Responsible Tourism Tanzania is proud to announce its awards for the second time through the support from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The Responsible Tourism awards meant to encourage innovative actions to protect the environment, integrate local people into responsible tourism chain and to transform the destination Tanzania to a responsible tourism destination. The award event provides Responsible Tourism Tanzania with opportunities to recognize and reward innovations in responsible tourism while providing information on best practices. Among the values emphasized by these awards are innovations that take care of the environment, local people and cultures, impact on women and youth empowerment and positive contributions to Sustainable Development Goals while practicing tourism business.
This year Responsible Tourism Tanzania will celebrate with 9 awards for best practices.
These awards categories include:
- Best Tourism Business in Supporting Conservation Efforts
- Best Accommodation in Resource Efficiency
- Best in Community Engagement and Local Development support
- Best Accommodation Facility in Promoting and Supporting Female Employment
- Best Accommodation Facility in Cultural Promotion and Preservation
- Best in Supporting Youth Empowerment and Future Leaders in Conservation
- Best and Responsible Tour Operator
- Best Tourism Business in Climate Action
- Best for Sustainable Development Goals Implementations and Reporting
- Category 1 – 8: An applicant will need to demonstrate their sustainability approach and result as well as positive impact evidence where feasible to People, Planet, Profit and Promotion of Cultural Preservation.
- Category 9: Requires the business to demonstrate positive impact, implementation and reporting on Sustainable Development Goals.
Important dates for the event.
- The award is now open for application to tourism business to apply and the application deadlines will be on the 20th August 2019.
- Shortlisting will be finalized by 30th September 2019.
- The awards ceremony will be on October 2019.
Who can apply?
- First of all, it is free to apply.
- Awards are provided to tourism products, tour operators, or properties that provide accommodation such as lodges, hotels, camps or a particular product such as a Serengeti walk can apply.
- A product can be a lodge or permanent camp or you can also apply as a product that is mobile, provided it is marketed to the customer as a branded product; so for example your Walking Mobile Camp can apply if it is marketed as a product.
- A company with several products cannot apply as a company, applications can only be for individually branded properties and products and not as a company in general.
- All companies that are submitting applications for the products or properties must have a TALA license.
- All applicant’s properties must be in Tanzania.
How many categories can I apply for?
- You may enter as many applications as you wish, in fact we encourage it, and providing you meet the criteria of all categories you are entering.
- If you have several properties, you can submit more than one application at once.
- If you are a company that has more than one property, you can send an application for as many products as you like as well as apply for more than one category of the award.
- You are allowed only one property per application form for any given category, however, the property can apply for more than one award. You cannot put the names of two products or properties in one application form.
How will the judging and winner selection take place?
- Judging will be carried out by an independent panel of industry leaders and experts in their field, selected for their impartiality, knowledge of Responsible Tourism and experience.
- The initial short-listing will be based on the information provided within the application form along with a look at your website and any third party sites.
- Shortlisted businesses will be notified at the end of September if they have been selected for the final stages.
- An overall winner of the Responsible Awards is also selected, the overall winner will be selected from a property that has submitted the most number of applications, the highest score and the most SDG’s addressed.
- Other category winners will be selected to the highest score per category.
- The winners and the runners up will be announced at the awards ceremony in October 2019.
Will additional information or site visit be required?
- Short listed properties will be required to provide additional information or to verify the information in the application.
- The organizers will contact you with a list of requirements to verify your application and you can discuss with them the best means to get the information to them, it might be by email, Dropbox or physical hard copies.
- Responsible Tourism Tanzania may visit your property by independent person, a verification officer. The independent verification officer will present you with a letter of authorization from RTTZ informing of his/her intentions.
What will the winners receive?
- The overall winner of the Responsible Awards will be presented with special certificates
- All award winners will receive a prestigious trophy and framed certificate.
- In addition, winners will be included in all post-event publicity and receive a logo for use on their, brochures and website as appropriate.
- There is, of course, the kudos attached to winning such an award which can also provide a fantastic boost to tourism and hospitality teams.
How to apply
- You apply online, we have forms that you fill online at www.rttz.org.
- You will need the name of the property or company, name and details of the person filling in the application and have to answer 3 to 4 questions per application.