We are very proud to have won the “African Responsible Tourism Award: Best for Wildlife Conservation” on 16 April 2015 at World Travel Market Africa in Cape Town. This category is awarded to a tourism business or initiative that preserves and carefully manages habitat and wildlife species. With this award, Marine Dynamics is now automatically shortlisted for the World Responsible Tourism Award that will be announced in the UK this November.
Here are the judges’ comments: “Marine Dynamics provides very high quality shark cage diving experiences. They operate in a sector where there is rightly a lot of criticism of current practice. Marine Dynamics are industry leaders, a commercial operation which operates to the highest conservation standards, where every trip has a marine biologist aboard to provide interpretation and collect data for scientific research. An operator that makes a significant contribution to conservation and the local economy.”
You can read more about our specific conservation projects here.
Marine Dynamics also provided sponsorship for the category “Best in Poverty Reduction” which was won by our partners, Grootbos Private Nature Reserve. Additionally, Gansbaai, South Africa was awarded “Best Destination for Responsible Tourism” and “Overall Winner” out of 22 finalists. Therefore, this was not only a great day for us but also for our partners and our community.
We are grateful for those who see value in the work we do, not only for the environment, but for the upliftment of our local community through tourism and conservation. Hold thumbs for us in the UK!