BANGKOK, 4 October 2019: Ground Asia has been chosen as a finalist along with 27 other leading organisations in the 2019 Global Youth Travel Awards.
The awards recognise outstanding performers in 14 fields of international youth travel.
The awards put the spotlight on excellence among World Youth & Student Education Travel Confederation (WYSETC) members and other stakeholders in the youth, student and educational travel industry.
Fifteen judges, vetted for impartiality, chose 30 finalists in 10 nominated categories – 28 organisations in total.
At the 11 October award ceremony in Lisbon Portugal, winners will be announced for Best Education Abroad Provider, Best Social Responsibility Initiative, Best Sustainable Organisation, Best Travel Technology Product, Extraordinary Experience, Best Marketing Campaign, Best Social Space in a Hostel, Best Travel Safety Initiative, Best Work Experience Provider, and Outstanding Volunteer Project.
Ground Asia, with its head office in Bangkok and operations in six Asian countries, has been nominated as a finalist for Best Social Responsibility Initiative, and Best Sustainable Organisation.
A WYSETC statement on the 2019 awards says: “The Best Sustainable Organisation category received a large volume of high calibre entries, perhaps not surprising in the age of Greta Thunberg and the global push towards minimising the impact that we, as travellers, have upon the environment.”
To advance sustainability in educational travel, Ground Asia has already integrated 14 out of 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals into the community engagement experiences it offers in six Asian countries.
Ground Asia is also a finalist with its responsible traveller training programme, which is shortlisted in the Best Social Responsibility Initiative category.
The open-to-all free training module, which can be used by students, teachers and faculty, addresses pressing issues in community engagement such as responsible photography, child safety in tourism, giving responsibly, and reducing plastic consumption while travelling.
“With the training programme, our aim is to inspire and educate a generation of young travellers who will go on to travel responsibly throughout their lives,” says Ground Asia general manager Lauren Groves, who is speaking in a session on educating young consumers about responsible travel at WYSTC 2019, 8 to 11 October in Lisbon. Winners of the 2019 Global Youth Travel Awards will be announced 11 October at the gala dinner awards ceremony on the final evening of WYSTC 2019.
