What's in it For Me?

The initiative was borne out of the debate about certification and listening to the many frustrated businesses who wanted something that they could tailor to suit their business and the place(s) they operate in.

Become a Role Model

If you are serious about responsible tourism then you will want others to follow suit. If others can see what and how your business has achieved their goals it may encourage them to increase their efforts, creating a little friendly competition within the industry!

If your business is a forerunner or pioneer of a new method of responsible operations in your country – write about it, spread the word within your sector, encourage others to get involved in their country by showing that responsible tourism really is an achievable goal for everyone.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is an important part of a business, particularly when you are implementing change within your business operations. You can't make claims about improvements without knowing where you started. In addition without proof you are hitting your targets, you may find yourself unintentionally making false claims or even underselling your achievements. This is where benchmarking is invaluable. Without benchmarking, you will never be fully sure that you are reaching your goals or your business is improving - a major aspect of the Responsible Tourism Reporting Initiative. You can also use the data to help identify liabilities and potential weaknesses within your business.

By comparing the achievements of one business to another in the same area, we can create a series of benchmarks to help identify the best industry practices. Benchmarking helps create an aggregate of current standards and so help your business compare itself with other businesses within your sector and fuel your desire to continually improve. In this respect, benchmarking can also contribute to improving the use of resources in your industry.

By comparing your actions against the current industry standards, you can monitor how you progress over time and focus your priorities on the areas where you need to improve. Benchmarking can also help to facilitate communication within the sector about good - and bad - practices and also helps alert you to processes which fall below industry standards or may be impeding the company.

Set Realistic Goals

By adopting a pragmatic approach and taking into consideration the industry standards as set out by sector benchmarks, you can see exactly where your business needs to improve. Celebrating your strengths and focusing on your weaknesses, an annual review can help you set realistic goals and ensure your business is always forward thinking and improving, not becoming stuck in old ways.

Fresh Approach

It is sometimes difficult when working on something you feel passionately about to avoid becoming blindsided to the more practical aspects of your operation; even the best of businesses can make mistakes in calculations. By inviting an external auditor into your business to cross-check and evaluate your processes, you can not only gain clarity but also benefit from their expertise in what other companies are doing and how you could implement these methods.

Market Value

We all know responsible tourism is on the rise. People care about whom they travel with and the impacts their travel has on the environment and the destination. As such, people like to travel with a company who go that extra mile to minimise these impacts.

Be proud of your actions! If you don't tell people what you have achieved, no one will ever know - why should you keep quiet when your business is working so hard to make a difference? We hope that each business which joins the Responsible Tourism Reporting Initiative will benefit by being able to annually showcase their achievements and successes, helping to reinforce their responsible tourism credentials to their customers.

Continual Development

The Responsible Tourism Reporting Initiative is still very much in its infancy but this offers great scope for expansion and the opportunity for your business to be part of this development.

The strength of the scheme is through its members; as more businesses become involved, the higher the standard will become and this in turn will encourage the initiative to grow and develop. As the scheme grows, the number of potential indicators you can report on will increase, driven by the industry with realistic goals and not by a panel of experts. The more businesses that are prepared to stand united and produce these transparent, independently verified reports, the more the green-washers will be undermined.

We hope the Responsible Tourism Reporting Initiative will become a community where businesses can share information with fellow members, working together to create a more responsible tourism industry.