On Monday 6 August, The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) announced the 16 finalists (five individuals and 11 organisations) of the 2010 TIES Innovation Leadership in Sustainable Tourism Awards. The WHL Group is pleased to learn that one of its subsidiary companies, WHL Consulting, has been selected as a 2010 Innovation Award finalist for creation of the Tourism Development Bank.

Together with Spotted by Locals, the WHL Group is a founding member of the Local Travel Movement – a website uniting people and organisations with a passion for Local Travel and commitment to Local Travel values. It’s a movement gathering momentum!

The Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference (ESTC) is North America’s largest and only conference focusing on sustainability in the tourism industry. Scheduled for 8-10 September 2010, it is fittingly being held in Portland, Oregon, a leading U.S. city that has been consistently rated ‘the most sustainable city’ in the country. The WHL Group is proud to join the industry leaders and sustainability pioneers as one of the conference’s supporting organisations.

Wild Asia has announced the finalists for the 2010 Responsible Tourism Awards. The selection of the trim shortlist of six candidates narrowed the focus to endeavours in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Winners will be announced on 21 October 2010 during the Responsible Tourism Award ceremony at ITB Asia in Singapore (20–22 October 2010).

The WHL Group is this year’s global media partner for Wild Asia’s 2010 Responsible Tourism Awards. Now in their fifth year, the Awards are part of Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Initiative, an ongoing campaign to promote sustainable destinations through tourism – a goal vitally important to both partners.

For the second year in a row, Planeta.com is proud to announce Responsible Tourism Week, revving up for action from May 17-21, 2010. Created first in 2009, RT Week, scheduled just a few weeks before World Environment Day, is “a free demonstration of Web 2.0 as a means of documenting the challenges of developing (and maintaining!) responsible tourism.”

On April 29, at the 2010 Travel Distribution Summit Asia in Singapore, a Web Innovation Award for Best Travel Startup of the Year was awarded to Urban Adventures. Urban Adventures, which was also shortlisted in the Most Exciting New Use of Technology in Travel category, was launched in October 2009 and has quickly grown into a global force, recently featured on Getaway, Australia’s favourite travel show.