Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya and South Africa swept the gold tier of the 2026 WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards last week, and the common thread is practical problem-solving on the ground rather than grand positioning.
The awards were presented at the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the annual World Travel Market (WTM) Africa expo, recognising 22 organisations across 13 countries who are delivering measurable impact for people, places and nature.
The winners are dealing with waste, supply chains, conservation and skills development in places where those issues are immediate. Ele Collection in Zimbabwe is tackling plastic pollution by turning it into construction material. Namibia’s Rural Revive is rebuilding food supply around tourism in arid regions. Saruni Basecamp in Kenya links conservation income directly to communities. In South Africa, both the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company and the V&A Waterfront Academy focus on how tourism money moves through local economies, from supplier development to training.
Traditional African Homestays Southern Africa adds a regional dimension, connecting travellers to community-run accommodation that keeps revenue in villages rather than routing it through external operators.
Ele Collection’s work in Zimbabwe starts with a visible problem: plastic waste accumulating in places that lack formal recycling infrastructure. The solution is mechanical and local. Waste is processed into aggregates that can be used in building. Tourism becomes the funding stream and distribution channel, rather than the focus. Visitors see the impact in the physical environment.
RuralRevive in Namibia supplies lodges with fresh produce in remote areas has always been a logistical challenge. Importing food raises costs and undercuts local farmers. RuralRevive connects nearby producers with tourism operations, building a supply chain that did not exist in a reliable form before. Digital tools help match demand and supply, but the shift is economic rather than technical. Money that would have left the region now circulates within it.
In Kenya, Saruni Basecamp has spent years linking conservation outcomes to community income. It is structured through land use, employment and revenue-sharing. Wildlife protection is tied directly to the viability of the tourism model. Technology plays a role in monitoring and operations, but the underlying change is in how incentives are aligned.
South Africa’s winners reflect a more mature tourism market grappling with distribution rather than access. The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company has been under pressure for years to demonstrate broader impact beyond ticket sales. Its response has been to shift procurement and supplier relationships towards smaller, local businesses. The effect is not always visible to visitors, but it changes who benefits from one of the country’s most visited attractions.
The V&A Waterfront Academy approaches the same issue from a different angle. It focuses on skills development, preparing people for roles across the tourism and retail ecosystem around the Waterfront. Training programmes are tied to real employment pathways, rather than existing as standalone initiatives. The outcome is a steady pipeline of workers who can move into jobs that would otherwise be filled through more traditional recruitment channels.
Traditional African Homestays Southern Africa reinforces the same pattern. It connects travellers with community-run accommodation, cutting out layers of intermediation that typically dilute local earnings. Booking platforms and digital payments make that connection viable at scale. Without them, the model would struggle to reach beyond niche markets.
Across these projects, technology is present but rarely foregrounded. It resides in booking systems, supply chain coordination, monitoring tools and payment platforms. The systems are built around constraints rather than convenience, since users are not always operating on the latest devices. Transactions may need to move between formal and informal channels, so interfaces are simpler.
The contrast with mainstream tourism platforms is sharp. Large booking engines and travel apps tend to optimise for scale and efficiency. They work well in environments where infrastructure is stable and users are predictable. The projects recognised at WTM Africa operate in places where neither of those conditions can be taken for granted.
That does not make them small or experimental. In many cases, they are already operating at meaningful scale within their regions. But the problem comes first, and the technology is shaped around it.
There are limits to what these models can achieve on their own. Issues such as land ownership, policy frameworks and broader economic inequality sit outside the reach of any single project. The success of the winners depends in part on how they interact with those larger systems.
For travellers, the changes can feel incremental. A lodge sources food locally. A tour includes a community visit that is not staged. A ticketing system manages access to a sensitive site. Each of these is a small shift. Taken together, they alter the economics of tourism.
The 2026 WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Award Silver winners are:
Elephant Human Relations Aid Namibia – Regenerative Tourism
Human‑elephant conflict incidents have fallen from 92 in 2023 to just 12 so far in 2026, with no elephants shot as problem animals in 2025, across more than 2 million hectares.
Graskop Gorge Lift Company South Africa– Nature Positive
A zero‑impact access system protects critically endangered species such as the Graskop cliff aloe while sourcing most procurement within 100 kilometres.
Green Planet & TUI Care Foundation Egypt– Championing Cultural Diversity
The Colourful Cultures programme supports artists, artisans and community hosts through training in hospitality, storytelling and entrepreneurship, connecting them to tourism markets through hotel, tour operator and online partnerships.
Imvelo Safari Lodges – Regenerative Tourism
Long‑term coexistence work includes water management, anti‑poaching deterrence and the successful reintroduction of white rhinos.
LUX Marijani Zanzibar– Local Economic Benefit
Local suppliers are embedded into the resort’s value chain, generating consistent income for fishers, farmers, transport providers and women’s cooperatives.
Saruni Wild Kenya– Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
A structured internship programme has shifted staff representation from an all‑male team in 2015 to nearly one‑third women today, including a female Assistant Manager and equal gender representation among interns.
TUI Futureshapers North Africa – Local Economic Benefit
The programme supports more than 180 young entrepreneurs across Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, strengthens local value chains and creates jobs through locally led tourism businesses.
Unexplored Cape Town – Championing Cultural Diversity
Inclusive, community‑rooted food tours take guests into neighbourhood kitchens and markets, supporting small vendors and welcoming travellers with disabilities while showcasing diverse African and diaspora food cultures.
The 2026 WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Award one-to-watch winners are:
Agro‑Tourism Park by Eco Terra Vista Tours Rwanda – Local Economic Benefit
A grassroots model integrating smallholder farming, cultural heritage and tourism ensures revenue stays in rural communities historically excluded from tourism value chains.
Cape Tourist Guides Association South Africa– Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Recognised for strengthening representation by ensuring guides reflect South Africa’s cultural, linguistic and socio‑economic diversity.
Desert & Delta Safaris Botswana– Championing Cultural Diversity
The Okavango Marathon Project offers an immersive cultural journey through remote communities along the Okavango Panhandle, meeting fishermen, travelling by mokoro with community guides and engaging with the San community at Tsodilo.
Green Safaris Zambia and Malawi– Regenerative Tourism
Mukuni Organic Farm and hydrological restoration using cascading check dams demonstrate a regenerative approach to restoring degraded land.
Jacada Travel Zimbabwe– Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
A Female Guides of the Future initiative supports women to access high‑level guiding roles through training, mentorship and career pathways in partnership with the Wilderness Trust.
Spekboom Southern Africa – Nature Positive
A tour company offering an automated split‑payment model channels 2.5 per cent of every booking directly to conservation or community causes at no extra cost to guests.
TUI Care Foundation Field to Fork Tanzania– Regenerative Tourism
Strengthens regenerative food systems, supports local farmers and links sustainable agriculture with tourism markets. One of nine projects worldwide.
TUI Turtle Aid and Project Diversity, Cape Verde – Nature Positive
More than 1.2-million endangered turtle hatchlings have been protected since 2017 by TUI with local partner Project Biodiversity.