Sustainable Tourism | Ecotourism | Destinations & Communities
Providing market-based solutions to sustainable tourism, preserving invaluable social and environmental capital for the well being of local people worldwide. LEARN MORE
THE INVISIBLE BURDEN:
Groundbreaking Reports
& Analysis
ECOTOURISM:
Business Development
& Field Engagements
SPEAKING:
Speaking & Strategic
Destination Evaluation
KEY AFFILIATIONS:
Harvard University, Cornell University, The Travel Foundation
FEATURED PROJECTS
The Gems of Brazil’s Nature Tourism along the Estrada Real
Tunisian Tourism and Environmental Health in a Changing Climate
Developing a Sustainable Tourism Economy in El Salvador
Building a Resilient Puerto Rican Ecotourism Industry Post Hurricane Maria
Latin American Tour Operators Plan for Sustainable Tourism
Community-Based Tourism in Bangladesh’s Protected Areas
Social and Environmentally Responsible Tourism in Sierra Leone
Sri Lankan Model Rainforest Ecolodge
What’s New?
March 5, 2020
Leading global charity the Travel Foundation, EplerWood International, and Cornell University’s Centre for Sustainable Global Enterprise are joining forces again, a year after the publication of their landmark report Destinations at Risk: The Invisible Burden of Tourism. In the age of climate change and overtourism, these organizations are coming together to equip the sector with the critical skills needed to manage tourism.
The partnership is also pleased to welcome a new addition, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), representing the region with the greatest projected tourism growth over the coming decade. Through this collaboration, the partners aim to develop new tools and educational content for PATA’s destination members which can then be applied globally.
Amongst its findings, The Invisible Burden report illustrated that destinations urgently require increased capacity and skills to manage the costs associated with tourism growth, to protect the world’s most treasured natural and cultural assets.
The partnership will build on its ground-breaking work with new research to better understand the skill gaps destinations face as they tackle critical management challenges.
EWI Welcomes O’Shannon Burns to the Team for her Harvard Extension Capstone
While working as National Geographic Expeditions’ Director of Sustainability, O’Shannon Burns is simultaneously pursuing a master’s degree in sustainability from Harvard University’s Extension School. For her capstone, O’Shannon is collaborating with EplerWood International (EWI) and the PERL Network, an NGO supporting climate resilience research and sustainability strategies in the Pacific Islands, to conduct a triple-bottom-line feasibility study and build a new enterprise plan for Symbiosis Resorts.
As a founding member of Nat Geo’s Sustainability Leadership Network and Green Impact Grants Program, O’Shannon says she has “always been interested in sustainability.” She was recently in Ireland to re-evaluate one of National Geographic’s sixty-four Unique Lodges of the World. Each hotel in the collection is founded on a deep desire to protect and celebrate cultures and ecosystems that surround them through sustainable tourism practices….
Read More About O’Shannon and the Triple-bottom-line feasibility study for Symbiosis Resorts Here.
Critical message at this time. We must attend to not only industry itself but the the global #supplychains for #tourism. There are costs to ensure these local #innovative #solutions are #financed during long-term recovery process.
Rural transformation requires innovation. Innovation requires investment!
New technologies can increase access and participation in markets, empowering even the most marginalized groups like women and youth.
➡️ https://t.co/ZEFuHgSUS3 #FundAgriculture
Former @EPA director @GinaNRDC sees the agency relaxing enforcements on air pollution as a ""license to pollute"".
"I've never seen anything like this."
Read in @WBUR how air pollution can harm lungs during the #COVID19 pandemic: https://t.co/goAWpQ07Qh
Essential Videos
“The earth’s greatest treasures are cracking under the weight of the soaring tourism economy. New data-driven systems to identify the cost of managing tourism’s most valued assets are required to stem a growing crisis in global tourism management. With the right leadership, finance and analysis in place, a whole new generation of tourism professionals can move forward and erase the invisible burden while benefiting millions around the globe.”
Megan Epler Wood, Principal