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TOURISM CARES HOLDS 2022 MEANINGFUL TRAVEL SUMMIT

In late September, Tourism Cares —a 501c3 U.S. nonprofit dedicated to the travel industry’s long-term survival by advancing its positive social, environmental and economic impact to help people and places thrive—held its annual Meaningful Travel Summit in Victoria, British Columbia.

The event brought together more than 120 travel industry professionals to Canada’s west coast and on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples. Victoria—the capital of the province—is a community known for its commitment to sustainable tourism.

The Meaningful Travel Summit is a global event that unites travel and tourism industry professionals around interactive, educational activities and experiences that assist local community enterprises, particularly those that encourage sustainable tourism. Over the course of three days, attendees built relationships with local changemakers, fellow travel industry colleagues, and Indigenous-led organizations in order to gain practical knowledge and discuss how they can use their businesses to positively impact tourism communities and enhance stewardship of lands receiving visitors.

“Nature-based experiences are some of the fastest-growing elements in tourism, and one the travel industry can play a direct role in helping to responsibly manage,” said Greg Takehara, CEO of Tourism Cares. “Wilderness areas across Canada share a symbiotic relationship with Indigenous communities, a heritage teeming with stories that define Canada’s culture today. Conservation of our natural resources is critical for destination communities and the travel experience.”

Paul Nursey, CEO, Destination Greater Victoria, shared that it meant a lot for Destination Greater Victoria to partner with Tourism Cares and for the community to host the Meaningful Travel Summit.

“The conference program is very engaging and I know delegates will have an amazing experience,” said Nursey. “Increasingly, destination management and destination stewardship are becoming core functions of our organization. Examples include creating the IMPACT Sustainability Travel & Tourism Conference, establishing a Sustainability Committee within our governance framework and Destination Greater Victoria achieving a Carbon Neutral designation. The Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Summit aligns with Destination Greater Victoria’s values of working collaboratively with stakeholders, including First Nations groups, and giving back to our community.”

Tourism Cares designs its Meaningful Travel Summits by working closely with local community organizations and stakeholders to pinpoint the greatest needs, challenges, and opportunities for tourism to positively contribute to the local economy. Programmatic content was designed in partnership with Destination Greater Victoria, with additional support from the Songhees Nation, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC), Synergy, 4VI, and Tartanbond.

The event included experiences with partners where attendees were provided the opportunity to disperse across Victoria to visit with, and in some cases, volunteer their time in service to the community. These included Eagle Wing Tours, Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture, Sea Change Marine Conservation Society, PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ Foundation, Peninsula Streams Society, and Power To Be.

Those organizations, and many more across Canada and the U.S., will be featured on Tourism Cares’ Meaningful Travel Maps , which Tourism Cares is developing to help tour operators and travel advisors find vetted, authentic community tourism businesses and services for their itineraries. The maps are designed to link the travel trade and visitors to non-profits and other social enterprises, giving visitors and tour operators insight into the places that share their values, as well as local changemakers a platform to promote their actions more broadly.

Tourism Cares also acknowledged that the Summit took place over Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation , a day that honors the lost children and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Throughout the event, the organization highlighted efforts to support Indigenous communities through tourism and encouraged attendees to participate in local events to honor the day.

To learn more about the benefits of joining the Tourism Cares Community and to find additional information on events happening in 2023, visit tourismcares.org .

Courtesy of Groups Today.

 Photos courtesy of Heath Moffat Photo.

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Tourism Cares’ Meaningful Travel Summit Inspires Change Across the Tourism Sector

More than 130 attendees attended Tourism Care's Meaningful Travel Summit in Lake Tahoe. 

The Boy and Girl Scouts of America have, for years, urged their members to leave the world a better place than they found it. It’s a motto the travel industry, as a whole, hasn’t always embraced.

But it’s a responsibility more travel companies are accepting, including the 50-plus tour operators, tourism authorities, hotels, travel agency groups, wholesalers, and other travel-related entities that attended last week’s Meaningful Travel Summit, organized by Tourism Cares.

“We’re here in a show of collaboration to work for the betterment of our industry,” said Greg Takehara, CEO of Tourism Cares, which turns 20 next year.  “It’s really important that we chart a path forward with all of you for a more sustainable future… We know that creating impact requires action and ideally this is done through collaboration, planning and education. Let’s work together to amplify our positive impact.”

For this summit, the first in two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, attendees gathered in Lake Tahoe to hear about ways the travel industry can tackle climate change, build inclusivity, and partner with local organizations and indigenous people to benefit the local communities they bring tourists to.

Diversity & Inclusivity Of the many sessions offered, the “Diversity in the Outdoors” provided some valuable takeaways that travel companies can use to open the world of travel to more people.

“When you start to look around at what opportunities there are… you start to see how limited is the population who can actually access them,” said Marina Gardiner, guest services director of Achieve Tahoe, a non-profit that provides outdoor recreation activities in Lake Tahoe for people with cognitive, sensory and physical disabilities.

Though she was speaking specifically of Lake Tahoe, her words can be applied to destinations and activities all over the world. “It’s really important for people in the tourism industry to think about how we can expand the population of people that are able to access what it is that we’re encouraging people to enjoy.”

Amy Berry, CEO of The Tahoe Fund, asked a similar question – again specifically related to Lake Tahoe, but appropriate for anyone in the travel industry, “What does it mean ‘for all to enjoy’? Who does that include?”

Gardiner, who is herself a wheelchair user, said that expanding that access can be as simple as communicating what’s available.

“Speaking to people who work in the tourism industry, getting the information out that you have accessible options and what is available to people is really important. Figuring out, on a personal level, what might work for me, where I might be able to go, and how I’m going to get there requires a lot of preplanning on my part. The more that I’m able to discover that information easily and know what it is I’m getting myself into, the easier it is for me to access whatever it is that you might be selling.”

Tourism Cares Isn’t Only for Suppliers Though travel suppliers and product companies dominated the attendance at the Meaningful Travel Summit, a tiny group of travel advisors was in attendance as well.

Thinking about how to make the travel industry more responsible and how to leave the world a better place isn’t only incumbent on the suppliers, they all told Travel Market Report.

“I’m stumped as to why there are not more travel agents here because we are the ones who are actually servicing clients,” Christina Turrini, a travel consultant with Frosch, and one of three advisors in attendance, remarked to Travel Market Report. “We’re on the front lines. We’re talking to clients… I appreciate this conference because I feel like everyone who is coming and is part of it, they have a commitment.”

Meeting suppliers who are invested in responsible travel is part of what Turrini appreciates about the summit.

“If I know that a supplier is here, I know that that’s a step in the right direction… I do seek out companies that are more aligned with sustainable travel.”

Andrey Zakharenko, Owner of Always Travel, also said he came to meet with attendees, in particular, the local nonprofits in the Lake Tahoe area.

“I wanted to meet more of the charities that I could inform my clients about… For example, if they’re going to the Ritz Carlton or the Hyatt Incline Village, I can say hey, if you’re interested and you enjoyed your experience, here’s some of the charities, maybe consider donating $100.”

For Felicia Troy, an advisor with AAA Northeast, attending the summit was less about vetting supplier partners and more about learning what she can do, rather than depending on the suppliers to do it all.

“If every travel advisor feels like we can’t control it, because it’s above us then we’re making no change as a whole. We can choose what tour companies we use. We can influence millions of travelers. And I felt like if I took the time to come and learn how I could do that, I could then bring it back to the 200 travel advisors that I work with. And say, here are the choices that we could be making to create an impact for ourselves, for the environment, and for the world.”

Turrini added that as much as she likes coming to the summits (this is her second) to meet suppliers she can feel confident working with, like Troy, she also comes for the inspiration.

“The whole unite, inspire, activate. For me it’s really that. It’s to be inspired.”

Travel advisor feeling overwhelmed or unsure of how they can help can take the words of Spencer Cox, communications and corporate relations manager of SOS Outreach, a local nonprofit in the Lake Tahoe area, to heart.

“Just remember that baby steps in the right direction can collectively achieve great things.”

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Ustoa events, tourism cares meaningful travel summit - victoria, event details.

Our North America Meaningful Travel Summit provides:

• Connections to and volunteering with vetted non-profits and social enterprises
• Education sessions around universal topics in sustainability and meaningful travel
• Networking opportunities with other travel and tourism professionals
• Actionable best practices in destination stewardship

What to expect in Victoria:

Nature-based experiences are some of the fastest-growing elements in tourism, and one the travel industry can play a direct role in helping to responsibly manage. Wilderness areas across Canada share a symbiotic relationship with Indigenous communities, a heritage teeming with stories that define Canada’s culture today. Conservation of our natural resources therefore is critical for our travel product, our destination communities, and the travel experience. During Tourism Cares with Victoria , we will meet in a destination dependent on indigenous lands, healthy marine life, and wild green spaces. Through facilitated education sessions, visits to meaningful travel experiences and volunteering, attendees will learn from environmental and Indigenous groups on how we can be better destination stewards for all to thrive.

Themes addressed throughout our education/volunteering:

• Travel and tourism’s role in the conservation of natural resources and preservation of biodiversity (exploring land and water use, animal welfare practices)
• Exploring the intersection of Indigenous practices + destination stewardship

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Tourism Cares Expands Meaningful Travel Program

Tourism Cares , the global non-profit working towards advancing sustainability in the tourism industry, is expanding its Meaning Travel Program this year as part of its new 20-year vision plan. 

The organization is expanding its destinations with VisitScotland as its newest member . It’s the first European destination to launch a Meaningful Travel Map and joins fifteen other destinations engaged in the program, which focuses on educating the industry around cultural preservation and sustainable tourism. 

“Our vision is for Scotland to be a globally recognized responsible destination,” said Malcolm Roughead, VisitScotland’s chief executive. “We want to inspire and influence visitors to make sustainable choices at all stages of their travel journey, and joining the Tourism Cares member community represents another example of our efforts to achieve this. We know that over half of international visitors to Scotland book through intermediaries, which is why it is important that we engage with the travel trade.”The Meaningful Travel Program is also expanding in a completely new way: destination FAM tours, hosted in collaboration with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Hawai’i Visitors and Convention Bureau. The trips will offer the travel trade a personal look at what sustainable tourism and community-led experiences look like. 

Tourism Cares will also host two Meaningful Travel Summits in 2024: an invitation-only Global Meaningful Travel Summit, held June 1-6 in Panama City and El Valle de Anton in Panama, and the North American Meaningful Travel Summit, open to all and held September 30 through October 2 in Willamette Valley, Oregon. 

"The global tourism industry is at a critical juncture where sustainable practices are not just desirable but imperative,” explained Greg Takehara, CEO of Tourism Cares. “Our Meaningful Travel Program provides travel companies with the proper tools to enact positive change in their operations to help transform our industry where people, places, and the planet not only survive – but thrive. We look forward to fostering more partnerships with destinations and other businesses in the travel trade that make a lasting difference in travel.”

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• Tourism Cares Holds 2022 Meaningful Travel Summit

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In late September, Tourism Cares —a 501c3 U.S. nonprofit dedicated to the travel industry's long-term survival by advancing its positive social, environmental and economic impact to help people and places thrive—held its annual Meaningful Travel Summit in Victoria, British Columbia.

The event brought together more than 120 travel industry professionals to Canada's west coast and on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples. Victoria—the capital of the province—is a community known for its commitment to sustainable tourism.

The Meaningful Travel Summit is a global event that unites travel and tourism industry professionals around interactive, educational activities and experiences that assist local community enterprises, particularly those that encourage sustainable tourism. Over the course of three days, attendees built relationships with local changemakers, fellow travel industry colleagues, and Indigenous-led organizations in order to gain practical knowledge and discuss how they can use their businesses to positively impact tourism communities and enhance stewardship of lands receiving visitors.

"Nature-based experiences are some of the fastest-growing elements in tourism, and one the travel industry can play a direct role in helping to responsibly manage," said Greg Takehara, CEO of Tourism Cares. "Wilderness areas across Canada share a symbiotic relationship with Indigenous communities, a heritage teeming with stories that define Canada's culture today. Conservation of our natural resources is critical for destination communities and the travel experience."

Paul Nursey, CEO, Destination Greater Victoria, shared that it meant a lot for Destination Greater Victoria to partner with Tourism Cares and for the community to host the Meaningful Travel Summit.

"The conference program is very engaging and I know delegates will have an amazing experience," said Nursey. "Increasingly, destination management and destination stewardship are becoming core functions of our organization. Examples include creating the IMPACT Sustainability Travel & Tourism Conference, establishing a Sustainability Committee within our governance framework and Destination Greater Victoria achieving a Carbon Neutral designation. The Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Summit aligns with Destination Greater Victoria's values of working collaboratively with stakeholders, including First Nations groups, and giving back to our community."

Tourism Cares designs its Meaningful Travel Summits by working closely with local community organizations and stakeholders to pinpoint the greatest needs, challenges, and opportunities for tourism to positively contribute to the local economy. Programmatic content was designed in partnership with Destination Greater Victoria, with additional support from the Songhees Nation, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC), Synergy, 4VI, and Tartanbond.

The event included experiences with partners where attendees were provided the opportunity to disperse across Victoria to visit with, and in some cases, volunteer their time in service to the community. These included Eagle Wing Tours, Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture, Sea Change Marine Conservation Society, PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ Foundation, Peninsula Streams Society, and Power To Be.

Those organizations, and many more across Canada and the U.S., will be featured on Tourism Cares' Meaningful Travel Maps , which Tourism Cares is developing to help tour operators and travel advisors find vetted, authentic community tourism businesses and services for their itineraries. The maps are designed to link the travel trade and visitors to non-profits and other social enterprises, giving visitors and tour operators insight into the places that share their values, as well as local changemakers a platform to promote their actions more broadly.

Tourism Cares also acknowledged that the Summit took place over Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation , a day that honors the lost children and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Throughout the event, the organization highlighted efforts to support Indigenous communities through tourism and encouraged attendees to participate in local events to honor the day.

To learn more about the benefits of joining the Tourism Cares Community and to find additional information on events happening in 2023, visit tourismcares.org .

Courtesy of Groups Today.

 Photos courtesy of Heath Moffat Photo

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Tourism Cares ‘Meaningful Travel Summit’ comes to North Lake Tahoe

News News | Apr 19, 2022

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — As part of its mission to champion environmental stewardship initiatives for Lake Tahoe, the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau encourages tourism professionals and local leaders with a commitment to the future of Lake Tahoe to participate in the upcoming Meaningful Travel Summit on May 18–20.

The 3-day event is a partnership with national nonprofit Tourism Cares and other local stakeholders; those interested in participating can register on the Tourism Cares webpage . The Meaningful Travel Summits are travel industry specific convenings supporting destinations worldwide through meaningful social impact experiences, inspiration exchange and volunteering, leveraging the influence of travel businesses to make the greatest impact within a destination. The event will bring together 150 tourism professionals from around the country to share actionable best practices in destination stewardship and sustainability. The summit will also focus on hands-on volunteer activities in partnership with local changemakers.

“Sustainable destination management is vital for the future of tourism in Lake Tahoe; we are proud to participate and sponsor an event that reinforces stewardship values among industry professionals,” said Andy Chapman, president and CEO of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau. “Part of our role as a regional tourism leader is to educate our peers in the tourism industry about how to operationalize destination stewardship.”

The 3-day event will bring tourism professionals from a wide range of companies to North Lake Tahoe and create genuine connections around shared commitments to sustainability. Participants representing major tourism partners include: Brand USA, AAA, Allianz, Colette, the Travel Foundation and many more. A list of participating organizations can be found here.

“Tourism Cares with North Lake Tahoe” will focus on climate change, conservation of our natural resources and the critical role sustainability plays holistically for a popular tourism destination. Tourism Cares is a nonprofit dedicated to the travel industry’s long-term survival by advancing its positive social, environmental and economic impact to help people and places thrive.

Support Local Journalism

Participants will contribute directly by taking part in several local volunteer projects including clearing brush to protect homes from wildfire with the North Tahoe Fire Protection District and supporting the UC Davis Environmental Research Center by helping with interpretive sign installation or the installation and maintenance of raised beds in the demonstration garden. A full list of volunteer activities can be found here.

The event is co-sponsored by North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, The League to Save Lake Tahoe, UC Davis Environmental Research Center and The Tahoe Fund/Take Care Tahoe.

Source: Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau

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Are You Attending Tourism Cares’ Meaningful Travel Summit?

Jenna buege.

Advisors, are you looking for an industry event unlike any other to add to your 2024 travel schedule? If the answer is “yes,” you might like Tourism Cares’ North American Meaningful Travel Summit , a conference designed to inspire, educate and activate the tourism industry by growing partnerships, building relationships and sharing best practices in sustainable travel. The summit will take place from September 30 through October 2 in beautiful Eugene, Oregon, and registration is now open , so don’t delay!

Accessible to all travel professionals across the industry, attendees can expect to mix and mingle with everyone from destination managers and travel advisors to community leaders and senior executives. Anyone interested in building a better future for the travel industry is encouraged to attend. Need more deets? According to The Summit website, Tourism Cares expects the crowd to be 10% media, 10% local partners, 15% DMOs, 25% other industry professionals and 40% tour operators/travel advisors and buyers.

“At Tourism Cares, we define meaningful travel as conducting business in a way that directly benefits host communities, protects cultural and environmental assets, and engages guests in a deeper, more responsible way,” said Greg Takehara, CEO of Tourism Cares in a November 2023 press release announcing the event .

As for what’s on the docket, attendees can expect a combination of educational sessions, community experiences, networking and more. In addition to plenty of opportunities for professional development, during their time at the conference, guests will be encouraged to leave the conference center and explore the majestic Willamette Valley, the host destination for this exciting event.

Similar to previous events hosted by Tourism Cares , the Meaningful Travel Summit will have a strong focus on sustainability, something residents of Willamette Valley are particularly passionate about. "Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do in the Willamette Valley. We recognize that our natural landscapes, local businesses, and vibrant communities are all interconnected, and we have a responsibility to protect and nurture them,” said Dawnielle Tehama, executive director of the Willamette Valley Visitors Association in the same November 2023 press release. “By growing our regenerative tourism practices with the support of Tourism Cares, we hope to better preserve our region's unique character, support local economies, and create lasting positive impacts for both residents and visitors. We look forward to hosting the Summit next year and serving as a leader for other travel professionals in destination stewardship and meaningful travel."

Takehara shared Tehama’s enthusiasm, adding, “We are thrilled about Willamette Valley Visitors Association’s investment in our Meaningful Travel Program, and their dedication towards sustainability truly embodies the hard work that needs to happen around meaningful travel. We look forward to engaging with them on their sustainability journey and are excited to host the North America Meaningful Travel Summit with them next fall."

The Meaningful Travel Summit costs $429 for Tourism Cares members and $529 for non-members. Advisors can register by visiting the event website .

About the Author

Senior Editor for VAX VacationAccess and world explorer, Jenna loves writing about all things travel. When she’s not busy creating content, she spends her time exploring the great outdoors, cuddling with her two black cats and researching her next big (sometimes strange) adventure.

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