PATA Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart 2012 (AT&RTCM 2012)

Specializing in distribution, digital marketing, social media, and marketing strategy consulting for the global travel and tourism industry, Jens Thraenhart has over 20 years of international hospitality marketing and operations experience, spanning positions in rooms and food and beverage operations, revenue management, strategic planning, and e-business for such companies such as Four Seasons, Ian Schrager Hotels, Kempinski, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Marriott International.  Jens is currently the co-founder of Dragon Trail, an award-winning travel technology and digital marketing company that assists travel companies to market to affluent Chinese consumers via innovative influencer and viral marketing techniques leveraging technology, Internet, and social media channels. To educate the travel and tourism industry about the tremendous opportunity of China, he founded China Travel Trends, an online resource, magazine, and community, organizing seminars such as the “China Travel Social Media Forum”, and publishing publications such as the annual “Essential Guide to China Travel Trends Handbook”. 

Most recently as the Executive Director of Marketing Strategy and Customer Relationship Management for the Canadian Tourism Commission, he oversaw e-marketing, campaign management, and customer relationship management.  Previously, he was the first Director of Internet Strategy for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts as well as Marketing and CRM for Fairmont’s Vacation Ownership division, and helped the company win multiple prestigious awards in website design and online marketing. Regarded as a thought-leader by his peers, he is listed as one of the ‘Top 25 Most Extraordinary Sales and Marketing Minds in Hospitality and Travel’ in 2004 and 2005, and is recognized as one of the ‘travel industry top 100 rising stars’ by Travel Agent Magazine in 2003. He is frequently quoted in industry trade magazines, and speaks at travel and tourism conferences all over the world.  With a passion for sustainable tourism, he has been an expert consultant for PATA, UNWTO, Mekong Tourism, and SNV on how to leverage social media and digital marketing for capacity building and responsible tourism development, especially in developing countries. Currently, he is the founding chair of the PATA China Chapter, strategic advisor to Mekong Tourism (MTCO), and an Affiliate Member of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).   Jens holds an MBA-accredited Masters of Management in Hospitality from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, and a joint Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University Center ‘Cesar Ritz’ at Brig, Switzerland.  A dual citizen of Germany and Canada, Jens now lives in Beijing/China, and enjoys writing for his travel blogs TourismInternetMarketing.com, DestinationJourneys.com, StreetSnacking.com, and ThisIsChina.me.

Kathy Dragon has more than two decades of experience in the Adventure/Experiential Travel industry including designing, marketing, selling, guiding and operating small group tours worldwide for active adults.  She believes why we travel, how we travel, where we go, what we do while we are there and when we return, all have the ability to effect positive change in the world.

Her focus has been on authentic experiences involving cultural connections, boutique properties, expert local guides, traditional cuisines, and active excursions. Responsible Tourism has been the platform on which all programs are created. Along the way she's trained hundreds of guides and tour operators on the nuances of understanding the North American "Prime Time" (50-70 yr old) Traveler who's impact is substantial and who's needs and interest are unique within the global travel community.  From Ladakh to Lithuania, Patagonia to Provence, Kerala to Kilimanjaro to Komodo, Kathy's been there and personally escorted over 3000 guests (primarily Boomers) on life changing adventures.

As the founder and CEO of TravelDragon.com, a currated source and search engine for over 6,000 unique, experience focused itineraries offered by 500+ of the best small tour operators in the world with travel products relevant to Boomers and Prime Time Travelers,  she helps travelers find trips of a lifetime.  She continues to design and lead limited custom departures through her own adventure travel company The Dragon’s Path.

Kathy is a frequent international speaker, presenter, consultant, strategist and SME (subject matter expert) on how to reach and engage with the North American Traveler---online and offline. Kathy offers webinars and coaches tour operators/tourism boards on setting up their social media platform and developing a strategy to consistently connect and offer authentic content with limited staffing and resources.  Her goal is to enable Travel Trade to better understand and utilize Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn, YouTube, photo sites, Google + etc, all while keeping it relevant to their consumer.

 Keynote Speaker

Anna Pollock has over 35 years’ experience as a consultant, strategist, speaker, and change agent. Described as an irrepressibly curious “renaissance woman”, her strength derives from an ability to dig beneath surface trends to find and make sense of the real drivers of change combined with a creative capacity to develop innovative responses.

She enjoys dual Canadian and British citizenship having worked in each country for over 15 years and is now a much sought after speaker internationally, focusing on the deep changes affecting tourism and community development.

While resident in Canada she undertook seminal work in human resource development, sustainable tourism, health tourism and adventure travel and received The Visionary of the Year Award from the tourism industry in western Canada in recognition of her contribution to thought leadership.

In the late 1990s, she conceived and developed the first destination IT strategy based on the Internet and later acted as CEO of a UK-based software company that developed a Destination Management System and became recognised by the UK government as “best of breed”. Three years ago, in anticipation of the need by the tourism industry to reduce its carbon footprint, Anna created The Icarus Foundation a not-for-profit agency formed to assist the Canadian tourism industry constructively address climate change and she has quickly become recognised as an innovative and creative thought leader, assisting destinations and companies face up to the challenges of growth and resource dependency.

Saddened by the hesitancy with which mainstream tourism approached the need to reduce its environmental impact and heartened by research that shows customers might be changing faster than suppliers, Anna is developing the concept of Conscious.Travel as a movement that integrates and enhances integrates the creative thinking emerging from a diverse range of interests within tourism including ecotourism, responsible tourism, adventure travel, tourism philanthropy, slow tourism, tourism 2.0, green travel, ethical tourism, community-based tourism, and indigenous tourism. Conscious.Travel is a movement and an e-learning leadership program designed to develop fully conscious change agents within the tourism community.

Rick Antonson is President & CEO of Tourism Vancouver, which represents over 1,000 member businesses and is responsible for the market development of Metro Vancouver as a convention, incentive, and leisure travel destination. Rick is a former book publisher, and train company executive.

As a travel industry leader, Rick served as an ambassador for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. He has been on the boards of the Pacific Asia Travel Association based in Bangkok, Vancouver Community College, and on the Advisory Council for Simon Fraser University's Urban Studies Program. In the recent past he also chaired the Board of Directors for book publisher Douglas & McIntyre; was chair of Destination Marketing Association International based in Washington, DC, and a founding board member of the Canadian Tourism Commission. He is Vice President of the Board of Directors for Pacific Coast Public Television.

He is a co-author of Slumach's Gold, In Search of a Legend. In 2008, Dundurn Publishing of Toronto published his third book, To Timbuktu for a Haircut; A Journey Through West Africa.

Rick is regularly invited to speak all over the world on the topic of travel. His personal journeys have taken him on a four-by-four adventure with his wife Janice and a guide traveling from Lhasa, Tibet across the Himalayas to Kathmandu, Nepal. He has circumnavigated the northern hemisphere by train with his sons Brent and Sean over five trips which included North Korea.  More recently he joined an expedition to the summit of Mount Ararat, and travelled to both Iraq and Iran.

• 1995 - Present:  Plans and Programmes Division, Tourism Council of Bhutan

• 1990 - 1995:      2nd Lieutenant/Lieutenant, Royal Bhutan Army, Short Service Officers Commission (Militia)

• 1983 - 1989:      Planning Commission / Ministry of Planning

Mr. Stowell is president of the ATTA, the largest professional organization for adventure  travel companies, destinations and organizations worldwide with over 750 members from 70+ countries. His education and early profession were spent in environmental chemistry and biology with the US National Marine Fisheries Service in Alaska, then 8 years with an environmental testing firm, working on cleanup projects around the Pacific rim.  He co-founded www.Altrec.com, an adventure travel gear retailer selling products from The North Face, Patagonia, ExOfficio, National Geographic Books, Eagle Creek and others. He directed the company’s business development, affiliate marketing and non-profit relations for six years. 

In 2004, Shannon re-started the ATTA which has held seven Adventure Travel World Summits in Europe and the Americas and has been a global hub for adventure travel professionals.  The ATTA publishes AdventureTravelNewsTM and operates an online community for the sector.  The Summits are on average attended by 650 adventure travel pros from more than 50 countries gathering to learn, network, inspire each other and drive the industry forward on issues such as best practices and sustainability. 

Shannon co-authored a book published by National Geographic: Riding the Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean- A guide to 50 Extraordinary Adventures. In 2011, Shannon was re-elected to the Board of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), a UN-backed organization standardizing sustainability certification programs worldwide. 

EDUCATION: B.S. Biology, Seattle Pacific University 1990

CERTIFICATION: Fisheries Observer, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Withmore than 20 years experience in blending the fields of environment, business and wellness, Isabel brings a uniquely integrated approach to sustainable business. She has lived in Germany, Australia, Central America, Tajikistan and Bhutan and worked with a wide range of organisations including private companies, governments and NGOs, such as travel & tour operators; airlines; tourism industry associations; local, regional and national tourism organisations; protected area management agencies; hotels and resorts; and as a Director of her own consulting firm. Her expertise in guiding organisations on the journey of sustainable business, project and people development have brought her to her current project in Bhutan.
 
For the past 18 months as the Sustainability Advisor within two Bhutanese companies, Isabel has been building the foundations of a sustainable business program with a difference. Trying to answer the question of “What makes Bhutan's development philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) different from Corporate Social Responsible (CSR) business programs?” Isabel concluded that it requires large amounts of courage from any business to take on Bhutan's GNH philosophy. She is nowdeveloping a GNH in Business program, which encourages transformation and evolution of every individual at the core of any business that is braveenough for the journey.
 
Isabel has been living and working in Bhutan for almost 6 years. She is also supporting thePrime Minister's Advisory Committee in the program development for Bhutan’s first GNH Centre.

Karma Tshiteem is the Secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission, an agency in the Royal Government of Bhutan responsible for formulating the five year development plans that guide the country's development in line with the development philosophy and vision of Gross National Happiness. He has served in this position since 2007. Prior to that, he worked in various capacities in the Ministry of Finance. He serves as a board director on the Kidu Foundation, a foundation set up by His Majesty the King to provide support to the vulnerable sections of the Bhutanese society. He also serves as the chairman of the Druk Green Power Corporation, a holding company that manages all the hydropower generation projects in the country. He also serves on various other boards and committees. As part of his responsibilities, he hiked to Lunana in July 2011, which houses the most remote villages in Bhutan, to understand their situation for the Royal Government's Targeted Poverty Reduction Programs. It took 21 days trekking, mostly through alpine terrain of over 4000 meters that form part of Bhutan's legendary and beautiful Snowman's trek.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is charged with managing New Zealand’s natural, historic and cultural heritage.  DOC manages nearly a third of the country’s land mass.  David leads DOC’s newly formed Commercial Unit, providing a business perspective to the organisation’s commercial activities and interests. 

Previously David spent 9 years with Tourism New Zealand’s as their General Manager Tourism Development providing destination management support for New Zealand’s 100% Pure marketing message.  Tourism New Zealand is the organisation responsible for marketing New Zealand to the world as a tourist destination using the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign.  This campaign has evolved over the past decade to make New Zealand one of the world's most well-respected tourism brands.

Prior to working for Tourism New Zealand David held marketing and sales roles with the TAB, Gallagher Group, Wrightson and Colgate-Palmolive.

Mr. Wei ZHANG, is the Founder and President of Jpatao Planners and Architects, based in Beijing, a sustainable consultant in natural and cultural resources. He has more than 10 year of experiences of planning in sustainable tourism development in China. He is the team leader or project manager for those projects in Lake Lamtso, Tibet, Xi’an, Hangzhou and Leshan of tourism master planning, as well as several mixed-used development mega-projects at a sensitive place. He is the tourism product expert for World Bank Financed Consultancy of Tourism Development and Community Participation in Ningbo and Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province.  He got his master degree in geography and tourism at Peking University.

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Karma Tshering (PhD) has been working with the National Parks system of Bhutan for the last 15 years.  He is presently the Chief of the Nature Recreation and Eco-tourism Division under the Department of Forests and Park Services, Royal Government of Bhutan. He completed his MSc. From the University of Edinburgh, Scotland on Resource management and recently completed his PhD on sustainable tourism development from the University of Sydney.  He is a firm believer in incentive based conservation and is engaged in developing programs in building partnerships to encourage general public to participate in the conservation crusade.  He has been instrumental in initiating community based eco-tourism programs in the country and is presently assisting all protected areas management to develop similar programs to enhance conservation and development.

A native New Yorker, Mason Florence moved to Thailand in 2002 after 12 years in Japan as a Kyoto-based correspondent for The Japan Times newspaper and a travel guide book author for Lonely Planet publications, authoring titles include Japan, Kyoto, Hiking in Japan, Vietnam, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Southeast Asia. As founder of Talisman Media Group, he has created publications including Bangkok 101 magazine (www.bangkok101.com) and BAM!, the Bangkok Art Map (www.bangkokartmap.com), and also publishes books on travel, art and culture. In 2008 Mason became executive director of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO), an intergovernmental body uniting the national tourism organizations (NTOs) of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). Based in Bangkok, the MTCO works to collectively promote the six countries along the Mekong River as a single travel destination under the 'Mekong' brand, and encourages visitors to the region to travel in a sustainable and responsible way. More information on the MTCO can be found at www.MekongTourism.org and on exploring the GMS at www.ExploreMekong.org.

Costas Christ is one of the world’s top sustainable tourism experts, whose work and travels have taken him to more than 100 countries across six continents. He is an Editor and columnist for National Geographic Traveler, writing on responsible tourism issues around the world. Previously, Costas was the Global Travel Editor for National Geographic Adventure. In addition, Costas serves as Director of Sustainability for the Virtuoso global travel network and he is the Chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council - Tourism for Tomorrow Awards which recognize global leadership in responsible tourism best practices.  He is one of the pioneers of ecotourism, helping to officially define the term and serving as both a founding member and former Chairman of The International Ecotourism Society.  His articles and essays have appeared in many leading publications, including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and Sunday Times of London. Costas has appeared on Travel Channel, Good Morning America, Nat Geo TV,  CNN International, and BBC World, among others, to discuss responsible tourism issues and trends.  He is the founder and president of Beyond Green Travel, an international consultancy firm that provides sustainable tourism solutions and advice to travel companies, non profit organizations and governments. He is a special advisor to several travel philanthropy organizations, including The Bodhi Tree Foundation, Spirit of Big Five Foundation and The Travel Corporation Foundation. In 2008, Costas was honored as a "Tourism Visionary" by the International Restaurant and Hotels Awards.  He lives on an organic blueberry farm in Maine, where during June - September, he also manages a farmers market collective that supports local family farms.

Over the past 40 years Andrew Jones has worked in a number of senior management and corporate positions in prestigious hotels, resorts and management companies in London, Bermuda, Canada and several countries in Asia.

In 1996 Andrew started a new journey when he founded and became Guardian of Sanctuary Resorts, a company that offers responsible and sustainable tourism experiences where people can balance their body, mind and spirit in an environmentally-friendly space.

Andrew was previously Director, Asia Pacific Affairs for the International Hotel and Restaurant Association and a member of the Board of the Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation. Andrew is a Certified Hotel Administrator of the American Hotel and Lodging Association and a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality.He is also a member of the World Travel Market World Responsible Tourism Day advisory panel.

Andrew Jones grew up in the hospitality industry in the United Kingdom, where his family managed small country hotels and restaurants. He graduated with diplomas in Hotel and Catering studies from the Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies.