The first will honour the South African Government’s 1996 white paper; The Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa, which was widely heralded as the start of responsible tourism.

The white paper examined how post-apartheid South Africa could benefit from tourism, and proposed responsible tourism as the key guiding principle to build the sector.

The paper also looked at the country’s natural resources to ensure they were protected and not over-exploited, while putting an emphasis on tourists respecting the “environment and culture” of the country, WTM said.

Following this, in 2007, WTM London rebranded its Environmental Awareness Day to World Responsible Tourism Day, broadening the agenda of the day’s programme. WRTD, which will take place this year on Tuesday November 8, is now the largest day of responsible tourism action in the world.

Nearly 2,000 delegates attend the responsible tourism programme at WTM London, organised by Manchester University’s Responsible Tourism Professor Harold Goodwin.

This year’s programme will explore how well the travel industry has embraced responsible tourism; celebrate best practice and question whether responsible tourism has come of age after 20 years, while also attempting to predict what the industry will look like in 2036. WTM London 2016 will be revamped as a three-day event from Monday 7 – Wednesday 9 November, with opening hours extended from 10am – 7pm for all three days.

Goodwin said: “I have been working in the field of responsible tourism for the past two decades and have seen great changes in the way the industry has embraced and adopted responsible travel practices. “This year’s programme will debate if enough progress has been made in responsible tourism and ask what more can be done.”