The Meaningful Tourism Centre has opened nominations for the Meaningful Tourism Award 2025, introducing a new selection process and publication for winners.
For the third time, the Meaningful Tourism Center has organized the Meaningful Tourism Award. After presenting the winners in 2022, during ITB Asia in Singapore, 2023 during Qatar Travel Mart in Doha and 2024 during Himalayan Travel Mart in Kathmandu, the form of the Award process has changed a bit.
In previous years, projects, programs, companies, and organizations could apply on their own behalf. For the 2025 edition, this has changed to nominations and to the publication of a book (both as eBook and in printed form) featuring all Award winners. This way, a wider variety of Award winners can be targeted and their Best Practice examples will be available to more players in the field looking to learn how to use the Meaningful Tourism paradigm for their own purposes.
Prof Dr Wolfgang Georg Arlt, the founder and executive director of the Meaningful Tourism Center, known as “Prof M” (for “Meaningful with a capital M”), quoted Schiller’s Ode to Joy, featured in Beethoven’s 9th symphony, as an inspiration. “In our Meaningful Tourism Weekly publication, we currently feature a series of articles looking at the development of tourism from a Faustian perspective, using the masterpiece of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The other main classical author, Friedrich Schiller, praises in the Ode to Joy famously those “who the noble prize achieveth, Good friend of a friend to be”. Accordingly, projects, programs, destinations, companies and organisations that are working in a framework that aligns the benefits and satisfaction of all tourism and hospitality stakeholders will be able to enter the group of potential winners of the Meaningful Tourism Award 2025 only by nomination from one of their friends, partners or supporters. Self-nominations are not accepted.”
There are six categories, for each of the six main stakeholders as identified by the Meaningful Tourism paradigm. The Awards will go to those which are themselves or which are providing especially beneficial and satisfying services for travellers, host communities, employees of service providers, service providing companies, governments at different levels or the environment. For each stakeholder category, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards will be selected.
Nominations can be done very easily. There is no need to fill out a form, an email to info@meaningfultourismcentre.org providing the name the project, product, company, destination or organisation including a contact person, reasons for the nomination and links or documents to support the nomination are sufficient.
Nominations can be provided until the 22nd of November, 2025. The Meaningful Tourism community, made up of more than 50 members around the world, will choose the Award winners for 2025. The list of winners will be published on the 5th of December, 2025, of course also here in the TravelDailyNews.
All Meaningful Tourism Award 2025 winners will be featured in a publication of the Meaningful Tourism Centre, to be published, thanks to modern technology, before the end of the year 2025.
Nominations and Meaningful Tourism Awards are as always completely free of charge. Award winners will not only be featured in the book publication and in the MTC website and social media, but will also receive a certificate and a special logo as Meaningful Tourism Award 2025 Winners to use in their own communication and marketing.