Two Wins at the WYSTC Global Youth Travel Awards 2025

At the 2025 WYSTC Global Youth Travel Awards gala dinner in Lisbon, two ITG brands took home awards in the same evening. Camps International was named Best Sustainable Tour Operator and African Impact received the Outstanding Contribution to the SDGs award. Stacey Isham, Managing Director of African Impact, collected both awards on the night on behalf of the group.

The WYSTC – World Youth and Student Travel Conference – is the leading global gathering for the youth travel sector. Its awards recognise organisations that are genuinely raising the standard for what travel can deliver. Winning one category would have been cause for celebration. Winning two, in the same evening, across two different brands within the same group, reflects something more deliberate: a shared commitment to impact that runs across everything ITG does.

Camps International has spent more than 20 years redefining what responsible student travel looks like. The Best Sustainable Tour Operator award recognises an organisation that embeds sustainability not as an add-on but as the operating principle behind every programme it runs.

The proof is in the numbers. Over the past two years, Camps International student travellers have:

• Completed 209 community and conservation projects globally, contributing more than 450,000 hours of hands-on work
• Planted over 6,000 trees and helped protect 85,000 acres of land since 2023
• Reported that 95% of students felt their expedition increased their global awareness, independence and resilience

Alongside the on-the-ground impact, the fundraising culture Camps has built is equally significant. More than 95% of UK students participate in fundraising, raising around two thirds of their expedition costs through their own efforts before they travel. That level of commitment is itself a measure of how seriously young people take the purpose behind the trip.

“This award is a testament to the dedication of our students, schools, staff and partner communities around the world. It celebrates the belief that young people, when given the opportunity to engage meaningfully with global challenges, can create genuine and lasting change. We are honoured to see that recognised on an international stage.”

— Sharon Palmer, Managing Director, Camps International UK and Middle East

The Outstanding Contribution to the SDGs award recognises an organisation whose work directly and demonstrably advances the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. African Impact’s Girl Impact programme, based in Livingstone, Zambia, is a clear example of what that looks like in practice.

The programme supports 163 students across six active groups in community schools, delivering a structured, year-long weekly curriculum that covers self-esteem, leadership, personal health, safety and menstrual hygiene – topics that are often absent from formal education but are fundamental to the long-term wellbeing and progress of young people. The programme directly supports five UN SDGs: No Poverty, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality and Reduced Inequalities. Each one is addressed through concrete, community-embedded action rather than aspiration. One of the programme’s most tangible interventions is the Menstrual Hygiene Workshop. Many girls in the communities African Impact works with miss up to a week of school each month due to lack of access to menstrual hygiene products.

Each girl who completes the three-session workshop receives a kit – including underwear, soap and reusable pads designed to last up to five years – with a target of 250 kits distributed annually. The programme also extends beyond young people. Tubombele Pamo, a women’s group of 14 community members who did not complete formal education, was co-developed alongside the programme to address SDG 1. Together, they created the Village Tour, an authentic community experience for visitors. Since launching, the tour has hosted more than 1,000 guests, with 100% of profits returned directly to the women.

“This recognition means a great deal to the entire African Impact team and to the communities we work alongside in Livingstone. The Girl Impact programme exists because the community told us it was needed. Everything we have built, from the curriculum to the Tubombele Pamo women’s group, has been shaped by the people it serves. To have that work acknowledged at an international level, and to collect this award on behalf of every person who has contributed to it, is something we are genuinely proud of.”

— Stacey Isham, Managing Director, African Impact

For ITG, these wins are not separate achievements. They are evidence that the group’s approach – long-term community commitment, measurable outcomes and travel built around real consequence – is being recognised as a benchmark for the sector.

The WYSTC awards are judged by peers across the global youth travel industry. Winning in this context, against international competition, carries weight. It demonstrates that the standard ITG sets internally is one the wider sector acknowledges externally.

You can read more about the 2025 winners and the judging criteria at the link below.

Meet the winners

Camps International is a social enterprise that balances profits with philanthropy. Camps operate a permanent network of international camps in the heart of rural communities and wildlife conservation areas through their wholly owned operations in Latin America, East Africa and Southeast Asia. Camps are located where poverty levels are high and/or significant environmental and wildlife conservation challenges exist. Most camps are established on community land, and they employ local people to build, staff and supply their camps, with each one acting as the hub from which they run their wide range of sustainable projects and adventure activities for young people from around the globe. Projects vary from constructing school classrooms and supplying drinking water to terrestrial and marine wildlife conservation, reforestation, environmental education and microfinance initiatives.

African Impact is a responsible travel and social enterprise organisation that combines meaningful volunteer and educational travel experiences with long-term community and conservation impact across Africa. Through its wholly managed operations in Southern and East Africa, African Impact runs a network of volunteer and group travel programs in communities and conservation areas where social, educational, healthcare and environmental challenges exist. Working closely with local partners, communities and conservation organisations, African Impact employs local staff and delivers sustainable projects focused on areas such as education, medical and healthcare support, women’s empowerment, community development, marine and wildlife conservation, environmental education and research initiatives. Its programs are designed to create measurable local impact while providing transformative experiences for volunteers, students and travellers from around the world.