Wild Futures wins Gold for Sustainable Tourism at this year’s South West Tourism Awards.

Wild Futures, a leading primate welfare charity which runs The Monkey Sanctuary, based in Looe Cornwall, has won Gold for Sustainable Tourism at this year’s South West Tourism Awards.

The awards evening, which was held at the Riviera International Conference Centre in Torquay, saw 123 different awards presented after a tough and rigorous judging process in which 647 entries were considered. BBC Spotlight’s Victoria Graham hosted the evening, and with over 400 tourism business in attendance, it was a great success.

The awards recognise the vision, investment, hard work, and excellence of tourism businesses spread all across the South West region. The Sustainable Tourism Award recognises the work of tourism businesses in Cornwall that are actively trying to improve their own sustainability and that of their area’s economy as a whole.

Wild Futures cares for over 30 rescued monkeys at their flagship project The Monkey Sanctuary and visitors can come and visit the monkeys from April to October. As well as learning about the rescued monkeys at The Monkey Sanctuary, visitors can get involved in wildlife activities such as bug box making, get interactive in the ‘Wildlife Room’, watch bats via a live link to a roost in the cellar of the old house and explore the extensive wildlife gardens, home to more than 385 different wildlife species including, badgers, lizards, foxes, deer, the lesser horseshoe bat and the rare Pearl bordered fritillary butterfly. There are also ample opportunities to learn about sustainability and sustainable living.

Sarah Hanson, PR and Fundraising Officer at Wild Futures stated: “We are extremely proud to have won Gold for Sustainable Tourism at the South West Tourism Awards. To have been voted the best in the whole of the South West is something of an honour and we want to thank everyone that has helped us achieve this. All our staff and volunteers are passionate about living a sustainable life and work hard to ensure that our organisational operations have as little effect on the environment as possible. It is great to be recognised for our hard work through these awards, as it gives us an even greater platform to educate others in how to live and work more sustainably.”