At the second day of 2023s LATA Expo, The Power of Tourism seminar, featuring Intrepid Travels Gary Cohen, elaborated on the steps agents and operators can take to adjust to the changing landscape of sustainability and have a positive impact.
Intrepid Travel's managing director for Latin America took to the seminar stage to describe the operator's approach to diversity, community support and empowerment, providing real-world examples of LATA Expo's theme for 2023: 'The Power of Tourism'.
Starting with real-life examples of career paths and empowerment in the communities Intrepid visits, Gary explained: "One of our leaders in Peru, Fernando, started as a local guide. Some of our tour leaders said: 'Hey, this guy's fantastic! Get him into the Tour Leadership team!" and so we brought him on as a tour leader for trips all over Peru.
"He became one of the best tour leaders we've had in Peru, and eventually we brought him into the office. A few years later he's deputy operations manager and after that became operations manager. Now he's the general manager of our business in Peru."
Demonstrating the power of tourism is as much about individual empowerment as anything else, with Gary continuing: "We have a lady in Maritza, an indigenous woman from Cusco, who started out as one of the first female trekking guides in Peru back in the early 2000s, which was fairly rare back in those days, and still is to some extent.
"She's pushed the boundaries on that and shown other indigenous women in Cusco and the Sacred Valley that they have an opportunity to do these things as well."
Naturally, there are wider issues to address beyond individual empowerment; the climate crisis continuing to be a key topic of discussion across the industry and the world. Gary wasn't shy to address the fact that this is a consideration for Intrepid and should be for the wider industry.
"Tourism, when it's done good and right, is a power for good, but of course there's another side to it that we need to address. The best way to approach this is to admit the impact our work is having, own up to it, and figure out how to overcome it.
"We're not going to solve climate change or inequality as a single organisation, but we can break it down into achievable steps. At Intrepid we looked at 50 of our best-selling itineraries, assessed the short-haul flight connections they featured. Some of them were almost mandatory, but we took a good look at alternatives: can we extend a one-day transfer into a two-day experience? Can we blend adventure and activity into the itinerary to make that route a feature in and of itself?
"There's lots of things we can do. It's important not to be overwhelmed by end goals and sustainability targets without breaking them down into short, achievable steps."
LATA Expo 2023 is taking place in London's Evolution Battersea from June 19th to 21st.
