A webinar to empower women passionate about travel

by Carolyn Ray, Editor, JourneyWoman

As we look at travel in a post-COVID world, one of the questions women are asking is: ‘how can we help both places and people thrive?’ Over the past two years, we’ve all had an opportunity to become more aware of both the positive and negative effects of travel. We want to travel more sustainably — the question is, how?

According to Anna Pollock, our 2022 JourneyWoman Award recipient, women have a key role to play because change comes by seeing, learning and working together.  Women make 80 to 85 percent of travel decisions and comprise two-thirds of all travellers. Our impact is significant – and it goes well beyond our role as travel consumers. As travel’s greatest influencers and decision-makers, mature women can influence change through our decisions and actions.

“Women are natural community builders and enablers. Change is going to happen at the community level shaped by the nature of each place.  The first step is personal – to become aware of ourselves – what excites passion and commitment within, step two is to become clear about our individual strengths and gifts, and then to see opportunities to contribute those gifts to what’s needed at the time and place we find ourselves.”

When it comes to regenerative travel, Pollock says we are being asked to make a huge evolutionary leap: “Regeneration encompasses sustainable practices but takes our relationship with nature to a higher level. We have to acknowledge the fact that the damage that we’ve done has accumulated and there is some healing to be done, there is some restoration to be done. We must start to bring the land back to life and bring it back to health AND that involves changing the way we understand how life really works.

“Regeneration encompasses sustainable practices but takes our relationship with nature to a higher level,” she says. “Regenerative thinking also addresses the root cause of the current crises besetting humanity at present, which is that we genuinely believe that we are separate and somehow superior to the natural world. Regeneration involves a way of thinking that asks us to retain the whole picture in mind so we can see the connections and relationships that create the conditions for life to thrive.”

Join our discussion on sustainable travel on September 9, 2 pm ET

Meet Anna Pollock, our 2022 JourneyWoman Award winner, recognized as a pioneer in regenerative travel, to help us learn and adopt a more conscious and responsible mindset when we travel.  She’ll be introduced by Norie Quintos, Contributing editor to National Geographic Travel Media and former executive editor of National Geographic Traveler, who has been inspired by Anna for decades.

Following Anna’s remarks, we’ll have a panel discussion with Anna, Norie and Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Travel Corporation and Head of the TreadRight Foundation. 

Thanks to our sponsor, Trafalgar Tours, this is a free event. When you register, we invite you to make a donation to the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, which funds local projects engaged in the conservation of unique natural and cultural resources of adventure travel destinations. (select ‘Donation” when you purchase your ticket). You can also make a donation after the event using our ko-fi link. We will match all donations made.

Anna Pollock, 2022 JourneyWoman Award Winner and Founder, Conscious Travel

Pollock has 48 years’ experience in tourism as an independent consultant, strategist, international speaker and change agent and is an acclaimed thought leader in the emerging field of regenerative tourism. She has undertaken seminal work in many aspects of tourism, notably in education, sustainability and technology. Her current focus is on the intimate relationship between food, farming and hospitality. She has put out a discussion paper Hosts For Life, designed to create closer collaboration between hosts, farmers, and food producers at the community level as a catalyst for regenerative development.

Pollack has worked with the Canadian Tourism Commission, PATA, European Travel Commission, Tourism British Columbia, the Australian Tourism Export Council, Tourism Tasmania, Innovation Norway, Visit Flanders, Rotterdam Partners and departments of industry, conservation and tourism in New Zealand. Anna has been the recipient of The Visionary of the Year Award from the Canadian Tourism industry and identified as a finalist in Newsweek’s annual Tourism Visionary Awards.

Learn more about Anna: Conscious Travel , Anna’s website 

• 2016:  “Are the eggs of the tourism goose starting to crack?”
• “Anna Pollock on Conscious Travel and Sustainable Tourism” – 2013 Keynote at Adventure Travel World Summit 

Norie Quintos, Contributing Editor, National Geographic Travel

Norie Quintos is an award-winning independent journalist and editor. She is a contributing editor to National Geographic Travel Media and the former executive editor of National Geographic Traveler. She is also a consultant for the travel industry on communications strategy and custom content. She helps clients find and tell their stories through seminars, coaching, and print and pixel projects. She has spoken and presented at conferences including the Adventure Travel World Summit, the New York Times Travel Show, International Media Marketplace, the International Indigenous Tourism Conference, the Travel Unity Summit, and the World Bank World Tourism Day Forum. Her work is focused on the areas of sustainable, indigenous, regenerative, transformational, and responsible travel.

She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund and an advisor to Adventure Media, the Transformational Travel Council, Impact Travel Alliance, and the social enterprise startup Giving Way. She is the former executive editor of National Geographic Traveler and was an editor at U.S. News and World Report and Caribbean Travel and Life. She has lived abroad and is working on her Spanish fluency. She bikes, hikes, and tweets.

• Learn more about Norie:  www.noriequintos.com
• National Geographic: Should some of the world’s endangered places be off-limits to tourists?
• Saving ourselves, saving the planet, together 

Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Head, TreadRight Foundation

A tourism development specialist, Shannon has more than 15 years of international experience working at multiple levels of tourism development and delivery. She has worked for global and specialist tour operators and as a tourism development consultant. In her role as Chief Sustainability Officer & Head of TreadRight for The Travel Corporation (TTC), a family of 40 travel brands operating worldwide, Shannon leads the development and implementation of the group’s five-year sustainability strategy and climate action plan. Shannon also oversees the TreadRight Foundation, TTC’s not-for-profit dedicated to supporting projects under the foundation’s three pillars of Planet, People and Wildlife.

Shannon regularly participates in key industry forums and committees including USTOA, PATA, ATTA, UNWTO, WTTC, Tourism Cares and more. In 2018 she was recognized by Canadian Traveller Magazine as a Top 40 under 40 in the Canadian travel industry and in 2021 as a Top Performer by the World Travel & Tourism Commission, the latter for her efforts driving sustainability at TTC. She has guest lectured at Harvard University and is regularly called on by media to share insights into the development of a sustainable tourism industry. She holds an MSc in Tourism and Environmental Management, where she focused on integrating the principles of sustainability into marine-based ecotourism, and an undergraduate degree in Outdoor Recreation and Environmental Education from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Learn more about Shannon: 

• Euromonitor International Travel Leaders podcast 
• Travel Corporation releases first report on sustainability progress, Travel Pulse, May 2022 

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