Educational Travel Conference Joins Changemakers as Partner for National Geographic’s Geotourism Challenge

ETC is pleased to announce its important new partnership with Ashoka’s "Changemakers," an initiative of Ashoka—an organization with over three decades of finding, funding, and expanding the work of social entrepreneurs across the globe.
 
Through its collaborative competitions and open-source process, Changemakers.com has created one of the world’s most robust online communities for launching, refining, and scaling ideas for solving the world’s most pressing social problems. Ashoka’s Changemakers, in collaboration with National Geographic Society, hosts the annual "Geotourism Challenge" to recognize organizations and initiatives that practice and advance the growing trend of geotourism: tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.
 
The 2009 Geotourism Challenge winners – Nature Air of Costa Rica, Cambodia-based PEPY (“Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself”) Tours, and Wikiloc Community Maps in Girona, Spain – plus the seven other competition finalists will attend the Educational Travel Conference on February 4, 2010, in Providence, Rhode Island. The Geotourism Challenge winners and ETC's 2010 Responsible Tourism Showcase Honoree(s) will participate in a special forum as part of ETC's annual Responsible Tourism track. All ETC delegates will have the opportunity to learn about these new innovators, whom Changemakers' executive director Charlie Brown says are "stretching the possibilities of geotourism.”
 
“These winners are pushing us closer to realizing and sustaining a kind of travel that will enrich cultures and environments across the globe," Brown says.
 
Jonathan B. Tourtellot, director of National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations, says, “The winners are outstanding examples of geotourism practices that demonstrate good destination stewardship. They are committed to conserving and enhancing the quality of their locales while benefiting residents and providing visitors with authentic experiences."
Entries for the 2009 Geotourism Challenge: "Power of Place” almost doubled over the first Geotourism Challenge in 2008. The winners and runners-up were selected from 10 finalists out of 611 original entries from 81 countries. Click here to read more about the 2009 Geotourism Challenge winners and runners-up.