The World Sustainable Travel & Hospitality Awards (WSTHA) will return for its second edition on October 29, 2025, at Terra, Expo City Dubai, bringing together global players in tourism and hospitality committed to reshaping the industry through sustainability.
Now in its second year, the event recognises people and organisations redefining travel with environmental integrity, cultural respect, and long-term community benefit in mind. The awards spotlight a wide range of efforts: from low-impact accommodation and clean energy use to nature conservation and tourism models built around local involvement.
The 2025 edition comes with key partnerships that reinforce the event’s sustainability goals. Among them is a new collaboration with Fresh On Table, a UAE-based AgriTech platform specialising in local food sourcing and waste-free culinary solutions. As the Official Culinary Partner for the event, Fresh On Table will design a fully carbon-neutral, zero-waste, farm-to-table dining experience for the awards gala.
Fresh On Table, founded by Atul Chopra, now operating across 16 African countries, supplies leading hotels such as Hilton, Jumeirah, Accor, and Hyatt. Its platform helps reduce food miles and improve transparency by connecting hospitality buyers with nearby farms and producers. Chopra says the partnership with WSTHA reflects a shared belief that sustainability should be central to the way hospitality does business—not a side initiative.
“Our approach is to keep food production and consumption as close as possible,” said Chopra. “We see this as part of a wider mission to support food security and reduce emissions.”
Justin Cooke, Executive Vice President of the WSTHA, noted that the dining experience will also include data on ingredient sourcing and carbon impact – a way to show sustainability in action.
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The Awards (WSTHA) have also teamed up with Future Hospitality Summit (FHS World), a major investment and policy platform for the hospitality sector. Held from October 27–29 at Madinat Jumeirah conference centre in Dubai, the summit will host the launch of Net Positive Solution Labs, an initiative developed with the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance to fast-track climate innovation in the industry.
“We’re not just recognising progress, we’re creating a space to accelerate it,” said Jonathan Worsley, CEO of The Bench – organisers of FHS World.
The partnership between WSTHA and FHS World is expected to deepen links between sustainable business practices and long-term investment in tourism. As both events run concurrently, decision-makers will have an opportunity to align on new strategies for reducing the environmental impact of travel while growing its economic potential.
At its core, the WSTHA is about raising the bar for how tourism contributes to the world. In a time of growing climate concern, travel is under pressure to limit its footprint and distribute benefits more fairly. Events like this aim to show what’s possible when environmental and social considerations are placed at the centre of tourism development.
While the World Sustainable Travel & Hospitality Awards is a global platform, its message is particularly relevant to Africa, home to some of the world’s most unique ecosystems, cultures, and nature-based tourism offerings.
Across the continent, there are long-standing examples of responsible travel that deserve more global recognition. In Kenya, eco-lodges in conservancies co-managed with local communities have become a model for low-impact tourism. Rwanda’s regulated mountain gorilla treks combine conservation with revenue-sharing for local people. In Ghana, there’s a growing focus on heritage tourism that empowers communities to tell their own stories.
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Despite all the developments underway, African voices are often underrepresented in global sustainability forums. An event like the WSTHA provides an opening for African destinations, entrepreneurs, and tourism boards to connect with international counterparts and showcase solutions already working on the ground.
The partnership between WSTHA and Fresh On Table also echoes food systems in many African countries, where local sourcing is the norm. Informal food markets, indigenous crops, and traditional farming methods often result in low-waste, low-carbon diets practices that now align with what global sustainability leaders are trying to promote.
There is also a larger opportunity here: to push for more sustainable investment in Africa’s tourism sector. That includes, infrastructure that respects the environment, policies that prioritise local hiring and procurement, and financing that supports SMEs offering eco-friendly services.
As attention turns to Dubai this October, Africa must be part of the conversation not just as a destination, but as a source of leadership and innovation in sustainable travel. By stepping into global spaces like the WSTHA, the continent can help shape the future of an industry that depends on the health of our planet and the dignity of its people.
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