Africa is taking its rightful place as a leader in responsible tourism.
Better Tourism Africa (previously the International Centre for Responsible Tourism – South Africa), was established in 2006 to lobby on behalf of the continent’s responsible tourism community.
We also enable tourism businesses, destinations, local people and natural and cultural heritage to thrive. We do so because better places for local people mean better places to visit.
Our Mission
Our mission is to harness tourism to create better places for people to live in better places for people to visit.
We work with government and the private sector in Africa to implement the objectives of Responsible Tourism as described in the Cape Town Declaration.
We believe tourism should help build prosperous and inclusive local economies, healthy natural environments, and celebrate and preserve cultures. Through our continent-wide network of activists we advocate and agitate for responsible tourism.
Latest responsible tourism news
Shark Spotters launches new automatic shark detection project
African Responsible Tourism Awards winner, Shark Spotters, is working on a project to scale up their shark safety service using automatic shark spotting technology. Fixed cameras will be used to detect sharks and support the "spotting" done by observers.
Closing date for the Responsible Tourism Awards Africa extended to January 2019
The closing date for the 2019 African Responsible Tourism Awards has been extended to 18 January 2019. Entries have been steadily streaming in, but we’ve been getting requests to extend the deadline for entry.
The 2019 Responsible Tourism Awards Africa open and accepting nominations from the public
The 2019 Responsible Tourism Awards Africa open and accepting nominations from the public The 2019 Responsible Tourism Awards Africa opens on 23 October 2018. The awards are part of the World Responsible
Explore our recent work
African Responsible Tourism Awards
The African Responsible Tourism Awards is a continent-wide search for Africa’s most inspiring responsible tourism experiences. It forms part of a global family of awards, culminating in the prestigious World Responsible Tourism Awards. Better Tourism Africa has organised the African awards since its inception in 2015.
Strengthening the WOWZULU model for sustainable community-based tourism
Better Tourism Africa has partnered with KwaZulu-Natal-based rural development agency, Africa!Ignite, on a project funded by UNEP’s 10YFP initiative. The project aims to bring together tourism stakeholders to research, strengthen and document the WOWZULU tourism initiative as a model for sustainable community-based tourism in South Africa.