The Blue Yonder (TBY) has been awarded top honours in the 2006 First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards. The awards, organised by online travel agent responsibletravel.com in association with The Times, Geographical Magazine and the World Travel Market, are the largest of their kind in the world.

The First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards celebrate tourism ventures that make a positive contribution to conservation and the economies of local communities while minimizing any negative impacts of tourism.

The award committee received over 1200 nominations from members of the travelling public, which were reduced down to 13 winners. We have won the award in the category "Best for Poverty Reduction".

The Award was presented to Gopinath Parayil (Gopi), Chief Executive of The Blue Yonder, on Wednesday 8th November at the World Travel Market in London. Libby Evans and Ajith Kavirajan, from TBY's UK and Bangalore offices respectively, were also present.

TBY came into the travel business three years ago with a mission: to provide travellers with alternative holiday experiences that would bring economic and cultural benefits to the communities they visit. Our tours were set up as a financial engine to drive the work of the Nila Foundation, which works to revive and regenerate the dying River Nila in Kerala, South India.

On receiving the award Gopinath Parayil (Gopi) said, "This award is a recognition of local people's effort to own responsibility for the environment they live in. This is an encouragement for people living along the river to protect and preserve a river that reminiscences generations of folklores"

As well as introducing travellers to this beautiful and richly artistic part of India, our holidays provide a supplementary source of income to folk artists, musicians, home makers, traditional martial arts practitioners and local entrepreneurs. Just as importantly, they provide an alternative income to people who earn their living from activities that damage the river, such as illegal sand mining.

Our holidays have shown the importance of a river in relation to culture, ecosystem and a sustainable way of life. Our river-based programs focus on people who have been associated for several generations with the river in their day to day life. We believe that the way we do business will bring significant changes in the way local people think about the river, which was once so much part of the cultural and social ethos of the Malayali (Keralite) people.

We hope this award will help us to bring the international community's attention to a river that could actually disappear into oblivion. We also believe that this award will bring in attention of the Governments and travel industry in India to look at Responsible Tourism as the way forward.

To know more in detail about The Blue Yonder and Nila Foundation contact us