16 April 2009 - Athens, Greece

Each year, on the 1st of July, to celebrate its founding anniversary ECOCLUB - International Ecotourism Club allocates at least 10% of the previous year’s Membership Fees and ecoproduct sales to fund micro-projects initiated & implemented by its Members.

Building on the experience & successes of previous years ECOCLUB hereby announces its 6th Annual Awards. This year's theme is "Their Crisis, Our Communities - progressive change through Social Ecotourism”.

ECOCLUB Director Antonis Petropoulos explains: "while mainstream tourism is taken aback by the sudden shortage of new magic neoliberal recipes, and learns about the unsustainability of mega resorts, condo hotels and real estate developments the hard way, we would like to mobilise our Members, tourism professionals, academics & students to undertake innovative projects that help create ‘another world’ at the grass roots level and improve life for all in their communities."

The Awards are open to all ECOCLUB Members who are in good standing on May 31, 2009.

The total ECOCLUB.com Ecotourism Awards 2009 funds amount to Euros 3,000 (approx. USD 4,000) to be shared by three winners, who will receive Euros 1,000 each on successful completion of the projects.

The winners will be determined in a democratic fashion by Members through an email vote.

During the voting period Members will be able to post questions in the public Awards forum so as to scrutinise the candidate projects. Each Member has 1 vote, and the three projects that receive most votes will win the prize. Voters may not change their vote after sending in their email vote. Candidates and their employees will not be able to vote.

Application Deadline:
The deadline for receiving completed applications (by email, in text or Word format) is Sunday May 31, 2009. now extended to Friday 5 June, 2009

Candidate projects will be published online on June 16, and winners will be announced on July 1, following a democratic Member vote (no opaque award juries here!) Projects should be initiated by August 1 and completed by November 1, 2009.

>> Application Procedure:
Applications are only accepted by email. To apply please download:

the complete Awards Terms & Conditions (.pdf - 147 KB)
the Awards Application Form (.doc - 105 KB) or (.pdf - 87 KB)

You may also help us raise the amount through the Awards by becoming a Supporter:
For details please see: https://ecoclub.com/awards.html#supporters