The Responsible Holiday Challenge 2009
ITT and Thomas Cook will be jointly sponsoring the Leeds Metropolitan University’s 2009 Responsible Holiday Challenge.
The Responsible Holiday Challenge is a way of educating tomorrow’s tourists about responsible tourism. For the competition, groups of students design responsible and sustainable holidays for specific clients. The teams have to consider the client’s interests and align them with activities, countries visited, cultural impacts and methods of travel to come up with the ideal responsible holiday package.
ITT Board Director Bill Maxwell said: “The Responsible Holiday Challenge is a fantastic concept and the Institute of Travel & Tourism is delighted to be part of this innovative work of the University. We are proud to be involved and to be able to support this initiative.”
The Challenge
The Responsible Holiday Challenge 2009 is open to groups of students (maximum of four per group) with an interest in subjects such as tourism, travel, geography, society, the environment and sustainable development. Each school and college of further education can enter as many groups as it wants.
Participating students should currently be in Year 12 and entering Year 13 in September 2009. Working in groups of no more than four students, each team will design and plan a two week holiday for a specific client group to meet their needs as responsible tourists.
Proposals will be submitted as a word document and will include:
• A detailed itinerary
• Full holiday costings
• A 2000 word supporting document explaining what makes the proposal a responsible holiday.
Further information will be provided to participants each month to assist them with holiday planning.
Key dates
• 27 February 2009 Entry deadline
• March 2009 Briefing instructions pack provided by Leeds Met
• 17 July 2009 Challenge submission deadline
• September 2009 Winners notified
• November 2009 Prize giving ceremony at Leeds Metropolitan University
• Spring 2010 The Gambia field visit for the winning team and their teacher
How to participate
Any schools interested in being involved in the Responsible Holiday Challenge should contact David Hind, Head of Tourism at Leeds Met, at D.Hind@leedsmet.ac.uk or call 0113 812 4925.
Responsible Holiday Challenge 2008
The winners of the Responsible Holiday Challenge 2008 were from Hartlepool College of Further Education. The students – Amy George, Lauren Williams, Rebecca Wale and Amy-Lee Webster, all 17 – spent a week in Gambia in March as their prize.
The winning team of students and their tutor joined undergraduates from Leeds Metropolitan University on a fact-finding trip organised by the International Centre for Responsible Tourism West Africa. They visited a coastal development zone, eco-forest and community development projects which are helping local tourism.
Impressed with the quality and presentation of the work from schools John de Vial, Group Director of Thomas Cook and Bill Maxwell, representing the Institute of Travel & Tourism, presented them with their prize which also included £1000 worth of books for Hartlepool College.
