Cardamom Tented Camp among the world’s most responsible tourism projects: ICRT

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp in Cam­bod­ia is among the world’s most respons­ible tour­ism pro­jects accord­ing to the Inter­na­tion­al Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism (ICRT).

The eco­lodge was acclaimed among 30 final­ists at ICRT’s 2025 Glob­al Respons­ible Tour­ism Awards in Lon­don, Novem­ber 3.

Nature positive

ICRT’s 2025 Glob­al Respons­ible Tour­ism Awards gath­er­ing cel­eb­rated the best sus­tain­able pro­jects from five continents. 

Judges gave awards in six cat­egor­ies: nature pos­it­ive; peace, under­stand­ing and inclu­sion; man­aging waste respons­ibly; increas­ing loc­al sourcing and shared value; cli­mate adapt­a­tion and resi­li­ence; and all-inclus­ive respons­ible tour­ism award.

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp in Cam­bod­ia, whose tagline is “Your Stay Keeps the Forest Stand­ing”, was com­pet­ing in the nature pos­it­ive respons­ible tour­ism cat­egory along­side Emboo Safari Camp in Kenya; Rain­forest Exped­i­tions and Wired Amazon in Peru; Jetwing Vil Uyana in Sri Lanka; Six Senses Laamu in the Mal­dives; Nature­trek World­wide; and cat­egory win­ner, Astun­gkara Way in Indonesia.

The awards are organ­ised by The Inter­na­tion­al Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism (ICRT), a not-for-profit estab­lished in 2002 with the aim of amp­li­fy­ing know­ledge and imple­ment­a­tion of respons­ible tour­ism globally.

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Proud to protect

Wild­life pho­to­graph­er and con­ser­va­tion­ist, Allan Michaud, who has been lodge man­ager at the 12-tent Car­damom Ten­ted Camp since it opened in 2017, said: “We are grate­ful to the judges for recog­nising the com­mit­ment of every­one involved at the camp. We strive to deliv­er a genu­ine eco­tour­ism exper­i­ence in a set­ting we are proud to protect.”

The ICRT said that the judges were look­ing for quan­ti­fi­able and inspir­a­tion­al pos­it­ive impacts and best prac­tices that could be rep­lic­ated by oth­er oper­at­ors. In addi­tion to con­ser­va­tion, judges sought a com­mit­ment to loc­al com­munit­ies, eco­nom­ies and cul­ture. [Full list of final­ists and win­ners.]

In related news, Car­damom Ten­ted Camp won the Best Ten­ted Camp in Cam­bod­ia award at the World Lux­ury Travel Awards held in Singa­pore, Octo­ber 31.

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About Cardamom Tented Camp

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp is an eco­lodge loc­ated in the foot­hills of the Car­damom Moun­tains in Cam­bod­ia. The 12-unit ten­ted camp, with res­taur­ant pavil­ion, staff dorm­it­ory, eco­tour­ism equip­ment and boat pier, uses sol­ar power to run lodge amen­it­ies. The camp has its own waste water fil­tra­tion pro­cess. The camp is access­ible only by river boat or forest hike.

The lodge aims to min­im­ise the human foot­print on the nat­ur­al world and serve as a role mod­el in pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able eco­tour­ism prac­tices with­in both the nation­al park and Cam­bod­ia as a whole. Loc­ated on an 18,000-hectare (180 sq km) con­ces­sion, the lodge and its sur­round­ings are home to pristine low­land and coastal hab­it­ats link­ing wild­life cor­ridors to the Car­damom Moun­tains. Eco-friendly trekking and kayak­ing pack­ages are avail­able for adven­ture enthu­si­asts who are keen to be a part of real con­ser­va­tion work.

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp is a three-way ini­ti­at­ive between Minor Group, YAANA Ven­tures, and Wild­life Alli­ance to ensure the land and its biod­iversity does not fall into the hands of log­gers, poach­ers and sand dredging oper­a­tions. Income from the camp’s oper­a­tion helps fund Wild­life Alli­ance forest patrols. 

The camp’s slo­gan is: “Your Stay Keeps the Forest Standing.”

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” Part­ner mes­sages by Car­damom Ten­ted Camp

Awards and accolades for Cardamom Tented Camp

Nov 2025 – ICRT Glob­al Respons­ible Tour­ism Awards (Final­ist)
Nov 2025 – World Lux­ury Travel Awards (Win­ner — Ten­ted Camps)
June 2025 – Travel + Leis­ure Awards for Asia Pacific (List­ing)
June 2025 – ICRT SE Asia Nature Pos­it­ive Gold Award (Win­ner)
June 2023 – Travel + Leis­ure Awards for Asia Pacific (List­ing)
Oct 2022 – HICAP Sus­tain­able Award for Cli­mate Action (Win­ner)
Oct 2021 – Green Des­tin­a­tions Top 100 Des­tin­a­tion Stor­ies in the World (List­ing)
Aug 2019 – UK Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Trav­el­ler ‘Earth Col­lec­tion’ (List­ing)
July 2019 – PATA Gold Award for Eco­tour­ism (Win­ner)
April 2019 – WTTC Tour­ism for Tomor­row Change­maker (Final­ist)

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About the International Centre for Responsible Tourism

The Inter­na­tion­al Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism (ICRT) is a not-for-profit estab­lished with the express inten­tion of amp­li­fy­ing glob­al know­ledge and under­stand­ing of respons­ible tour­ism. Har­old Good­win foun­ded the ICRT net­work in 2002 as part of the leg­acy of the first Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Respons­ible Tour­ism in Des­tin­a­tions and the Cape Town Declar­a­tion of 2002. Inde­pend­ent region­al ICRTs oper­ate in South­ern & West Africa, the Indi­an sub­con­tin­ent, Lat­in Amer­ica and South­east Asia. Each ICRT shares a com­mon pur­pose in devel­op­ing and pro­mot­ing the concept of respons­ible tour­ism through advocacy, edu­ca­tion, train­ing and research. 

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