Help Tourism

The 2010 HSBC – TOFT Wildlife Tourism Awards are intended to:

• Highlight the important work being done by the tourism industry in support of tiger and forest conservation
• Increase awareness of responsible tourism as a force in conservation and habitat renewal
• Reward and encourage best practice operations
• Encourage sustainability in tourism enterprises
• Promote community enterprises and initiatives around Tiger Parks.

Judges comments:

Help Tourism is a fascinating ecotourism business, with both private and NGO aspirations. It supported community owned tourism lodges in many places including Manas National Park with the Bodo tribal leaders. Since 1992 their efforts have reaped rewards and now include such lodges and carefully constructed itineraries in Assam, North Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh. Furthermore they are a unique business, both lodge and tour operators, operating in the conservation and community space, in off the beaten track and more remote regions. This award would highlight their team’s excellent approach to private sector’s partnership with a dedicated mission, in its key destinations.

The Award sponsored by The Blue Yonder includes a prize of INR 25000 towards equipment/services for the benefit of the winning community.

“We are deeply grateful that the continuous conservation efforts of the communities of East Himalaya have been recognized. The Award will be an additional boost for the community tourism movement in Northeast India. Spiritually, and practically as it enables us to fund new conservation and community development activities”, said Asit Biswas, director of Help Tourism after the ceremony.

More information about the Award and the other winners on the TOFT website

TOFT, the Travel Operators for Tigers, is a ‘supply chain’ pressure campaign initiative aimed at a Global collective and inclusive Travel trade response to the tiger crisis in India, and by association, all the forests and wildlife being affected in the Indian subcontinent .

Objectives:

• To advocate and support better tourism practices in wilderness areas, with specific guidelines for operators, service and accommodation providers and visitors. Look out for the TOFT signs and PUG ratings.
• To empower local communities to become involved in wildlife tourism projects and initiate low impact and sustainable development which helps conserves the parks and benefits the communities through employmnet and business opportunities.
• To catalyse initiatives throughthe lodge communty that enhance wildlife conservation and community support, including waste and water management, trade cooperatives, local employment, fair wages and local enterprises and services.

For almost twenty years now, Help Tourism is following communities’ invitations to bring tourism development to their areas. Since, many formerly unknown destinations have made it into the tourism circuit. Some of them, like West-Sikkim, became world famous. Constant Innovation is the core of Help Tourism’s work and efforts and we are happy to announce that The Dihing River Camp near Khowang village on Dihing River, Dibrugarh, Assam won the  ’The Most Innovative New Destination Award’  at TTF (Travel & Tourism Fair) at Calcutta.

Help Tourism is proud to announce that Sunderbans Jungle Camp has won Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Award 2009 in the category “Community-Based to Homestay Operators”.

Three reap regional responsible tourism award
By Wild Asia, 29 October 2009

Three out of eight finalists from six different Asian countries participating in Wild Asia’s 4th Responsible Tourism Awards emerged as winners, proving that sustainable destinations can be made a reality within the travel industry. Established in 2006, the Awards is the first of its kind in Asia and is held annually, aimed at recognising accommodation providers in Asia that are making a difference.

Dr. Reza Azmi, founder and director of Wild Asia shares the need for sustainable tourism as it is something very close to heart having dealt with many environmental and social issues over the years. He adds, “Seeing how crucial the impact of tourism was on natural areas in Asia, as early as 1998, Wild Asia started to understand what it was that made a good tourism operator. An operator we could confidently label “eco” or “responsible”. Today, after more than a decade of thought and dialog with tourism operators, we now believe that we need to move away from simply ticking off “green” practices. What we now look for are operators that we can trust; have the best of intentions; that can demonstrate they understand their local issues and have people in place that can sustain their efforts.”

Operators such as ITC Mughal (Agra, India), El Nido Resorts (Palawan, Philippines), and Sunderbans Jungle Camp (Bali Island, India) have surpassed judges’ expectations by scoring high against the Awards checklist and are this year’s award winners for the following categories of accommodation operators respectively – large; mid-sized to small; and community-based to homestay.

Through self-evaluation checklist submissions and site verification visits by judges and fact-finders to all finalists’ destinations, the winners have demonstrated their strong abilities to meet the Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Award checklist’s forty criteria, which comprehensively cover aspects of local employment and economies; respecting local laws, cultures and sensitivities; responsibilities towards employees and communities; recognising the children’s rights; and protecting the environment through a suite of conservation initiatives, efficient use of resources, as well as responsible waste management.

Moving beyond checklists, these operators are fully supported by owners and top management to internalise the elements of responsible tourism and have resources in place to ensure it remains a sound business strategy for economic development. Trusted by their stakeholders whom they actively engage, they are also able to communicate their best intentions to operate responsibly and can therefore make a real difference where they do business.

Never to settle for business-as-usual, these operators are committed to improving the way they do things, i.e. from raising awareness to learning and capacity building; periodic monitoring of performance objectives and seeking innovative solutions for continued improvement; and building partnerships with like-minded organisations to develop holistic strategies in meeting the requirements of responsible tourism.

Mariglo Laririt, resident Biologist and Environmental Manager of El Nido Resorts understands the need for continuous improvement in the midst of celebrating successes. “We feel affirmed and this (winning the awards) spurs us on for ways to improve ourselves. We share this achievement with our partners at El Nido.” 

Understanding and internalising the essence of responsible tourism, these operators are catalysts for positive change within their sphere of influence, inspiring others to embark on the green journey while at the same time, still affording customers with the memorable holiday experience the travel for in the first place.
Wild Asia would like to congratulate winners and finalists for their commendable efforts and commitment in achieving high standards of environmental protection and social responsibility that form the critical pillars of their business philosophy.

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Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Award 2009 winners:
• Large Accommodation Operators
ITC Mughal, Agra, India
• Mid-sized to Small Accommodation Operators
El Nido Resorts, Miniloc, Philippines
• Community-Based to Homestay Operators  
Sunderbans Jungle Camp, Bali Island, India

• Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Award 2009 finalists: 
  • Large Accommodation Operators
  Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
  • Mid-sized to Small Accommodation Operators
  Soneva Fushi, Kunfunadhoo, Maldives
  Nikoi Island, Bintan, Indonesia
  • Community-Based to Homestay Operators  
  Andaman Discoveries, Phang Nga Province, Thailand
  Lamai Homestay, Khorat, Thailand

For more information about Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Awards have a look at http://www.wildasia.org/main.cfm/RT/Annual_RT_Awards

The Sunderbans Jungle Camp was chosen as a  finalist of this years “Responsible Tourism Awards” in the category “Community-Based to Homestay Operators”.  In an eight weeks long selection process with back-to-back site visits and comprehensive reporting, Wild Asia screened entries from five Asian countries for the prestigious award:

“The Annual Responsible Tourism Awards, are the first pan-Asian award for excellence in responsible tourism. We believe that sustainable destinations can be made a reality by creating rewards, promoting knowledge sharing and inspiring change from within the travel industry.

Now in its fourth year, the Awards are aligned to the United Nation’s World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria and we hope to encourage more operators from the region to step forward and share their best practices. Why are sustainable destinations important? For the simple, yet poignant, reason that there will be no travel business in Asia without sustainable destinations.”

During the on-site visit the review team made beautiful videos about the projects and – voila – here is the Sunderbans.

Wild Asia is a Malaysian-based social enterprise working to support environmental and social initiatives in Asia. We have been online since 1998. We have grown over the years but our focus has stayed the same – innovating and working to solve the problems that impact on our wild places. We have been part of a growing force in Asia to increase awareness and appreciation for the environment, and communicating the importance of conservation, not only of the natural wild places of Asia, but also of those communities and livelihoods that are dependent upon it.

India’s No.1 business channel, CNBC Awaaz, was looking for the best in travel and tourism.

CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards is divided into 41 award categories which include 28 research based categories, four categories decided by the jury panel and 9 citations.

One of those categories honored what Help Tourism is all about: The Best NGOs engaged in Sustainable Tourism. And…

WE GOT IT!!!

Here’s a media review on the Awards