Sustainable Tourism: Where Do We Start?

Introducing Impact Travel Alliance:

A community made up of 20,000 individuals in 20 cities worldwide with a goal of improving the world through both business and
leisure travel. We had an opportunity to meet with them in San Diego recently–and were able to join the conversation with the question:

“How do you define sustainable tourism?”
Between preserving our environment, social issues, local communities and corruption…where does one begin?

This question initiated the conversation and propelled us forward. We eventually condensed our ideas down to one critical word: Education.

When tourists understand how their actions and decisions based around planning a trip can affect not only the environment, but also the local community, they might choose differently. As a group of travel agents, tour operators, bloggers, hospitality organizations, startups, small businesses, educators, and non-profits, we discussed strategies in how to connect sustainability and tourism, specifically in San Diego. As for change in our community, we decided that reducing pollution in our oceans and giving aide to the homeless community would be a priority. We are excited to meet again and start planning impactful events in 2019 to begin solving some of these issues.

With the generational change in workforce, we know (and are proud of the fact) that millennials typically have a strong desire to make a difference. Passionate, like-minded candidates are looking for companies where they can thrive and help reduce the impact that humans are making on the environment, make educated decisions when it comes to where they spend money, and include volunteerism in their travel planning. We believe this will be a huge trend in the upcoming years and we are confident that we can continue to connect candidates with careers they love with companies that have shared values.

Alison Sitt, Recruiting Specialist at Travel Placement Service

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