We offer online training and workshops for mid-career professionals and act as a hub supporting an independent network ICRTs around the world. We also run the prestigious free to enter Responsible Tourism Awards.
Welcome to the Responsible Tourism Movement
Responsible Tourism is about making better places for people to live in, and better places for people to visit.
Sustainability is an aspiration. It will only be realised if, and when, we take responsibility for making tourism sustainable.
Responsible Tourism is therefore what we do to make tourism more sustainable, it is about how we use tourism to create sustainable development to benefit communities and destinations. Responsible Tourism requires us to say what we are doing to make tourism better and that we are transparent about what we achieve.
Few businesses or destinations can address all the issues on the Responsible Tourism agenda. We need to explain why we take responsibility for the things we choose to improve through tourism and the impacts of our efforts.
The 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter
We promote the principles of the 2002 Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism and the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter to ensure a wider knowledge and implementation of Responsible Tourism worldwide.
Founder and Emeritus Professor Harold Goodwin, has drawn on his decades-long experience to create a new hub for learning, training and knowledge that will inspire future generations to come.
Harold Goodwin is the Founder of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism Network and Emeritus Professor and Responsible Tourism Director at the Institute of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University. Harold’s background is in adult and continuing education, and in his second career in universities, where he taught at the postgraduate level. He drafted the 2002 Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism and wrote the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter, which was signed and launched on Magna Carta Island. As Managing Director of the Responsible Tourism Partnership, he has worked on four continents with local communities, their governments and the inbound and outbound tourism industry. In 2023, he was recognised in the Global Hall of Fame Academy as the founder of the Responsible Tourism movement.
Website: www.haroldgoodwin.info
Sustainability professional Jane Ashton has decades of experience embedding sustainability into mainstream travel operations. She led sustainable development for TUI for sixteen years before becoming Director of Sustainability at easyJet. Her roles have included delivering sustainability programmes that support and shape business strategy, developing internal awareness and capability and stakeholder engagement.
Adama Bah is a Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG). He holds an MSc in Responsible Tourism Management and an honorary doctorate from Leeds Beckett University. Adama founded the West African branch of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, and the educational and cultural exchange program Camp Africa. Adama worked as a hotelier for 25 years, founded an advocacy group called Gambia Tourism Concern (GTC) and also acted as the Travel Foundation Programme Manager in the Gambia.
Martin Brackenbury is Managing Partner of Brackenbury & Partners, which provides strategic assessments and technical advice to countries, regions and companies working on travel and tourism sustainable economic development. Missions have ranged from setting up strategic tourism plans, through to mentoring senior professionals. Martin was formerly the President of the International Federation of Tour Operators (IFTO), and a senior director of major tour operators including the Thomson Travel Group (now TUI), Exodus Holidays and Classic Collection Holidays. He led UN Tourism affiliates and was a Professor at Nottingham University.
Debbie Hindle is Chair of ICRT Global and has focused on tourism communications and sustainability for more than three decades. She has acted as a Trustee and Vice Chair of The Travel Foundation and has been a regular judge of the Responsible Tourism Awards. In 2024, she was appointed Non-Executive Director of Responsible Travel, and a Special Advisor to the Inclusive Travel Forum. She is the recipient of the Travmedia Outstanding Contribution award to the travel industry.
Quinn Meyer founded CREES Manu in the Manu Biosphere Reserve of Peru, which combines tourism, education and conservation in order to provide economically viable community development through the responsible management of natural resources. Quinn also operates WildVentureXR an impact driven entertainment company, sits on the board of the Latin American Travel Association (LATA), the Philanthropy Committee of The Conscious Travel Foundation and acts as an ally and mentor for Women In Travel.
Manisha Pande is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Village Ways in India, supporting the villages of the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand which were under serious threat of outmigration due to lack of livelihood opportunities. Manisha is a founding member of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism India. She has also consulted on developing Responsible Tourism community projects and training in India.
Caroline Warburton is a sustainable and nature tourism professional, with a broad range of experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors of the tourism industry. She currently works for VisitScotland as Destination Development Director (Central and North East). Previous roles have included acting as National Tourism Strategy Coordinator for the Scottish Tourism Alliance, establishing and running Wild Scotland; Scotland’s nature and wildlife tourism association, and working for the Scottish Tourism and Environment Forum.
Carol is a destination marketing and management expert, with over 25 years’ experience in the tourism sector. She has held senior positions with the Jamaica Tourist Board. Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority and the Caribbean Tourism Organization. Carol is the Chief Tourism Officer for her tourism development consultancy McKenzie Gayle Limited. She has held the role of an external collaborator and trainer for the UNWTO Academy and is also a tourism expert in Learning and Development for Saudi Tourism Authority.
Richard Hearn founded the rural tourism specialist company ‘Inntravel’ in 1984. He formerly Chaired the Association of Independent Tourism Operators (AITO) and established its Responsible Tourism Committee. He was a co-founder of ‘Village Ways’ for community-based tourism in India and is a partner in the rural tourism consultancy ‘Grass Routes’.
Prof Dr Hiram is the Director of Responsible Borneo (REBORN), Chairman of the Sarawak Research Society and founder of ICRT Southeast Asia. He is a member of the UN Tourism Panel of Tourism Experts and is affiliated to the School of Management and Marketing at Taylor’s University in Malaysia as well as holding roles with Duy Tan University in Vietnam, Brawaijaya University in Indonesia, Wakayama University in Japan and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in the Philippines. He also edits the Journal of Responsible Tourism Management and Young Consumers.
Willy Legrand is professor of Sustainable Business, Tourism and Hospitality Management at the IU International University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He is globally recognised for his pioneering research and thought leadership in sustainable hospitality, climate action, and circular economy practices within tourism. He is co-author of the seminal textbook Sustainability in the Hospitality industry: Principles of Sustainable Operations and serves as co-editor for the Journal of Global Responsibility.
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