ONE-TO-WATCH IN TRAVEL & LEISURE

Stephen Chapman, Founder of Make Travel Fair joined the exclusive members only network of 'Couvoisier The Future 500' this week as One-to-Watch in Travel & Leisure.

Read and watch an interview with Stephen at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/cvtf500/story/0,,2215248,00.html

A personal press release is available for download at http://www.courvoisierthefuture500.com/admin/guestEntry.php

UNNECESSARY CONFUSION? A NEW DAWN?

Have attempts to categorise and define a 'new' type of tourism over recent years simply led to confusion amongst tourists and travellers? As a niche enters the mainstream is it really necessary anymore to speak about the social, environmental and economical concerns of travel from a platform called responsible travel?

The terms responsible tourism, responsible travel, pro-poor tourism, green-travel, eco-tourism have all been used in recent years to reference growing concerns over the impact of the travel industry. This year saw the first World Responsible Tourism Day coincide with the World Travel Market on 14th November 2007. The day featured some interesting, thought provoking seminars and the responsibletravel.com award ceremony. Unfortunately it felt a lot like an attempt by the ICRT (International Centre for Responsible Tourism) and its related projects to dominate and act as custodians of the responsible tourism movement. It would have been great to see more grass-roots initiatives being offered the spotlight, and less of an attempt to control and dominate a movement that is ultimately about small scale projects and about celebrating progressive initiatives around the world.

It seems that conflicts of interest and some people with fingers in a lot of pies mean that it feels as though the Responsible Travel movement in the UK has been branded and nutured by a small group of people, making it difficult to use the phrase to describe a form of travel anymore.

Grass roots initiatives being led all over the world are the future of travel, they aren't talking about responsible travel but simply working with the right concerns in mind. Conservation organisations are working worldwide in the travel industry without referencing responsible tourism, they are responsible tourism. It seems to be definition for the sake of definition.

Wild Asia is based in Malaysia and led by Dr Reza Azmi, they run perhaps the most credible Responsible Tourism Awards today. They honour companies and organisations on the basis of scores achieved in an extensive, painstakingly devised checklist of requirements. They don't brand a winner as 'responsible' based on a nomination and the judgements of a remote panel, they geniunely work to promote best practice, determined by guidelines devised and distributed by them. The winners pick themselves with their commitment to sustainability.

Let's put some meat back on the bones of travel, celebrate progression and all of those passionate people making it happen without a spotlight on their efforts.

DON'T LET IT BE A LUCKY ESCAPE

On the afternoon of Thursday, 22nd June 2000 I left the backpackers' hostel in Childers, Queensland, Australia and headed south aboard a bus for Brisbane. I'd spent the previous three nights in Childers, sleeping in the ground floor dormitory and a small room on the first floor.

I awoke in Brisbane the following morning to 5 missed calls on my phone and a frantic voicemail message informing me that the Childers hostel had burnt down in the early hours, killing 15 backpackers. Within a matter of hours the small, quiet, one-street town and non-descript hostel that had felt such a world away from home was now international news.

The Hostel had been refused a fire safety permit 17 months prior, and the fire alarm system had been turned off. Escape routes had been blocked by beds and there were bars on windows.

Look after your own safety. Always know your fire escape, and always let someone know where you are (someone who cares).

Download the fire safety guide from gapyear.com »

BBC NEWS - Hostel fire victims remembered