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since the end of mining in the late 1970s, Destination Røros has been instrumental in reversing the area’s environmental degradation, guided by a management plan that actively engages and builds cooperation among local communities, municipal authorities and private sector stakeholders. Emphasis is placed on demonstrating that historical cultural sites and formerly degraded natural areas can be revitalized through sustainable development, thereby bringing tangible economic benefits to the local people. Destination Røros also is a pilot project for Norway’s countrywide Sustainable Tourism Initiative.

Global Tourism Business Award: Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, headquartered in Singapore, has a longstanding commitment to sustainability and creating tourism value recognition among stakeholders to support the protection of diverse natural and cultural heritage in worldwide destinations ranging from Mexico to China. Banyan Tree works through a three-pillar strategy: enhancing efficiency in environmental operations, conserving natural heritage and biodiversity, and social and economic empowerment of local people in the countries and regions where it operates. Banyan Tree has also fully integrated sustainability monitoring and evaluation across the company, including its annual reports, in addition to issuing annual stand-alone sustainability performance reports that document projects, successes and challenges. The company has done this for more than a decade, while also being one of the first global hospitality companies in the world to ban the sale of shark’s fin in all of their hotels in 2006.