International Responsible Tourism Trophy 2015. Morocco in the spotlight via the Agadir Atlas Kasbah Ecolodge.

The international responsible tourism awards (World Responsible Tourism Award) have been organized every year since 2004 to reward the best responsible tourism initiatives in the world. This year, nearly 600 applications from around the world were received and carefully selected by a jury made up of around thirty global experts in the field: academics, professionals, consultants and specialized journalists.

The international responsible tourism awards (World Responsible Tourism Award) have been organized every year since 2004 to reward the best responsible tourism initiatives in the world. This year, nearly 600 applications from around the world were received and carefully selected by a jury made up of around thirty global experts in the field: academics, professionals, consultants and specialized journalists.

Among these, 200, including 3 companies from southern Morocco, all members of the Rural Tourism Development Network (RDTR), were selected as semi-finalists; namely Dar Daïf, Bab el Oued and Atlas Kasbah. During the responsible tourism workshops organized by the Ministry of Tourism last June in Marrakech, Ms. Nada Roudies, Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism and President of the Global Sustainable Tourism Partnership from 2013 to 2015, congratulated the initiatives carried out at the local level in Morocco.

She declared that the fact that 3 Moroccan structures were semi-finalists shows that the orientations of the 2020 vision, particularly the sustainability issues, are carried out at the local level by a dynamic of enterprising actors. “We guarantee our support and wish them every success in helping to give greater visibility to Destination Morocco. “, she announced.

A new, even more in-depth selection process then took place to identify the “flagship responsible tourism companies” in the world, as explained by Justin Francis, Director of Responsible Travel and founder of the Trophies. On August 5, 2015, the list of 36 finalist tourism companies was published with names as prestigious as the multinational TUI. The list includes 3 finalists for each of the 12 categories of the trophies.

According to the president of the jury, Professor Harold Goodwin, the year 2015 saw the best applications since the creation of the Trophies. The level becomes very high and the jury’s expectations of the winners also become high. He added that being named a finalist in these Trophies is difficult. Organizations must undergo a rigorous selection process that will highlight the impacts of their work rather than their good intentions. The finalists are the tip of the iceberg of the cutting-edge and inspiring work being done in responsible tourism around the world.

In the “Best Hotel for local enhancement” category, the Atlas Kasbah ecolodge located in Agadir was selected. He will therefore carry the values ​​of Morocco in this prestigious award. The owner of this ecolodge, Mr. Hassan Aboutayeb, holder of a doctorate in Tourism and Environment and also President of the RDTR, praised the efforts of his entire team. He added that “The already very ambitious objective that we had set for ourselves was to be a finalist and we are happy that the jury supported our vision and the Morocco destination in general. Created in 2009, the Atlas Kasbah ecolodge is a few kilometers from Agadir, on the foothills of the Western High Atlas and in the heart of the Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve. It offers accommodation, catering and several discovery activities for families or groups such as pottery classes, Tadelakt, cooking classes… all in an environment-friendly setting that highlights local heritage and communities.

To this end, it had already been nominated among 6 projects in the world by the International Responsible Tourism Network of the ITB in Berlin (2011) and obtained several awards and ecolabels such as the Green Key, the ALM EcologyTrophy (2010) and the National Responsible Tourism Trophy from the Ministry of Tourism (2009).

The trophy presentation will take place in London during the International Responsible Tourism Day on November 4, 2015 on the occasion of the largest tourism event in the world, the “World Travel Market” which brings together more than 50,000 operators in the sector each year.
Good luck at Ecolodge Atlas Kasbah and very good luck.

thrmagazine