CATCH-UP: Progress in Responsible Tourism

During this session we take look at how far we have come with Responsible Tourism. The following questions will be answered: What solutions can we point to that make tourism better? Solutions that have been tried and tested and proven to deliver results? How much progress have we made? What should be out priorities for the next decade? How can we achieve more?

THE SPEAKERS

Eugenio Yunis
Member of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics and independent advisor

Eugenio Yunis is a civil engineer (University of Chile), with post-graduate studies in development economics (University of Grenoble, France), who has been involved with international tourism development and management issues for over thirty years. Elected by the UNWTO General Assembly, he has been a member of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics since 2014. He has written books and numerous articles on the relationships between tourism and environment, tourism and culture, and tourism and poverty alleviation, as well as on socially responsible tourism. Currently, Mr. Yunis acts as independent advisor on tourism policy and sustainability issues for governments and private tourism organizations.

Tim Harris
CEO of Wesgro

Tim Harris is the CEO of Wesgro, the Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape. Tim previously served as Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Finance for the Democratic Alliance (DA). He holds a BA in English Literature and a Masters in Economics from the University of Cape Town. Tim currently sits on the board of the Cape Town Film Studios and BPESA.

Manisha Pande
Co- founder and Managing Director Village Ways

In 2004, Manisha and her husband, Himanshu along with other friends co-founded ‘Village Ways’ to help sustain the villages of the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in India , which were under serious threat of outmigration due to lack of livelihood opportunities. Village Ways has developed a unique concept of Tourism, which is collectively owned, and run by a community and where benefits are not restricted to an individual or a family but is benefitting the entire village, in some way or the other, as they are linked to the Tourism enterprises.

Dr Niki Glen
Chief Executive Officer, Africa!Ignite

Niki started her career as a Civil and Structural Engineer. Upon completing her MBA (Cum Laude) in 2000, she became a Project and Programme Manager for international companies, including Absa, Barclays, Standard Bank and Liberty Life, running mass scale programmes stretching over 11 African Countries. Her passion for sustainability, environmental best practice and social preservation led her to leave her 18-year corporate career to pursue sustainability in tourism.

Shannon Guihan
Chief TreadRight & Sustainability Officer for The Travel Corporation

Shannon leads the TreadRight team, who oversees the group’s efforts to Make Travel Matter through the groups brands, including Trafalgar, Contiki, Uniworld and Luxury Gold. Shannon also leads the TreadRight Foundation, the group’s not-for-profit dedicated to supporting projects under the foundation’s three pillars of Planet, People and Wildlife globally. Shannon Guihan is the Chief TreadRight & Sustainability Officer for The Travel Corporation (TTC), where she is responsible for the groups intention to Make Travel Matter through its philanthropic and strategic efforts. Hailing from Newfoundland, Canada, Shannon started as a sea kayak guide at 16, and has worked in tourism development and delivery since.

THE MODERATOR

Harold Goodwin
Responsible Tourism Advisor, World Travel Market

Harold puts together the flagship Responsible Tourism programme at WTM London which attracted 4000 participants in 2020 and the programmes run at WTM Africa, WTM Latin America and Arabian Travel Market. Harold has worked on 4 continents with local communities, their governments and the inbound and outbound tourism industry. He is Managing Director of the Responsible Tourism Partnership and chairs the panels of judges for the World Responsible Tourism Awards and the other Awards in the family, Africa, India and Latin America.