For the third year running, Wesgro - Cape Town and the Western Cape’s official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency - is the main sponsor for the African Responsible Tourism Awards.
Winners of the 2017 African Responsible Tourism Awards, a part of the World Responsible Tourism Awards, will be announced at Cape Town International Convention Centre during Africa Travel Week 2017.
The African Responsible Tourism Awards are organised by Better Tourism Africa, with support from Responsible Travel, and are hosted by World Travel Market Africa (WTM Africa). The World Responsible Tourism Awards is the leading global awards recognising achievement and innovation in responsible tourism. In 2016 the awards founded by Responsible Travel celebrated 13 years at WTM London. Several category winners in the 2016 African round came out tops in the 2016 World Responsible Tourism Awards.
Wesgro Chief Marketing Officer, Judy Lain congratulated Bushmans Kloof for winning silver in the Best Accommodation for Responsible Employment category at the 2016 World Responsible Tourism Awards: “Grootbos, Hotel Verde, Bushmans Kloof, Gansbaai, Marine Dynamics and the V&A Waterfront are amongst the tourism businesses from the Western Cape that have over the years received top responsible tourism awards. We recognise that these awards are the result of hard work and an unwavering commitment to develop tourism in a sustainable manner. As the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, it is imperative that responsible tourism is a guiding principle in all we do. To this end we are pleased to announce that Wesgro will be the headline sponsor of the 2017 Africa Responsible Tourism Awards”.
The 2015 and 2016 African Responsible Tourism Awards generated significant participation across Africa. Heidi van der Watt of Better Tourism Africa, the organiser and founder of the African Responsible Tourism Awards comments: “Watching the quality of entries for the African Responsible Tourism Awards strengthening year on year is truly gratifying. Wesgro has supported the awards since the inaugural year in 2015, helping to discover and celebrate African tourism business that follow the beat of a different drum and use tourism to make better places.”
As part of the World Responsible Tourism Awards family, the judging process for the African Responsible Tourism Awards is chaired by Harold Goodwin, Professor of Responsible Tourism at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism and Chair of the main World Responsible Tourism Awards judging panel since its inception.
Entries for the 2017 African Responsible Tourism Awards closed in January, and the long list will be announced on 1 March 2017.