Adventure Birding 'n Outdoors in New Guinea's Wild West
View of the Orobiai River on the largest Raja Ampat island of Waigeo in eastern Indonesia. Copyright ©
Like Wijaya
PE Runner-up in WARTA 2013
Released November 17, 2013
Papua Expeditions (EKONEXION) achieved the Runner-up status in the 7th Wild Asia Responsible
Tourism Awards in the category Most Inspiring Responsible Tour Operator. Still the only award of its kind in the Asian realm,
WARTA essentially aims to identify and encourage leaders in sustainable tourism.
Amy McLoughlin, Wild Asia's Responsible Tourism Awards Coordinator, wrote us: 'On behalf of Wild Asia and this
year's Judging Advisory Panel, we have genuinely loved learning about your operations and commitment to responsible tourism. I
mean it when I say, this year has been particularly tough for judging. Our Finalists all had so many unique strengths, situations,
innovation and passion. Although your application was extremely strong in many areas, and we have been very impressed with your
achievements to date — I regret to inform you that you have not been selected as a Winner this year. Your Finalist status
remains and you should congratulate your efforts as coming in second place. It is certainly a big achievement to have made it this
far.'
Congratulations to all our worthy winners and finalists. All of them are role models for the industry. Their
investment in community engagement, workers' welfare, cultural conservation and environmental stewardship — make the travel
industry a more exciting place to work. Most importantly, they're supporting long lasting development in their destinations across
Asia, ensuring a more sustainable future for the places we love to visit.
— Amy McLoughlin, Responsible Tourism Awards Coordinator, Wild Asia
Like Wijaya, Founder of Papua Expeditions (EKONEXION) said: 'Wild Asia's external assessment and
recognition of our work is an extremely important regional accreditation. After all, the WARTA remains the only award of it's kind
throughout the Asian realm.'
'Generally, the ecotourism or responsible travel industry tends to be fraught with green-washing, extremely so in
poorly transparant countries like Indonesia, where there tend to be many regulations but little or no enforcement. As a direct
consequence, there is a strong free-riding effect and many tour products and services remain in the black economy. This in turn
undermines the efforts of genuine entrepreneurs, who's capacity to develop, initiate, and implement appropriate social and
environmental action, is entirely dependent on their economic performance.'
'By carefully choosing who to entrust with organizing a travel experience, consumers can help to make a real
difference, but green-washing techniques can be very effective, and tour fare remains the decisive factor in the selection process
of a tour operator for most prospective travelers. Certification may help consumers to make the responsible choice, but there are
many schemes with confusingly varying standards, and for most small or micro-entreprises that typically deliver tourism products
and services, the financial burden that comes with certification is both hard to bear and difficult to justify against the current
backdrop of relatively limited market receptiveness toward selection of responsible yet inevitably more expensive operations.'
WARTA fills an important gap in providing expert external assessment that is not only thorough, independent and
authoritative, but also comparative on a grand regional scale. — Like Wijaya, Founder, Papua
Expeditions (EKONEXION)
'WARTA thus fills an important gap in providing expert external assessment that is not only thorough, independent
and authoritative, but also comparative on a grand regional scale. And of course, as a potential bonus there is the significant
subsequent exposure to those entrepreneurs who are judged to really make a difference. What a wonderful initiative this is, and on
behalf of our entire team, I would like to take this opportunity to commend Wild Asia on its extraordinary vision on responsible
tourism.'
Additional information
Wild Asia is a social enterprise working to support the conservation of natural areas and the communities
dependent upon their resources. Its ultimate goal is to promote sustainable practices that will minimize adverse impacts on the
environment, ensure that local communities are engaged and that local cultures are respected.
Wild Asia believes that sustainable destinations can be made a reality by promoting Responsible Tourism and
sharing resources to inspire change from within the travel industry. To do so, the organization aligned its Responsible Tourism
Check-list to the Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria (GSTC) of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
Launched at the World Conservation Congress in October 2008, the GSTC are a set of 37 voluntary standards
representing the minimum that any tourism business should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world's natural and
cultural resources while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for poverty alleviation. Today, the GSTC are being used by
businesses and organizations around the world to better understand the complexities of sustainable tourism and to make
sustainability a hallmark methodology in the way we all travel, learn, and do business.
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