Responsible Travel, the website which brings together the world's largest collection of responsible holidays, launches a complete overhaul of its site today with the announcement of 30% year on year growth and its ambition to popularise responsible tourism which it believes is intrinsic in tackling a growing climate of mistrust between people of different cultures, both in wider society and in tourism.

In a statement today Justin Francis, CEO of Responsible Travel lays out the company's ambitions, and in the wake of the EU referendum calls for tourism to help spread a positive message of unity and friendship at a time when global mistrust of other cultures appears to be growing.

“In the wake of last week's EU referendum it seems that when faced with strangers -  whether this be immigrants or EU politicians - much of the UK is getting very fearful. I think we have to ask ourselves whether our attitude to strangers is changing in a healthy way.

“Much like the country the tourism industry is also divided, between those who prefer to separate local people from tourists in all inclusive resorts and cruise ships,  and those who see meeting strangers from other parts of the world as part of the intrinsic appeal of travel.  

“For those of us active in responsible tourism our role is to help counter this growing mistrust through positive, open, friendly and fair opportunities to enjoy the company of strangers.  

“This makes it a good day to launch our newly updated website and to start our campaign to popularise responsible tourism.

“The demand for responsible tourism is there. Since 2008 there has been a steady move towards brands with a clearer 'social purpose' and we believe we are benefitting from customers' increasing interest in this.

 “Responsible Travel has been growing very quickly since the start of 2015, with year on year booking revenues up over 30%. We are now growing faster than any previous point in our 15 year history. We hope to influence the rest of the industry and persuade them that a more caring form of tourism can be very commercially successful. 

“With our new site launch we are about to up our game, so too must everyone who believes in tolerant world when every stranger is a potential friend and ally.” 

Evidence of mistrust between tourists and local people can be seen across the mass tourism industry. Reacting to complaints from local residents about overcrowding and pressure on local services, Barcelona is looking to curtail the numbers of visitors it receives, the unsustainable impact of large cruise ships and associated crowds on Venice is well documented and recently all inclusive resorts in Cyprus have been accused by local residents of destroying smaller, local business reliant on tourism. Iceland has also recently stated its intention to focus its strategy on responsible tourism,  to 'be careful' of the cruise industry and to restrict the number of short-term holiday rentals to protect its towns' cultural integrity as it responds to record numbers of international visitors.

Responsible Travel will now be focussing on exciting customers about responsible tourism and reclaiming from the mainstream industry the concept of travel which meets the dreams of tourists and local people through its new strapline “Helping dreamers do”.

-Ends -

 Notes to Editors:

Interviews with CEO Justin Francis are available on request.

Contact:

Sarah Faith

press@responsibletravel.com

01273 829269

About Responsible Travel

At Responsible Travel we help travellers live their dreams through authentic and life-enriching adventures, ensuring local people and wildlife benefit and being a catalyst for change in the industry.

Responsible Travel is now the world's largest platform for ethical tour providers (with a rigorous screening process in place to ensure each company fits the guidelines to be represented on the site). The company is growing by 30% each year with its profits dependent on an 'Honesty Box' where tour providers voluntarily declare their commission. 

- The holiday collection includes tours from almost 400 small, specialist and ethical tour operators

- The collective operates in 190+ countries

- In 15 years, the company has helped over 100,000 people live their travel dreams and received over 1million holiday enquiries.

Alongside the holidays it markets, Responsible Travel has two other core programmes to drive positive change in the tourism industry:

- Activism – campaigning for more responsible types of tourism worldwide.

- The World Responsible Tourism Awards (founded by us in 2004) - celebrating and recognising the businesses around the world, big or small, innovating and leading the way in responsible tourism.

CEO Justin Francis has been included in Courvoisiers The Future 500, Thames and Hudsons 60 Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future and taken his place on the Advisory Board of The International Centre for