Justin Francis

Justin Francis OBE (born 19 August 1965) is an English social entrepreneur and environmentalist. He is the co-founder and Executive Chair of Responsible Travel, founded in 2001, an environmentally-conscious travel agency and online travel guide.

Biography Justin Francis OBE was born in 1965 in Wimbledon, London, and grew up in Bathford, Somerset. He studied geophysics at the University of Exeter after which he worked at advertising agency J. Walter Thompson for eight years. He joined The Body Shop 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.

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. He set up Responsible Travel in April 2001 with the course professor, Dr. Harold Goodwin. Dame Anita Roddick was a seed investor offering funds as well as advice.

Roddick told Francis that a business should be “judged by how it treated the weak and the poor.”

In 2016 The Times named Francis as one of the world's 50 best ‘people to know in travel’.

Activism Francis’ mission is for a more 'caring' travel and tourism industry. 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 Responsible Travel 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. 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 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 the Business for Nature coalition.

Since January 2024, Justin has been Chair of Projects for Nature, 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.

Honours & awards Francis was awarded an OBE in the King's New Year Honours List 2025 for services to Nature and to the Environment.