The Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA) has partnered with the African Responsible Tourism Awards (ARTA) to encourage more entries to the awards from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). RETOSA is the SADC body responsible for the destination marketing of the region, which is made up of 14 amazing countries. The primary objectives of RETOSA are to facilitate and promote the development of equitable and ethical tourism through sustainable initiatives, effective destination marketing, and improved regional competitiveness. For the fourth year running, Wesgro, the official tourism, trade & investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, is the headline sponsor. The aim of the awards is to inspire change in the tourism sector by showcasing examples that tourism providers can learn from. This links perfectly with RETOSA’s objective to grow the capacity among tourism providers to deliver tourism in the SADC region that is sustainable. Thembi Kunene-Msimang, RETOSA’s Chief Executive Officer says “One of our objectives is to mainstream responsible practices across all RETOSA member states. The African Responsible Tourism Awards not only recognises the efforts of tourism organisations to operate responsibly, it also demonstrates the difference that taking responsibility can make. It can educate and inspire others to be more responsible. Highlighting individual achievements can help SADC achieve theirs.” Thus far there have been no shortages of responsible tourism award winners from SADC. In the three years that the African Responsible Tourism Awards has been running, a whopping 46 awards have been handed to tourism…
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