RARE Awards Honour Sustainability Champions At South Asia’s First Carbon-Conscious Travel Conference

The ninth edition of BRIDGES for Conscious Travel, organised by RARE India, concluded at The Imperial, New Delhi, with the RARE Conscious Travel Awards 2026 recognising individuals, hotels and destination stories contributing to conservation, sustainability and heritage preservation across India, Nepal and Bhutan. The three-day invitation-only event brought together 58 independent hotel exhibitors, 53 Foreign Tour Operators (FTOs), five Museums of Stories, two environmental NGOs and three strategic partners, alongside DMCs, inbound operators, domestic agents and international media. The awards were organised alongside non-commercial sponsors Travel Inn and TOFTigers.

The Champions Of Conscious Travel

Khem Villas in Ranthambore, Rajasthan, received the RARE Sustainability Lighthouse award, while Buddhi Bahadur Thapa of Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge, Nepal, was named the RARE Sustainability Lightkeeper. The awards placed both a property and an individual at the centre of the conference’s wider focus on sustainability and conservation.

The Best RARE Hotel award went to Zhiwaling Heritage in Paro, Bhutan. Meanwhile, Aparna Phalnikar and Sahaj Sharma of Dhyaana Farms, Ellora, Maharashtra, received the Best RARE Hotelier award. The Best RARE Destination Story was awarded to Dev Shree of Deogarh, Rajasthan.

Making Sustainability Measurable

The awards formed part of BRIDGES 2026’s broader focus on moving responsible tourism towards measurable action. One of the defining features of this year’s conference was its environmental accounting. In partnership with NettZero Environmental Advisory Technologies and the Indian School for Nature, the event calculated, audited and offset its Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon footprint using high-quality removal credits, while positioning itself as a carbon-accounted and waste-conscious conference.

For Shoba Rudra, Founder of RARE India, the emphasis is on viewing responsibility as integral to the future of travel. "The conversations and partnerships forged at BRIDGES this year prove that responsible tourism is no longer a niche marketing category—it is an existential blueprint for the future of travel," she said. “True hospitality must measure its success by what it leaves behind and who thrives when the traveller leaves.”

Culture, Conservation And New Conversations

The conference programme, curated in partnership with Avid Learning, also examined the wider challenges facing the travel sector. Author and photographer Arati Kumar-Rao, whose work includes Marginlands, delivered the keynote What Lies Beneath on the changing landscapes of South Asia. Amanda Ho, Co-Founder of Regenerative Travel, discussed structures for restorative hospitality, while other sessions explored Travel in the Age of AI, wildlife preservation, living heritage and community cooperatives.

The event also featured forgotten tribal photographs from Chhattisgarh, a regional art and craft wall, technology aimed at combating micro-plastic waste, and cultural performances by the Barmer Boys, in association with Amarrass Records, and Shilpa Gowalkar. Attendees also took part in pre- and post-conference familiarisation trips across eco-circuits in Ladakh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Telangana and Maharashtra.

The next edition of BRIDGES for Conscious Travel is scheduled for 15–17 September 2027, as RARE India enters the next decade of its advocacy around conscious travel.

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