Justin Francis OBE (born 19 August 1965) is an English social entrepreneur and environmentalist. He is the co-founder and Executive Chair of responsibletravel.com (founded in 2001), one of the world's largest green travel companies, selling holidays from around the world and publishing online travel guides and responsible tourism related content.

Biography

Justin Francis OBE was born in 1965 in

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and grew up in

Bathford Bathford (pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable) is a village and civil parish east of Bath, England. The parish, which includes Warleigh, has a population of 1,759 and extends over . History The ancient charter ''Codex Diploma ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. He studied Geophysics at The

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

after which he worked at advertising agency J. Walter Thompson for eight years. He joined

The Body Shop The Body Shop International Limited, trading as the Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care, and perfume company founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, who opened her first store in Brighton, England. The company is now based in London Bridge ...

as Social and Environmental Agenda Marketing Manager in 1997 and then went on to head up Worldwide Marketing Communications, working closely with Dame

Anita Roddick Dame Anita Lucia Roddick (23 October 1942 – 10 September 2007) was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, The Body Shop International Limited, a cosmetics co ...

Responsible Travel

Inspired by a nine-month stint camping and travelling around Africa, Francis went back to university in 1999 to study for a Masters in Tourism, Conservation and Sustainable Development at The

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along wi ...

. He set up responsibletravel.com in April 2001 with the course professor, Dr. Harold Goodwin. Dame Anita Roddick was a seed investor offering funds as well as advice. She told Francis that a business should be “judged by how it treated the weak and the poor.” Francis aimed to take this mantra to tourism. and show that responsible tourism can be commercially successful. Francis says: “I don’t see myself as a traditional business person. I’m an activist using business as a tool to change the world.” He overturned conventional thinking about travel businesses by creating a business model where travel companies and travellers could talk directly, and booking declarations were made as part of an honesty-based system. Justin was one of the initial Trustees of British Charity The Travel Foundation. He sits on the Board of travel company, Basecamp Explorer Kenya. In 2016

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

named Francis as one of the world's 50 best ‘people to know in travel’.

Activism

Described by

Lucy Siegle Lucy Siegle (born 8 November 1974) is a British journalist and writer on environmental issues. She is a reporter on ''The One Show''. Career Writing After working for a textile company in South London, Siegle joined ''The Observer Magazine'' ( ...

, eco writer at

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

as ‘the great activist traveller’ Francis’ mission is for a more caring travel and tourism industry. He has described the tourism industry as the “biggest freeloader in the business world” saying, in an interview with

, that “broadly speaking, tourism globally has been unmanaged and never been taken seriously by government. It’s fun, everybody’s happy, right? But really, tourism is one of the biggest and in some cases most aggressive industries on earth and it is taking governments a very long time to recognise that it needs managing.” He has campaigned around the issue of

overtourism Overtourism is congestion or overcrowding from an excess of tourists, resulting in conflicts with locals. The World Tourism Organization defines overtourism as "the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influ ...

– presenting a documentary on the issues, released in July 2018, the use of captive cetaceans in tourism, the ethics of voluntourism and many other issues associated with responsible tourism, including conservation, wildlife and human rights. He has been outspoken about the ineffective use of carbon offsetting schemes. In 2004 he founded The Responsible Tourism Awards which responsibletravel.com ran until 2017. In November 2016, kidney failure and an inability to travel far as a result, gave Francis the inspiration to start the �
Trip for a Trip
�� scheme which would fund day trips for disadvantaged children around the world who lack the opportunity to travel. Justin returned to full health after a successful kidney transplant.

UK Government role and work

In 2018 he joined the UK Government's Council for Sustainable Business (CSB), which advises The

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for environmental quality, environmenta ...

on how businesses can help deliver the aims of the 25 Year Environment Plan. In 2021, in the run up to COP26 he led the CSB's work on nature and biodiversity. In November 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, Justin, Liv Garfield and DEFRA with support from

Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...

launched the Nature Handbook for Business – a practical resource for working towards a nature positive world aimed at five industry sectors, including tourism. The advice is now available through th
Business for Nature
coalition. Since January 2024, Justin has been Chair o
ProjectsforNature.com
a digital marketplace connecting nature projects in England with businesses willing to fund them. It was launched at COP28 in Dubai by The

Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, also referred to as the environment secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Department for Environment, Food ...

Honours & awards

Francis was awarded an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the King's

New Year Honours List The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

2025 for services to Nature and to the Environment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Justin 1965 births Living people Alumni of the University of Exeter Alumni of the University of Greenwich English activists English environmentalists People from Bath and North East Somerset People from Wimbledon, London Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire