The Institute of Responsible Tourism (IRT) was created after the World Conference on Sustainable Tourism (1995).  It is an independent organization, associated with UNESCO and UNWTO (World Tourism Organization).

The IRT was founded with the aim of putting sustainable development programmes and actions into practice within the tourist industry. So, the IRT developed the RESPONSIBLE TOURISM SYSTEM (RTS) whose general objective is to be one of the vehicles to promote sustainable tourism models for tourism destination.