A Groundbreaking Conference on Tourism, Justice, and Peace
Breaking Barriers and Amplifying the Voices of the Unheard
The 2024 World Tourism Day Forum, held on September 24-25 in Atlanta, GA, was a transformative event that brought together 119 registrants from around the world over two impactful days. This year’s theme, “Tourism, Justice, and Peace: Bridging Barriers and Amplifying the Voices of the Unheard,” resonated deeply with attendees and speakers that spanned government, civil society, and the tourism industry.
This year’s theme placed tourism at the nexus of justice and peace, urging a deep and reflective examination of tourism’s influence on migration, social equity, climate justice, diplomacy, and cultural preservation – among other topics. By disrupting the status quo, the 2024 Forum commits to fostering meaningful dialogue and actions that challenge prevailing norms and encourage cross-sector collaboration.
In a historic first, the 2024 World Tourism Day Forum ventured beyond its usual Washington, DC setting to convene stakeholders in Atlanta, Georgia. Selected for its pivotal role as a connecting place in global travel and its deep-rooted legacy in civil rights and social justice, Atlanta culture and community played an important role in the 2024 event.
In partnership with RISE Travel Institute, CREST is proud of the impact and conversation generated at this historic event.
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Goals & Objectives of the 2024 World tourism Day Forum
1. Foster Meaningful Collaboration between the tourism industry, civil society, academia, and public sector tourism stakeholders.
2. Break down barriers around complicated topics in tourism by generating dialogue and learning opportunities, particularly relating to tourism as an avenue for peace, diplomacy, justice, and community empowerment.
3. Provide a platform for diverse tourism stakeholders in Atlanta to highlight the city’s diversity, resilience, unique product offer, and history.
4. Collectively incubate solutions on tourism’s role in areas affected by conflict, injustices, or natural disaster.
- Work through mock scenarios with cross-sector stakeholders.
- Participate in an academic-led ideas incubator and poster session.
5. Share adoptable positive practices from tourism practitioners, researchers, and community leaders.
6. Produce a white paper that details practical, actionable steps that practitioners and policy-makers can take to promote tourism through a lens that considers equity, diplomacy, justice, peace, and support for local communities.
The Venue
This year’s Forum will be held at Monday Night Garage, a brewery with roots in Atlanta that epitomizes the city’s entrepreneurial spirit and progress. Known for crafting unique brews in a space where community and creativity thrive, Monday Night Garage offers an inspiring setting for our discussions and solutions-centered sessions.
The Neighborhood
The 2024 Forum will take place in Atlanta’s historic West End, a neighborhood steeped in Black culture, community, and a diverse arts scene. The West End neighborhood and the development of the non-motorized beltline trail provide an important backdrop to frame discussions on justice, peace, and the complex role tourism plays in both exacerbating and addressing complex community issues.
Just a short distance from the conference venue, Monday Night Garage, the Darwin Hotel awaits. This charming establishment offers a blend of comfort, luxury, and local flavor, making it the perfect place to unwind after a day of engaging discussions and networking.
As a participant of the 2024 World Tourism Day Forum, you have the exclusive opportunity to book a discounted room at the Darwin Hotel. Thanks to their generosity, the Darwin Hotel is offering rooms at a very friendly rate of $139 for their Cozy Queen and $149 for their King Room. To get this rate, you must use the booking link provided above.
Don’t miss this chance to enjoy Atlanta’s historic O4W neighborhood, the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, home to the Sweet Auburn Historic District, and the location of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Today, Old Fourth Ward gives visitors the opportunity to engage with its storied history, provides easy access to the Eastside Beltline Trail, and brings together visitors and locals alike at Ponce City Market.
At CREST, we envision a world where travel benefits communities and the environment. So, how do justice and peace fit into this vision? Over more than two decades of dedicated research and advocacy, we have identified a fundamental truth: sustainable, regenerative, or responsible travel—regardless of the term—is unattainable without a foundational commitment to peace and justice.
Tourism’s Broad Reaching Influence
Tourism’s influence extends beyond mere economic benefits; it intersects with critical issues such as human rights, migration, gentrification, community empowerment, and access to justice. Without addressing these areas, tourism risks perpetuating inequality and conflict rather than fostering harmony and development. Consequently, tourism can either promote peace or serve as a vehicle for turmoil, depending on its management.
Examining Tourism through Additional Lens
By examining tourism’s role in these broader contexts and its impact on the most marginalized groups, we can better understand its capacity to either uphold or undermine justice and peace. It’s time for the tourism sector to engage more deeply with these pressing issues, ensuring that travel acts as a force for good, supporting sustainable development and equitable opportunities for all.
Welcome to Atlanta, where…
- Busiest airport in the world since ’98
- ’96 Olympics host and venue
- Set to host 5 World Cup matches in 2026
- Birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Center of the civil rights movement
- 3rd most Fortune 500 companies in USA
- 4th fastest growing foreign-born metro population
Notable Past Participants
Industry, Private Sector, & DMOs
Public Sector and Government Stakeholders
Academia and University Representatives
- Patagonia
- Hilton
- Marriott International
- Booking.com
- Royal Caribbean Group
- Intrepid Travel
- Visit Nuuk
- Visit Sweden
- Tourism New Zealand
- G Adventures
- Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Embassy of Mexico
- Embassy of Grenada
- Embassy of Iceland
- NOAA
- National Park Service
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
- Parks Canada
- Arizona Office of Tourism
- Inter-American Foundation
- Harvard University
- George Washington University
- Princeton University
- University of California
- Duke University
- Purdue University
- University of Central Florida
- Virginia Tech University
- Western Sydney University
Multilaterals
- UN Environment – North America Office
- United Nations Foundation
- World Bank Group
- UNESCO
- IMF
- Interamerican Development Bank
Civil Society
- World Wildlife Fund
- The Nature Conservancy
- Environmental Defense Fund
- National Park Foundation
- National Geographic Society
- Museum of Modern Art (DC)
Media
- The New York Times
- National Geographic Media / Society
- Chicago Public Media
- Skift
- Island Press
- Condé Nast Traveller
- GLP Films
Who Should Participate? Academics, graduate students, and researchers with bold, innovative research are invited to present at the Center for Responsible Travel’s (CREST) 2024 World Tourism Day Forum. This “Ideas Exchange” offers a unique platform to reach a broader audience, receive peer feedback, and spark collaboration.
Why Participate? Present your research to a diverse audience, gain feedback from industry leaders, network with tourism experts, and explore collaboration opportunities.
Event Details The Ideas Exchange will take place on September 24, 2024, at Monday Night Garage in Atlanta, GA.
Participation Requirements Participants will give a 30-second main stage “quick pitch” and display a 24″x36″ poster with a bold research question. Engage with attendees using a “sticky note” box for ideas and display research snippets on your board.
Proposal Submission Requirements Submit a bold research question, a 100-500 word abstract, 2-5 keywords, and clarification on whether the research is in-development/unpublished or published. Ensure relevance to “Tourism, Justice, and Peace” or related topics like sustainable tourism, climate justice, human rights, decolonization of travel, and more.
Evaluation Criteria Proposals will be evaluated on sector-bridging contributions, originality and innovation, practical implications, presentation clarity, and relevance to the event themes.
Important Dates
- August 1: Call opens
- August 9: Call ends
- August 12: Acceptance notifications sent
Note: Accepted presenters must purchase a Forum ticket within one week of acceptance and be present in person.
Aligning with CREST’s 2024 World Tourism Day Forum elevates your brand’s presence in transformative dialogues that surpass conventional industry events. Your partnership with CREST’s 21-year tourism expertise signifies your company’s role as a catalyst for progress.
At the World Tourism Day Forum, our Sponsors are more than financial backers; they are integral partners and help us shape the event’s impact before and after it’s held.
Who Sponsors CREST?
- Tourism Industry and Business: Show your clients and competitors that you’re a changemaker and a pioneer. Sponsoring CREST’s World Tourism Day Forum demonstrates your sincere commitment to responsible tourism, giving back, and making a difference.
- DMOs and Government: CREST’s approach to events is all about thinking global but prioritizing local impact. In your own backyard, show residents and prospective visitors that you’re welcoming to all, want to positively impact your community, and showcase tourism’s intersectionality with what’s going on in the world.
- Local Community and Foundations: Show impact by giving to an event that positively supports community, drives impact beyond the event, and takes a data-driven approach.
2024 World Tourism Day Forum Sponsors
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2024 World Tourism Day Forum Presenting Organizations
Previous World Tourism Day Forums
Founded in 2003, in the wake of the UN International Year of Ecotourism (2002), the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) has worked with communities around the world to implement more responsible tourism policies and practices. The tourism industry and the landscape within which it operates have changed drastically over the past two decades. In honor of our 20th anniversary, we will look at how the tourism industry and landscape have changed, discuss best practices and lessons learned, and apply what we know to our work moving forward.
In discussing how the tourism industry and landscape have changed over the past two decades and where it will be going, we will look at industry trends, policy, research, stakeholder engagement, awareness-building, regulation, and cooperation.
The goal of this year’s World Tourism Day Forum is to understand how the tourism industry and landscape have evolved over the past two decades and how to best utilize lessons learned to create lasting change over the next two.
Martha Honey Legacy in Responsible Travel Award
The Martha Honey Legacy in Responsible Travel Award was first created to honor Dr. Martha Honey on the occasion of her retirement in recognition of her incredible leadership and accomplishments in responsible travel. At that time, the Board and staff of CREST decided to make this an annual award from the CREST Board of Directors to someone in the global tourism industry making a significant difference in pushing the envelope in responsible travel.
This year’s award went to Bruce Poon Tip, CEO and Founder of GAdventures.
It isn’t uncommon for tourism policies and plans to be made without community input, but tourism does not exist in a vacuum. Communities feel the consequences of being excluded: from overtourism and climate and biodiversity threats, to cultural heritage loss and widening social inequities. In order to build a more sustainable and responsible future for tourism – for destination communities, businesses, and tourists alike – we need a more holistic approach, one that puts communities at the center of tourism planning and decision-making. Without doing so we risk losing what makes so many destinations unique and worth visiting.
Our goal for this event was to have a research-based discussion with practical examples of how destination stewardship is being implemented around the world. Participants walked away with a better understanding of destination stewardship as a tourism model and the value of using community-centered destination marketing.
Martha Honey Legacy in Responsible Travel Award recipient: Jonathan Tourtellot. He was selected amongst a pool of esteemed candidates but what set him apart was his dogged commitment to destination stewardship throughout his multi-decade career.
In 2021, CREST is partnered with Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency to host our fifth annual World Tourism Day Forum. The virtual event focused on helping key sectors bridge the disconnect between the goals destinations, accommodations, and tour operators are told they must meet when it comes to mitigating the climate crisis, and the action steps needed to take.
CREST’s 2020 meta-analysis, The Case for Responsible Travel: Trends & Statistics, shares key studies on COVID-19 and climate change and the lessons that may be applied from the former to meet the challenges of the latter.
This 2020 World Tourism Day Webinar shared the report’s key findings and brought together experts to discuss consumer, business, and destination trends in the context of recovery.
Distinguished speakers explored the unprecedented opportunity to mitigate two existential threats, climate change and COVID-19, with one coordinated approach, truly making the world a safer, more equitable, and more resilient place for all.
Impact tourism is not about collecting loose change for charities. Rather, it is about integrating business and visitor support for local communities into the core definition of responsible travel. The 2019 World Tourism Day Forum focused on successful travel giving programs for a wide range of businesses and destination types.
Recognizing that doing good does not always mean doing right, the forum also examined the downsides of inappropriately implemented travel giving and voluntourism programs.
The forum also traced the evolution of what was originally referred to as travelers’ philanthropy into Impact Tourism, which today represents a broad array of travel giving programs.
This forum was presented by CREST and Organization of American States.
We define overtourism as tourism that has moved beyond the limits of acceptable change in a destination due to quantity of visitors, resulting in degradation of the environment and infrastructure, diminished travel experience, wear and tear on built heritage, and/or negative impacts on residents.
Around the world, popular tourist destinations have reached a tipping point. A growing middle class, improved connectivity, and the desire of people to see the world means that popular destinations are becoming over-saturated. The phenomenon called ‘overtourism’ has led to civic protests and residents demanding that ‘tourists go home.’
This 2018 World Tourism Day Forum was designed to reflect on the root causes of overtourism, but more importantly, to share viable solutions from thought leaders working on the front lines. This included public sector destination managers and private sector tourism providers. Panel discussions focused on the various types of destinations confronting overtourism: historic cities, national parks, and protected areas, World Heritage Sites, coastal and beach communities, and national and regional destinations.
This forum was presented by CREST and the George Washington Institute for International Tourism Studies.
The CREST/UN Environment forum was designed to showcase the importance of the UN’s declaration of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. This invitation-only, day-long event took place on World Tourism Day, September 27, 2017, at the UN Foundation in Washington, DC.
The event featured panels covering the five key areas identified by the UNWTO for this international year. Each one-hour panel was moderated by a well-known journalist and included two presenters giving exemplary and inspiring case studies. In their 8-10 minute talks, presenters showed short videos of their work and reflected on both their successes and challenges. Case studies were drawn from North America, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The journalist/moderator for each panel ensured ample time for audience discussion after each set of presentations.