Speaking at the run up to HSBC presented Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) first annual Wildlife Tourism Awards to be held on the 30th September in New Delhi, the TOFT Chairman said :"Ecotourism can play a vital role in conservation, as it offers local communities a real opportunity for alternative livelihoods and economic empowerment in a way that takes the extraction pressure off forests and reserves. Crucially however it needs to be much better regulated, otherwise bad practice inevitably denigrates the good."

Says Julian Matthews, who founded the campaign. "TOFT has been advocating a need for better policies and regulation of an industry that now accounts for s significant proportion of 650 million tourist trips a year. The industry is now India's biggest sector and we need to get this right. Tourism is also a growth business that won't wait - especially when we are talking about tourism in the most sensitive environmental areas. With clear vision and goodwill we know that tourism can become a unique, self funding, tool to help sustain wildlife and local communities, enabling them to co-exist, indeed thrive, in harmony. Our TOFT award winners really show us how it can be done."

Chairman of Judges of the new TOFT Wildlife tourism Awards , himself an award winning environmentalist and filmmaker, Mike Pandey, also backed the call, saying : "At a time when tourism is coming under the spotlight and being blamed for a host of ills by conservationists and officials alike, we hope to highlight and reward the very best operators, travel companies and individuals who are seeking to use tourism, their passion and their entrepreneurial zeal to support conservation more effectively. Enlightened ecotourism is one of the principle way of ensuring not only conservation but also a sustainable and non extractive source of revenue generation for both local communities and Government. I am honoured to be Chairman of these TOFT Wildlife Tourism Awards, instituted to honour those who innovatively use nature travellers and the ecotourism community to help support the Tiger and its habitat."

The Awards are being held at a prestigious ceremony in Delhi on the evening of 30th September in front of an audience of over 150 conservationists and wildlife tourism professionals. Categories cover the full spectrum of the ecotourism industry including:
- Most inspirational Eco lodge
- Wildlife Guide of the Year & Lodge Naturalist of the Year
- Wildlife Tourism and Community Initiative of the Year
- Wildlife and Tourism Initiative of the Year
- Wildlife Promotion Company of the Year
- Most Visitor Friendly Wildlife Destination 2010

Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) is a global travel industry campaign which aims to advocate, catalyse and support a more responsible and sustainable approach to wildlife tourism both inside and outside India's nature reserves. www.toftigers.org