Leed's University. The international Centre for responsible tourism

The Centre was founded by Harold Goodwin at Greenwich University and it moved with him to Leeds in 2006. Harold was part of the VSO and Tearfund advocacy campaigns which started Responsible Tourism in the UK and worked with the South African government to implement their policy in 2000. Former students have included Justin Frances who is CEO of ResponsibleTravel.com, Caroline Warburton who runs Wild Scotland and the travel writer Catherine Mack. We have a host of students and former students working in government and sustainability roles in hotels and tour operations around the world, we have alumni in sustainable tourism roles in ABTA, Thomas Cook and TUI. Many are doing work in conservation and consultancy. All of them are taking responsibility and making tourism more sustainable.

Our Masters primarily attracts mid-career professionals who often study the programme whilst continuing their careers in tourism, consultancy, government, conservation, IT, environmental management, law, marketing and a range of other careers. They share a commitment to the values of Responsible Tourism. Our staff are able to work in English, Spanish and German. The Masters is also being provided in India and The Gambia from autumn 2010. We are proud to have Professor Richard Butler, Britain's leading sustainable tourism academic, as our external examiner.

The ICRT has seven core staff, eighteen associates chosen for their complementary expertise, and around a hundred alumni - it has become a significant network withsister organisations in eight countries.  Our associates assist us in our ambition to be at the cutting edge of work furthering Responsible Tourism. We have been raising questions about water, travel philanthropy, carbon offsetting and certification for some time, more recently we have begun to raise the issues which arise when the principles of Responsible Tourism are applied to the cruise industry and looking at the issues which arise for people with disabilities.

The ICRT runs with governments around the world an annual International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, the next is in October 2010 in Oman, in 2011 it will be in Canada and in 2012 in Rio.

In London and Leeds we run regular professional conferences and seminars most recently on responsible cruising and on poverty reduction, others are planned on aviation, hospitality and the organising of excursions which benefit local communities.

Harold Goodwin was part of the Pro-Poor Tourism Partnership which originated work on the tourism and poverty reduction agenda and continues to work on tourism and livelihoods with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the International Trade Centre and companies and initiatives in the UK and around the world.