Responsible Travel Award
We are absolutely delighted to announce that All Points East was voted the winner in the TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand)/Responsible Travel Award, (Green Awards)’ for 2010 in the ‘Best UK Tour Operator for Local Communities in Thailand’ category! Particularly pleased with ourselves since it follows on from our 2008 award in the same competition for best UK specialist tour operator for Thailand.
We obviously faced some stiff opposition but what appears to have influenced judges was our long term emphasis on off-the-beaten-track destinations in our itineraries which, of course, helps spread the tourist dollar to some of the less fortunate regions instead of concentrating all tourist activities at a limited number of, sometimes overcrowded, sites. There are plenty of great places in Thailand, and indeed the rest of Southeast Asia, that hardly any visitors get to see and whilst it’s often the famous spots that actually get ‘bums on seats’ and help to sell tours, we’ve always persisted with our commitment to combining well-known sites with the region’s ‘hidden secrets’ even at the expense of tourist numbers.
This leads on to group sizes and again, all too often, ‘small groups’ is in reality a misleading catch-phrase. 18 to 20 persons may be an improvement on the groups of 40 or 50 we sometimes come across, but can it genuinely be described as ‘small group’? (How many local coffee shops or noodle stands – or for that matter, people’s homes – are you going to fit 20 people in?)b n
This post is also something of an exception as we generally try to avoid making too much of a song and dance, as the expression goes, about sustainable and responsible tourism since all too often the terms are simply marketing slogans. In an ideal world, a tour company shouldn’t need to have a responsible tourism agenda as, in our opinion, all tourism should be intrinsically as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible. It’s not necessarily about planting a tree on day 5 of the itinerary – it’s the overall tour style and philosophy that counts.
You can find more on our responsible tourism practices here and we’ll hopefully be able to post some photos concerning the responsible travel award tomorrow.
