Kaikoura Whale Watch has six specially designed catamarans to take visitors out to the mammals. Photo / Supplied Expand

Kaikoura Whale Watch has six specially designed catamarans to take visitors out to the mammals. Photo / Supplied

It began with four families in a seaside town who had a vision. A vision they believed in so strongly, they were willing to put their homes on the line for it.

Twenty-two years on, it is one of New Zealand's world-class tourism ventures, and has now been recognised by international judges as the most responsible among the world's leading tourism operators.

Whale Watch Kaikoura has been named supreme winner in the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards in London. The prestigious awards are the centrepiece of the World Travel Market in London, which attracts more than 5000 exhibitors from more than 200 countries.

The company, owned and operated by the people of Kaikoura's Kati Kuri - a subtribe of Ngai Tahu - is overwhelmed to have outshone about 2000 other entrants worldwide. New Zealand tourism as a whole won the award last year.

The chair of the international judges, Dr Harold Goodwin, said of Whale Watch Kaikoura: "Rarely do we see a tourism initiative developed from the ground up by a local community to such a successful and grand scale".

"The founding of the enterprise by four Maori families has demonstrated that the local Maori community can not only grow a considerable tourism business, but, more significantly, use that business to buy back their ancestral land for the benefit of the indigenous people and their cultural identity."

A stunned Whale Watch chairman Wally Stone said from London: "At this level, what they are looking for is people that walk the talk. And I suppose, because we have been operating for over 20 years, many of the founding principles that helped form the company in the beginning are still alive and relevant today".

Whale Watch Kaikoura was formed in 1987, at a time when Maori living in Kaikoura were falling victim to the area's declining economy. Leaders of Kati Kuri such as Bill Solomon believed the sperm whales living off the Kaikoura coast held the answers for their struggling people.

The four Kati Kuri "founding families" mortgaged their houses to secure a loan to start the business.

It began with a small inflatable vessel ferrying the visitors out to view the whales, a far cry from the six specially designed catamarans used today.

The expansion of the fleet has also required the construction of an entire marina in South Bay. The success of Whale Watch Kaikoura, attracting more than 100,000 visitors each year, has spread to Kaikoura itself, allowing the whole community to grow from it.

But for all the growth, Mr Stone takes pride in the fact that the company still has little impact on the environment it benefits from.

"One of the things we would like to think that we demonstrate is that whales are worth more alive then dead. Many of our visitors come from Japan or from whaling countries ... When we value it, other people begin to do the same."

Prime Minister John Key said the company's achievement made him very proud.

By Jarrod Booker | Email Jarrod