This week’s British Youth Travel Award for ‘Green Tourism’ went to the much delighted responsible tour operator G.A.P. Adventures. The award was designed to honour businesses, striving for a maximized positive effect on the localities in which they operate. Participants either qualified through actual innovations in the field or evident improvements since the previous year.
The awards were organised by The British Educational Travel Association (BETA), whose founder Jack Coronna himself gained an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Youth Tourism’. The not-for-profit trade association recognises and celebrates the accomplishments of individuals and organisations servicing the travelling youth, embracing small businesses as well as significant names, such as STA Travel.
If Coronna is right, the year 2008, an apparent time of trial for the travel industry, may actually bear great potential for new initiatives and opportunities.
TNT Magazine travel editor Amy Adams supports his argument by calling attention to this year’s contestant’s high standard, Green Tourism nominee’s in particular, a link she says to the strength of the industry at the present time.
Tobias Ellwood, who is the Keynote Tourism Minister and was central speaker at the British Youth Travel Awards, very much approves of the educational travel sector, which encourages tourism to the UK. The structure UK tourism is given by the government however is in need, so he judges, of a shift of responsibility from departments, such as Home Office and the department of Transport towards the Tourism Minister and the departments of Media, Culture and Sport.
Not only is a total of € 109 billion generated annually by youth travel, but an immense increase in social values accompanies personal and professional development opportunities. As BETA Executive Director Emma English envisions, Youth travel hence represents the future of the UK tourism industry.
