2017 - UN Year of sustainable tourism for development

The UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organization had declared 2017 to be the "Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development" in recognition of the fact that tourism, like no other industry, has the power to ideally foster peace through mutual understanding and appreciation and global wealth distribution. 

How can we as the leading college tourism program not do anything to celebrate and commemorate this designated year we thought? 

So we pooled our contacts and connections together, and came up with an evening-filling mini conference for our students, with two accomplished speakers and a panel discussion, followed by hors d'oevres and a networking opportunity for our students. 

The keynote speaker who opened the conference was Margaret Epler Wood, Harvard Professor and founder of The International Ecotourism Society and arguably the most recognized voice in Sustainable Tourism Research.

Our panel included distinguished representatives of various industry partners and PAC (Professional Advisory Council) of our program.

The speaker who closed our session with his live case study and who was also present during the panel sessions was Don Montgomery, founder and co-owner of Monty's Beach Lodge in Nicaragua, who also received Humber's Honorary Degree designation the following year (see "Community" tab).

Pic on the right: our team just before the conference!