haroldgoodwin.info

Title

Home - Harold Goodwin

Language

en-GB

Generator

WordPress 6.9.4

Canonical

https://haroldgoodwin.info/

Feeds

• Harold Goodwin » Feed RSS
• Harold Goodwin » Comments Feed RSS

Open Graph

url

https://haroldgoodwin.info/

title

Home - Harold Goodwin

locale

en_GB

site name

Harold Goodwin

description

Dr Harold Goodwin has worked on 4 continents with local communities, their governments and the inbound and outbound tourism industry. He is the Founder of the ICRT. global, which umbrellas the ICRTs around the world to share knowledge and skills. He is a Professor Emeritus at Manchester Metropolitan University, Managing Director of the Responsible Tourism Partnership, and adviser to WTM Africa on its Responsible Tourism programme. Since 2004, he has chaired the panels of judges for the Global Responsible Tourism Awards and the other regional awards in the family in Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Latin America and Southeast Asia. He is the Founder of the ICRT.global ” a non-profit on a mission to share more knowledge and understanding of Responsible Tourism in order to make better places for people to live in, and better places for people to visit. We want to share our collective knowledge to help people see further.” Harold researches on tourism, local economic development and poverty reduction, conservation and Responsible Tourism working with the industry, local communities, governments, and conservationists. Harold also undertakes consultancy and evaluations for companies, NGOs, governments, and international organisations. Harold founded the ICRTD series of International Conferences on Responsible Tourism in Destinations in 2002, he co-chairs the conferences with the local host organisation. He is also the Founder and Director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, which he founded in 2002 when he  co-chaired the side event at the WSSD on Responsible Tourism in Destinations and drafted the  Cape Town Declaration. With two decades of experience around the world, he wrote the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter, which was launched and signed on Magna Carta Island.  In November 2023 he was listed in the Global Hall of Fame Academy as the Founder of the Responsible Tourism Movement. 2023 was the first year that Sustainability Awards have been presented. Harold was recognized alongside Inge Huijbrechts who collected the Award on behalf of the Radisson Hotel Group. Antonio Buscardini, Editor in Chief of Travel Tomorrow, Buscardini Communications  opening the European Responsible Tourism Awards ceremony in Brussels in October 2025 said:  “At Travel Tomorrow, responsible tourism is one of our founding principles. When we launched this Brussels-based news outlet back in June 2020, it was clear that sustainability and ethics – thus, responsible tourism – had to be at the heart of our storytelling. And I must confess that one of the people who inspired us most was Harold Goodwin. Harold is an exceptional person and one of the driving forces behind these awards. For years, he has been sharing his thoughts with our readers every single week, without ever missing a deadline. Recently, he had to take a short break due to a health issue. It has now been 118 days since his last article. But, dear friends, I received an email just one hour ago with a new piece from Harold.That is Harold. Resilient, committed, and forever passionate about responsible tourism.” UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai on Harold Goodwin’s contribution to Responsible Tourism Podcast for Gorilla Highlands February 2022  “It was a no-brainer whom to invite as our guest for the 11th episode of SEE AFRICA BREATHE AFRICA focused on responsible tourism (we cut it down to 17 minutes only, to be as user-friendly as possible). Who would be your top mark if you were to discuss the Catholic Church? Pope Francis of course! To me — and probably to thousands of others who have listened to Harold Goodwin in lecture rooms, at trade fairs and elsewhere — Pope Harold is the spiritual leader of tourism the way it should be. It was his stature that impressed me, but it is his personality that will move you when you hear Goodwin on the podcast. One could argue against his definitions of competing terms, but you can’t miss his passion, sharpness of thought and provocative ideas. We have had many a remarkable personality on the show, but this is our peak thus far … There were more than a dozen participants on our Tuesday Zoom call but most of them have opted to shut up and just take in Harold’s conviction and expertise. Meeting Harold Goodwin was my highlight of the 2015 World Travel Market, having been sent there by a UTB/UNWTO/UNDP pro-poor tourism project. In a massive exhibition hall in London, the budding Gorilla Highlands Initiative was to get world exposure — but the most profound actual revelation was our first contact with the ideas championed by Goodwin. They affected everything we have been doing ever since.” As a consultant and researcher, he worked on four continents. His biggest claim to fame may be the 2002 Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism … Twenty years on, we certainly shouldn’t be self-congratulatory. Not enough progress has been made,” summarises Goodwin. One of his biggest regrets is that he hasn’t spent as much time with consumers as he has with destinations and travel businesses. “We should find the Greta Thunberg of tourism,” he says. Harold has realised that it is consumers who will most likely drive adoption of responsible practices, who will be top protectors of what matters. But he did have some very direct involvement in the responsible tourism industry too. With one of his students, Justin Francis, he co-founded Responsible Travel, a British company. Harold eventually sold his shares to avoid conflicts of interest; he was often contracted by the UK government and could theoretically work in the company’s favour. He quotes Francis when asked about customer benefits of responsible tourism: “I can’t tell the difference when I taste it between fairly traded coffee and unfairly traded coffee, but if I go on a responsible holiday, I do experience the difference.” Still, he emphasises, we should not forget that the responsible tourism mantra making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit should never ever be switched and give priority to visitors. It’s the benefits to the local communities, their culture and their natural environment, that must always come first. ”  more Miha “Rwebandira” Logar A pen sketch from June 2011 “Goodwin, a professor of Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University, is a person who cannot be easily missed. He is a stocky teddy-bearish man with a square ruddy face adorned by a salt and pepper beard and fitted with twinkling blue eyes. Yet, he managed to remain nearly invisible right through the two-day symposium, intervening only at critical moments. ”I was here to listen to what you had to say and spread the word to the rest of the world….” R Ayyappan, Express News Service Beyond the tourist sites and sights  11 September 2020 Facebook Linkedin YouTube Sustainability Summit at WTM London in November 2023 Contact email harold@haroldgoodwin.info  (please note that I do not host guest blogs)