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
Social and Environmentally Responsible Tourism in Sierra Leone
Tunisian Tourism and Environmental Health in a Changing Climate
Sri Lankan Model Rainforest Ecolodge
Latin American Tour Operators Plan for Sustainable Tourism
Building a Resilient Puerto Rican Ecotourism Industry Post Hurricane Maria
Community-Based Tourism in Bangladesh’s Protected Areas
Developing a Sustainable Tourism Economy in El Salvador
What’s New?
May 19, 2020
O’Shannon is a sustainability consultant who has developed and managed sustainability, conservation, and tourism initiatives in both the business and nonprofit sectors. She spent almost a decade at National Geographic— first administering grant programs for explorers, scientists, and storytellers at the Society, and then overseeing a number of programs and partnerships for the company’s Travel business, operating exploratory educational travel experiences on all seven continents. O’Shannon created and was appointed to National Geographic Partners’ first full-time sustainability position overseeing sustainability for the company’s travel business and serving as an internal sustainability leader and expert.
For her graduate degree capstone project, she partnered with Eplerwood International to develop a feasibility study for Symbiosis Resorts. Find out more on O’Shannon and her career on our Meet the Team Page
A firm platform for the travel and tourism recovery process is required which will ensure that finance reaches more beneficiaries and protects our earth’s most valued assets. In EplerWood International’s new White Paper, A Marshall Plan for Tourism: Can it be Built?, Megan Epler Wood calls out for a coordinated effort to finance the recovery of destinations.
“The primary purpose of this white paper is to point out that an investment fund or a variety of funds, which we will call the Sustainable Tourism Marshall Plan Fund could become key mechanisms in managing destination recovery. First and foremost, it is destinations that are the most impacted and most vulnerable to the drastic die-back of tourism. It is the inhabitants of destinations who will be forced into poverty without it. And even the wealthier, entrepreneurial class who rely on tourism will be hard hit because they are less diversified than multi-national corporations and much more dependent on visitor flows.”
A "Sustainable Tourism Marshall Plan Fund" @MeganEplerWood's white paper calls for a coordinated effort to finance the recovery of destinations with sustainable outcomes https://t.co/PwZwjDWjTN @ThierryBreton @UNWTO @PATA_HQ
This is helpful, and relevant to a more global view of how to manage a specialized fund for assisting local destinations. Think global recovery, what takes priority in sustainable tourism?
This highlights the countries that depend the most on the travel and tourism industry according to employment— quantifying the scale that the industry contributes to the health of the global economy
https://t.co/oLeMK7w1jt
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