Image courtesy of ResponsibleTourismAwards.com

Whale Watch Kaikoura, New Zealand recently won this year’s Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards.

The panel of judges declared Whale Watch Kaikoura the overall winner for developing a tourism initiative from the ground up. An additional 13 awards were presented in a range of categories which included Best for poverty reduction, Best volunteering organisation, Best personal contribution and Best large hotel/accommodation.

Said the judges:

“Rarely do we see a tourism initiative developed from the ground up by a local community to such a successful and grand scale – growing from modest beginnings to securing in a joint venture with Sea World on the Gold Coast of Australia to provide their whale watching. Whale Watch Kaikoura provides consistently responsible whale watching tours with minimal impacts. The founding of the enterprise by four Maori families has demonstrated that the local Maori community can not only grow a considerable tourism business, but, more significantly, use that business to buy back their ancestral land for the benefit of the indigenous people and their cultural identity.”

For info on the other winners and highly commended organizations, check out the ResponsibleTourismAwards.com.