December 5, 2008 - G Adventures has scooped the Green Tourism Award at BETA’s* British Youth Travel Awards 2008. The ceremony took place in London where exemplary contributions to the youth and education travel industry were honoured by guests including the keynote speaker, Shadow Tourism Minister, Tobias Ellwood. G Adventures’ Marketing Manager EMEA, Gareth Hamilton accepted the award on the company’s behalf.
Richard Edwards, Director of Planeterra says: "G Adventures' work through Planeterra enables young travellers to see the world from a meaningful perspective by interacting with local communities. It effects lasting, positive changes in awareness and attitudes, and ultimately in the success of the community projects to which they contribute. Receiving this award confirms that the dedication and enthusiasm behind our joint projects is leaving a positive legacy.”
The Green Tourism Award recognises the efforts that youth travel organizations make to maximize their positive impact on the environments and local communities in which they operate. Entrants were required to demonstrate proven commitment to sustainable best practice, either through innovation that is having a positive long-term impact, or has made a significant improvement in a given area during the last year.
G Adventures supports local communities all over the world in tandem with its own non-profit foundation, Planeterra. Travellers with G Adventures can get involved with any of Planeterra’s international projects, even while they are on a tour, thereby giving something back to places and people that they visit right around the world. These range from education and shelter programmes for children, like the House of the People of the Sun in Peru, to animal conservation projects such as Save the Albatross in Antarctica. There are infrastructure projects such as Kenya Water to build water pumps, or the Adelante Project in Honduras, which provides micro-finance support for small local businesses. Other successful Planeterra initiatives include the Seva eye camp which offers surgical support to correct cataracts and had a very successful result in Tibet this year.