((Article first published on http://www.wtmwrtd.com, 11 November 2009)

Whale Watch Kaikoura has won this year’s Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award.

At a ceremony hosted at World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, as part of the third WTM World Responsible Tourism Day the awards were handed out by Justin Francis, managing director of responsibletravel.com, organisers and founders of the Awards, and Amanda Wills, managing director of Virgin Holidays, headline sponsor of the Awards.

The panel of judges declared Whale Watch Kaikoura the overall winner for developing a tourism initiative from the ground up. The judges said: "Rarely do we see a tourism initiative developed from the ground up by a local community to such a successful and grand scale – growing from modest beginnings to securing in a joint venture with Sea World on the Gold Coast of Australia to provide their whale watching. Whale Watch Kaikoura provides consistently responsible whale watching tours with minimal impacts. The founding of the enterprise by four Maori families has demonstrated that the local Maori community can not only grow a considerable tourism business, but, more significantly, use that business to buy back their ancestral land for the benefit of the indigenous people and their cultural identity."

An additional 13 awards were presented in a range of categories which included Best for poverty reduction, Best volunteering organisation, Best personal contribution and Best large hotel/accommodation. The winners and highly commended organisations' details are outlined below.

Justin Francis, founder of The Responsible Tourism Awards and managing director, responsibletravel.com, organisers of the Awards said:
“In this, the sixth year of the Awards, I have been particularly impressed to see that despite this year’s recession, organisations continue to come up with innovative ideas around responsible tourism that ensure local communities and environments benefit from tourism as much as possible. The money may have dried out a little in the past year but the passion, ingenuity and creativity certainly hasn’t."

Amanda Wills, managing director, Virgin Holidays, headline sponsor of the Awards said:
“In our third year as headline sponsor, the inspiration from the winners, pioneers in the crucial arena, continues to grow. As we all strive to get our own businesses in order, taking valuable and creative lessons from this year’s roll call of innovators will certainly play a key part. I am delighted to be part of an event that sees our industry walk the walk…and not just talk the talk.”

Launched in 2004, the Awards are run in association with partners World Travel Market, The Daily Telegraph and Geographical Magazine. For more details, visit: http://www.responsibletourismawards.com/