The 2009 Geotourism Challenge: Power of Place – Sustaining the Future of Destinations has just turned the penultimate page of its final chapter. After 1368 nominations from 113 countries followed by 611 entries from 81 countries, a panel of expert judges — including a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a co-founder of Lonely Planet and the editor of National Geographic Traveler magazine — selected 10 finalists and now all the votes for the final three are being counted.

Yes, you helped decide who winners.

A public vote determined the three finalists. Balloting began on 15 July 2009 and finished on 12 August 2009. The laureates were announced on 9 September.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to cast a vote.

2009 Geotourism Challenge

Jointly sponsored by the National Geographic Centre for Sustainable Development and Ashoka’s Changemakers, and in partnership with whl.travel, the Geotourism Challenge has brought to the fore the kinds of innovators — individuals and organizations — that directly or indirectly support good destination stewardship and the approach known as geotourism.

“We are trying to identify organisations doing great things…,” commented Len Cordiner, CEO of whl.travel. “This is not just to celebrate the innovation and commitment of the people and organisations involved but most importantly to provide a window on ways we can all play a role to save what is left.”

In his welcome letter to the challenge, Jonathan B. Tourtellot, Director of the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations, added: “There is a dynamic relation between tourists and the places that host them. Help us identify innovative ways for that interaction to do the most good and the least harm. We seek information on innovators from around the world and from every kind of business, government or organization — large and small — who are helping destinations benefit from tourism while protecting the assets that make their places special.”

Good Rewards

The winners took away US$5,000 each, benefit from the kudos and generous exposure garnered through the challenge, and, along with all entries, share in the feedback provided by fellow entrants, Changemakers staff, judges and the Changemakers community. There is also now a Geotourism Group working to address some of the key questions and concerns of the entrants.

Also open to all entries, whether or not they reach the finals, were:

* the Urban Adventures Prize: $2,000 to each of the three examples (winners announced here) that whl.travel and Intrepid representatives judged best demonstrate how local tour operators or tourism marketing organizations integrate the “Power of Place” into the travel experience through experiential travel “product”;

* the Tourdust Scholarship for Tour Operators: a scholarship prize to identify and support three innovative and socially responsible geotourism businesses (winners announced here), such as tour operators and activity guides); and

* exclusively for Latin American or Caribbean countries, a special opportunity to apply for co-financing offered by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The Ten Finalists

Context Travel (USA) – Context Travel’s Sustainable Travel Initiated looks for ways to mitigate the negative impact of tourism on the social, economic and cultural life of key cities in Europe and the U.S. and educate travellers.

Evergreen Brick Works (Canada) – Evergreen Brick Works will be a unique and creative social enterprise destination that will model sustainability on all fronts while providing tourist access to the world’s only urban ravine system.

Ger to Ger Foundation and Agency (Mongolia) – Ger to Ger uses tourism as a catalyst for sustainable poverty alleviation, rural economic development and community-initiated health, cultural and natural resource management through tourism ‘catalyst’.

NatureAir (Costa Rica) – NatureAir’s program limits carbon emissions and reduces company dependence on fuel in the air and on the ground.

PEPY (Cambodia) – PEPY offers responsible voluntourism adventures, designed with community input, providing substantial funding for educational programs in rural Cambodia and inspiring life changes in travellers who join us.

Reality Tour Viagens e Turismo Ltda (Brazil) – Include traditional black communities in the process of job generation, income, knowledge and tourist management through the ‘Route of Freedom Touristic Circuit’.

RiverIndia (India) – RiverIndia protects the Siang River from reckless development and damming by building a river-tourism industry and empowering a community of people who rely financially on the river’s health.

Trout Point Lodge of Nova Scotia (Canada) – Trout Point Lodge will re-create a wilderness destination in a once-celebrated region of Nova Scotia now facing a tourism crisis and general economic hardship using an integrated, geotourism approach.

Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute’s Natural Mentors (USA) – Natural Mentors was created to spark a heritage renaissance among the youth leaders of Virgin Islands with nature-based skills of survival, organic food production and cultural mentoring.

Wikiloc (Spain) – Wikiloc provide local communities with an effective way to create their own maps of georeferenced trails and points of interest and to show off that information on digital maps on the Web and in Google Earth.

More Information

Geotourism Challenge 2008

Tags: Ashoka, Changemakers, geotourism, Geotourism Challenge, IDB, Intrepid, local travel, MIF, National Geographic, Tourdust

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 1:59 am and is filed under WHL Group news, responsible travel, responsible travel news.