philippajacks.co.uk

[My blog on TTG website, ttgdigital.com]

One of the most interesting events of WTM for me was the launch by Kuoni of the UK’s first Fair Trade-certified holiday.

Kuoni teamed up with Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), which has been working to promote the importance of fair trade in tourism for a decade, in order to gain certification of all aspects of the supply chain on a 13-night South Africa package.

While the concept of fairly-traded cocoa… Continue reading

At a tourism conference in Panama last week, I got chance to catch up with the Rainforest Alliance and hear about its latest news.

Federico Solano described a new scheme called Tour Operators Promoting Sustainability, or TOPS, for both local Latin American tourism companies and those sending customers from the UK and other countries.

After bringing together travel companies that have made a commitment to sustainable practices, the Alliance hopes to launch a group-wide marketing campaign, creating one of the world’s first networks of green-certified operators… Continue reading

I wrote in July about Green Travel Guides’ visit to Bluefields Bay in Jamaica, a project I visited in January of this year. The film crew has now completed another video for the Travel Foundation in Jamaica, this time focussing on Hotel Mocking Bird Hill, near Port Antonio.

It’s a hotel I first learnt about at World Travel Market last year, when it won the ‘best accommodation for the environment‘ category at the Responsible Tourism Awards… Continue reading

A Green Travel Guides crew has just been out to Jamaica to film the latest developments from the marine sanctuary project I reported on in January. Assisted by The Travel Foundation and Virgin Holidays, local fishermen have created Jamaica’s largest marine reserve, to allow depleted fish stocks to recover.

The Bluefields Bay reserve is now a year old, and it seems that fish stocks have gone from strength to strength since my visit at the start of the year. The wardens… Continue reading

My interview with Anthony Climpson OBE (tourism destination manager for New Forest District Council) is now live on Greentraveller.co.uk - which has this week launched a sustainable tourism guide to the New Forest. Read it here

I’ve just got back from an incredible trip to South Africa, where I spent a week at a safari guide-training facility in the northern-most tip of the Kruger National Park. Eco Training is South Africa’s leading training provider for safari guides, and has trained more than 3,000 guides in southern Africa and beyond.

It has three camps in South Africa, but what makes the camp I visited at Makuleke special is that it’s within a unique part… Continue reading

My review of Primrose Valley Hotel in St Ives, Cornwall, is now live on greentraveller…click to read the full review

Primrose Valley is just one of the hotel’s featured on the St Ives tourist board’s new iPhone app. It features nine places to stay, lots of bars and restaurants, things to do and sites of interest, and lots of useful contact details for trains, taxis, boat hire and more – all pinpointed on the an interactive map… Continue reading

My greentraveller feature on the bike policies of all the major UK rail companies…..

Read the full piece here

[this blog first appeared on greentraveller ]

Visitors to Cumbria this summer can take part in cycling activities free of charge, thanks to a new Passport 2 Pedalling scheme.

Cumbria Tourism has teamed up with CycleActive, a company in Penrith, to offer training courses and guided bike rides across the Lake District from July to October.

‘Beach biking‘ sessions are taking place on the sand at Allonby, Barrow and St Bees in August with… Continue reading

I went for a lovely lunch with a Peruvian hotel group called Inkaterra today, at a restaurant called Bumpkin in South Kensington.

Inkaterra has some of the most exciting, sustainable hotels in Peru. It all started in the 1970s with Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica right in the Amazon jungle. Next were La Casona in Cusco, part of the super-luxury Relais & Chateaux collection, and Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel right by Machu Picchu. Inkaterra has now launched another sister brand… Continue reading