Ashoka and National Geographic 2009 Geotourism Challenge Winners and ETC 2010 Responsible Tourism Showcase HonoreesClick here to read more about the 2010 Responsible Tourism Showcase Honorees Geotourism Challenge Winners 2009 Nature Air, the 100 percent carbon-neutral airline in Costa Rica, offsets 100 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions to encourage reforestation of tropical forests in Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula. To date, Nature Air has compensated for nearly 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide through the protection of more than 500 acres. In addition, Nature Air recently helped develop Costa Rica’s first alternative fueling station through its wholly owned fueling company, Aerotica. Nature Air fuels all ground equipment and vehicles with bio-diesel (a mix of recycled vegetable and cooking oils) collected from employees and restaurants. PEPY (“Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself”) is Cambodia’s Educational Volunteer Tourism Program, providing adventure bike tours and on-site volunteer projects, like building rainwater collection units. All participants make donations to enhance education in impoverished rural Cambodia, where PEPY is based. It supports education for more than 1,700 families in 12 villages and six schools in rural Siem Reap Province, about 40 miles (65 km) from the city of Siem Reap, site of the Angkor temples.
Wikiloc Community Maps in Girona, Spain, created by a software engineer with a passion for travel, is built on information—including maps, photos and video—submitted to offer honest impressions about destinations. Wikiloc is a great source of outdoor activities, from mountain biking to ballooning. The site also promotes thematic activities like gastronomic routes, sightseeing urban trails, and walks in archaeological areas. Created in 2006, the site is already translated in 14 languages, and more than 65,000 trails are included.
The seven Geotourism Challenge runners-up: For more details about the innovative work of all 10 finalists, go to www.changemakers.net/geotourismchallenge. ETC 2010 Responsible Tourism Showcase Honorees Gibb’s Farm is a five-star eco-lodge set beside the tranquil forested highlands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Since 2004, new ownership has given way to a new vision and standard of environmental and community-based ethics. Gibb’s strives for every aspect of its ecology to be in harmony with the surrounding environment and communities, from the organic fertilizer used over its 45 acres of gardens and farms to the very health and happiness of its 150-plus local employees. Gibb’s 20 restored luxury cottages utilize alternative energy, recycled materials, indigenous artisanship and knowledge, handcrafted furniture, art, and even medicine. While guests can delight in more active and cultural activities than ever, Gibb’s has not abandoned its roots and continues as a working farm. Its 30 acres of coffee fields offer some of the best organic beans in East Africa. Astoundingly, its organic fruit, herb, and vegetable gardens and stock and dairy farm provide 90% of ingredients for Gibb’s gourmet meals. For 80 years, Gibb’s has played a vital role for the communities of the Ngorongoro Highlands. Today some 95% of Gibb’s full-time 150 employees come from immediate surrounding villages and towns. Many more receive part-time employment or are given opportunities to sell their crafts and wares at the farm. Two of the largest populations in the region include the Maasai and Iraqw peoples, whose artwork, history, stories, medicine, and ways of life are preserved through Gibb’s cultural programs and throughout the farm and its cottages.
The Abraham Path (Masar Ibrahim al Khalil) is a route of cultural tourism following the footsteps of the Prophet Abraham through the Middle East. The story of Abraham’s journey, which has been kept alive for some four thousand years in the landscape and memory of this region, records the origin of a spiritual tradition shared by more than three billion people in the world today. By retracing this journey, the Abraham Path provides a place of meeting and connection for people of all faiths and culture. The Abraham Path also serves as a catalyst for sustainable tourism and economic development; a platform for cultural and environmental preservation; and a focus for the energy and idealism of young people.
Alaska Wildland Adventures (AWA) has operated natural history tours exclusively in Alaska, providing high quality, interactive experiences in wild Alaska since 1977. A strong respect for the environment and unique native heritage of Alaska is at the heart of the company culture, and many guests choose AWA to support responsible stewardship of America’s Last Frontier. AWA trips visit authentic wilderness lodges in Denali National Park, Chugach National Forest, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, and other protected lands, with the goal of immersing visitors in the wilderness for several days at a time, rather than dashing from sight to sight. This approach fosters a lighter travel footprint while encouraging authentic, meaningful encounters with local peoples and respect for wildlife. In spring 2007, AWA and Port Graham Corporation (PGC), an Alaska Native Village corporation, entered into a collaborative partnership to develop a small scale “Ecolodge” (defined as a tourist lodge operated in a high quality, profitable, yet low impact, fashion) in the Pedersen Lagoon area of Port Graham Corporation lands. Port Graham holds title to more than 40,000 acres of land within the boundaries of Kenai Fjords National Park, and these heritage lands were titled to Port Graham Corporation under the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) of 1971. The project, named Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge, was created to support the community goals of Port Graham Corporation Native residents while also creating an environmentally-conscious Lodge to host small groups of Alaska Wildland Adventures’ summer visitors. Ground broke for construction of the Lodge in Spring 2008, with the majority of the work reaching completion prior to November 2008. Finish work continued during the spring of 2009, and the Lodge welcomed its first guests on May 31, 2009. The Lodge enjoyed a successful first operational season from May through September, 2009.
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Alex E. Khajavi is founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Nature Air Group of Companies and Naturegate, a sustainable tourism development company. Nature Air is the flag carrier airline of Costa Rica and operates 74 daily flights to 17 destinations within Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua. The Airline serves over 20 National Parks and Biological Reserves. Nature Air is recognized for its contributions to social and environmental causes and is the first 100% carbon neutral airline in the world. Nature Air has received prestigious recognition awards for its pioneering work from Rain Forest Alliance, WTTC, Condé Nast, and Virgin Airline. The Group has been featured on CNBC, NPR, Travel Mole and in "National Geographic," "The New York Times," "The Financial Times," and others publications worldwide. 
Daniela Papi is the director of PEPY, an educational development organization working in rural Cambodia. PEPY focuses on building the capacity of teachers and communities to increase access to quality education. Driven by a young group of social entrepreneurs, in the past four years PEPY has grown from a one-off bike ride that funded the construction of a rural school, to a non-governmental organization working in more than 10 schools and employing over 35 local staff. PEPY is funded in part through PEPY Tours, an edu-venture tour company offering cycling trips and service learning experiences in South East Asia. PEPY's tagline highlights the dual mission of the organization: "Adventurous Living. Responsible Giving." Papi is active in the "Voluntourism" sector speaking regularly on the potential negative effects of this growing trend, while encouraging industry players to be self-reflective and proactive in measuring their impact. If she grows up, Papi hopes to continue to be part of improving the impact tourism has on indigenous communities and cultures and, if all else fails, pursue a career as a professional kite surfer. Papi is from New York,but has lived and worked in Asia for the past seven years. She is based in Siem Reap, Cambodia. 
Jordi L. Ramot is from Girona, a region in the northeast of Spain. He holds a degree in M.Sc. in Computer Science and has worked for more than 15 years in the field of GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Ramot's passion for technology, outdoor sports, and travel led him to create Wikiloc.com, a Web 2.0 free trail sharing website, in his spare time. After winning a Web mapping contest organized by Google in 2006, the site started to grow and nowadays a community of already more than 100,000 people worldwide use the website to upload and share 8,000 new trails every month. The site is featured in the preview layer of Google Earth and serves 3 million page views a month. Wikiloc Community Maps, a winner of the 2009 Geotourism Challenge, is the sustainable project of Wikiloc. 
Judith Wineland has been a pioneer and leader in sustainable adventure travel for more than 30 years. Currently the co-owner of Thomson Safaris, Thomson Family Adventures, and Gibb's Farm, Wineland has launched innumerable successful travel ventures while always promoting the conservation of the environment and the empowerment of local communities. In 2009, Gibb's Farm, an eco-lodge in Tanzania near the Ngorongoro Crater, received among the highest ratings for the "Condé Nast Traveler" World Savers Award. Thomson Safaris won the 2009 Tanzania Conservation Award from the Tanzania Tourist Board. Wineland is also a founder and board member of Focus on Tanzanian Communities, a non-profit that supports education, women's empowerment, and other community initiatives in Tanzania. In 2007, the Adventure Travel Trade Association honored Wineland with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her "lasting influence and inspiration" in the international adventure travel community. Wineland serves on the ETC Executive Advisory Council representing the interests of the ETC Adventure and Family Travel U.S. Tour Operator constituents. Wineland became one of the first women to start an adventure travel company when she established Overseas Adventure Travel.
William L. Ury is co-founder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Negotiation Project, as well as a co-founder of the e-Parliament. His most recent project is the Abraham Path Initiative, which seeks to connect the human family step by step by creating a permanent route of cross-cultural tourism in the Middle East that retraces the footsteps of Abraham, the unifying figure of many faiths and peoples. Ury is the author of "The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No & Still Get to Yes" (2007) and co-author (with Roger Fisher) of "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In," an eight-million-copy bestseller translated into over thirty languages. He is also author of the award-winning "Getting Past No: Negotiating with Difficult People and Getting To Peace" (released in paperback under the title The Third Side). Over the last 30 years, Ury has served as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts ranging from corporate mergers to wildcat strikes in a Kentucky coal mine to ethnic wars in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. With former president Jimmy Carter, he co-founded the International Negotiation Network, a non-governmental body seeking to end civil wars around the world. Ury is the recipient of the Whitney North Seymour Award from the American Arbitration Association and the Distinguished Service Medal from the Russian Parliament. His work has been widely featured in the media from "The New York Times" to "The Financial Times" and from ABC to the BBC. Trained as a social anthropologist, with a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. from Harvard, Ury has carried out his research on negotiation not only in the boardroom and at the bargaining table but also among the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the clan warriors of New Guinea.
Kirk Hoessle is the President of Alaska Wildland Adventures, a small group, natural history tour company whose trips range from the protected areas of the Kenai Peninsula to Denali National Park in Alaska. Before directing and becoming the primary shareholder of the company, Hoessle served as a wilderness guide for five years, leading the company’s first natural history trip. Prior to his twenty-eight year involvement with Alaska Tourism, Hoessle directed BLM's Youth Conservation Corps program in Alaska and directed environmental education programs in Oregon. He was also the Managing Director of an interpretive planning and design firm. Hoessle holds a degree in Environmental Education and Outdoor Recreation from George Williams College of Aurora University of Aurora, Illinois. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Travel Industry Association. He also serves as an advisor to the Board of Directors of an organization he helped create, the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association, which has been the voice for ecotourism in Alaska since the early 90s. He was appointed by the Governor and served two terms on the Citizens Advisory Board for Trails and Recreational Access for Alaskans. 