Last month UNESCO inscribed another 21 sites onto the World Heritage List, including the amazing observatory of Jantar Mantar in Delhi, the canals of central Amsterdam and the At Turaif District in ad-Dir’iyah, Saudi Arabia.

I know all of these sites, having holidayed in both Delhi and Amsterdam and having visited ad-Dir’iyah, the capital of the first Saudi state, many times during the time I was based in Riyadh working alongside the Supreme Commission for Tourism (now the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities – SCTA).  The architecture of Jantar Mantar is certainly stunning – almost abstract in places and looking like a contemporary skatepark. The site was a lunar and celestial observatory and is testament to the scientific knowledge and spirit of inquiry of the time.  Amsterdam’s canals are an iconic aspect of the city’s urban form and reflect the ingenuity of the town’s inhabitants in terms of managing flood control as well as facilitating trade.  (more…)

Nominations for this years Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards closed last night. There were 1,756 nominations this year, nearly 100 more than last year.
There were 594 unique nominations, up a few on last year. As usual a few businesses and individuals had encouraged their nomination this does not affect the judging process, either way. The nominations are not votes.
Students, alumni and associated of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism now begin the hard work of sifting through the nominations and developing the lists of those who go to the next stage.
Result will be announced at World Travel Market in November on World Responsible Tourism Day.

The aim of the report Visit England has commissioned ICRT to write  is to encourage companies that do good sustainability work to not be shy about communicating it, and to understand the value it can have in engaging with customers before, during and after their trip. We aren’t looking at communicating sustainability as a separate aspect of normal business, but how it can be integrated, mostly implicitly but possibly also explicitly, in the way you market and communicate. (more…)

The Shared Scholarship Scheme is a joint initiative between the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (with funding from DFID) and UK universities, to support scholarships for students from developing Commonwealth countries who would not otherwise be able to study in the United Kingdom, to study the MSc Responsible Tourism Management (contact Jo Jagger) (more…)

Visiting Professor David Grant joins Leeds Met and brings with him The Travel Law Quarterly, the only journal which specialises in travel law and aimed at travel industry professionals, travel lawyers, regulators, academics and students of travel law – both in the UK and abroad. It covers all aspects of travel law: travel agency, tour operations, cruise law, air law, timeshare, hotel law as well as the regulation and licensing of the travel industry.

The Travel Law Quarterly has been adopted as the ‘Official Journal’ of the International Bar Association Leisure Industries Section. ICRT will be working with Prof Grant to publish, research and train on the relationship between responsible tourism and the law. www.tlq.travel

I visited Oman over the New Year, to present to various Omani authorities about greening the Asian Beach Games. I found it to be a beautiful, welcoming and hospitable country.  It has a modern infrastructure, developed over the last four decades under the guidance of its thoughtful and forward-thinking leader, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. It is in large part attributable to him that Oman is simultaneously international in outlook, while embracing its traditions and cultural heritage. (more…)

I’ve just come back from the second of 3 natural World Heritage Sites in Indonesia I’m visiting for a research programme. This time it was Ujung Kulon, in the west of Java – it includes the home of the few remaining Javan rhinos and the site of the famous volcano Krakatoa. 

I talked to lots of stakeholders, including village headmen, community members, guesthouse owners, tourists, the head of the local tourist board, the head of the national park authority, and NGO workers including the head of the local WWF programme. Oh yes, and I found myself being interviewed as the ‘guest star’ on a local radio programme discussing the future of tourism in the area! (more…)

ICRT launches its MSc responsible tourism management course in our Bhopal Campus, making it possible for the first time to study responsible tourism in the Indian subcontinent for professionals.

The course’s introductory rates make it cheaper than UK distance learning study.  The course will be presented to industry and press in Delhi mid June, with recruitment for limited places starting now!   (more…)