The ISTO Awards 2024 winners have been announced!.

The ceremony for the second edition of the ISTO Awards took place in San José, Costa Rica, on the occasion of the World Congress of the International Social Tourism Organisation (ISTO). The ceremony was an opportunity to reward the most inspiring and innovative projects in the three categories open to entries.

Members of the International Social Tourism Organisation and many participants in the ISTO World Congress 2024 gathered on Friday 25 October to discover the winners of the ISTO Awards 2024.

The ISTO Awards recognise excellence in projects, activities, programmes, initiatives and studies recently launched by ISTO members. This year, three categories were open for entries: Initiatives from Destinations, Initiatives from Associations and the Private Sector, and Initiatives from Academies and Researchers. Once again, ISTO members responded enthusiastically! For this second edition, the entries were assessed on the basis of the Brussels Addendum criteria, on their innovative aspect, their impact, their scalability and replicability.

After a pre-selection by a first jury, the members of the ISTO Executive Committee and an external expert member proceeded to a final selection: three projects, one in each category, were selected for their role in the Social Sustainability of Tourism.

These are the winners of the 2024 ISTO Awards:

Initiatives from Destinations: Agència Catalana de Turisme (Catalunya, Spain)

For the elaboration of two manuals for the various actors in the tourism sector, aimed at understanding what tourism for all is and presenting guidelines and tools for offering a quality service to a wide group of travellers, while improving the quality of the destination.

Initiatives from Associations and the Private Sector: Vacances Ouvertes (France)

For the ‘Ne rêvez plus, partez ! 10000 départs en vacances’ (Dream no more, let's go! 10,000 holidays departure) project, an operation of 10,000 holiday departures that bring well-being to those who benefit from them and demonstrate success when stakeholders collaborate together.

Initiatives from Academies and Researchers: Angela Teberga de Paula (Brazil)

For the project to promote tourist visits to the town's cultural, ecological and rural attractions, from a social tourism perspective and targeting teenagers who have committed criminal acts and are linked to socio-educational care programmes.

Congratulations to the three winners! And a special thank you for their participation!

ISTO would like to extend its warmest thanks to all the participants in this second edition of the ISTO Awards and congratulate them on their projects and initiatives, which are essential to the implementation of Social Sustainability of Tourism. Each project makes its own contribution and plays an essential role in the development of a form of tourism that respects local populations, workers in the sector and visitors.

ISTO would also like to thank the Agence Nationale pour les Chèques-Vacances ANCV for their support of the ISTO Awards.