The | | Suke | Shao
Haybina Hao
Former Vice President of the National Travel Association and Former Director of Greater China of the World Travel and Travel Council. He currently lives in the United States and works in the international tourism media.
In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to address the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development by 2030. Governments attach great importance to this and implement relevant policies; industries are also pushing for substantial progress. According to a 2021 UNWTO survey of 101 Member States, 64% believe that sustainability is directly related to national competitiveness. The World Economic Forum's Competitiveness Index shows that the more sustainability-focused countries are, the more competitive they are. Clearly, sustainability is no longer an optional topic, it does matter to the future of the country.
The sudden global pandemic has disrupted the progress of the SDGs, and global efforts, including those of the tourism industry, will be needed in the future. The mountain tourism sector accounts for about 20% of tourism and directly involves 8 of the 17 SDGs: 1 eradication of poverty, 2 eradication of hunger, 5th gender equality, 8th decent work and economic growth, 10th gap reduction, 11th sustainable cities and communities, 15th terrestrial organisms, and 17th partnerships for the achievement of SDGs. Mountain tourism is of great significance to the SDGs, and there is a great deal of room for practitioners to make a difference. In fact, many industries have been deeply cultivating SDGs, including a large number of women, and their achievements are equally prominent. This article focuses on several female CEOs of mountain tourism. They have been effective in promoting the development of SDGs in their respective regions in Asia, Africa, the United States and Europe. Their examples have been an incentive to advance SDGs in the post-pandemic.
Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, nicknamed the "Roof of Africa", at an altitude of 5,895 meters, it is the world's highest solitary mountain range, which makes international climbers very desirable. The summit glacier is expected to melt between 2030 and 2050, bringing this World Natural Heritage Site to the forefront of attention. Born smart and clever, Zainab Ansell grew up exploring and was the most independent of his 12 siblings. After 8 years of ticket sales at the airline, she finally couldn't stand the sameness and quit her job to start a business.
Tanzanian Mama Zara (Source: Zara Tours)
She first tried to sell tickets. When she received her license, she was criticized: How can this woman be restless?! After a year of being tested by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for no income, she finally won her trust and signed contracts with several airlines. Three years later, the airline ticket business declined, forcing her to find another way out. One morning she was drinking coffee and was fascinated by the mountaintop covered in silver makeup in the morning light. Suddenly she was cheerful: that's it! In 1989, she founded Zara Tours, which promotes mountaineering products. The men are very upset: what woman has climbed the mountain with her?! She is partial to evil and rushes all the way, designing and marketing, hiring helpers, pulling guests, and seeking partners. A few orders down turned out to be a good reputation, she begged the guests to promote word of mouth, and gradually opened up the European source of customers. She actively explores, looks for patterns, and no matter how the industry changes, she always looks for one core: to provide the best experience. European and American guests prefer convenience, she strives to create a one-stop service, the formation of 6 hotels and camps, fleets, catering, coffee farms and other service system, and finally became the largest mountaineering tourism company in Qishan, employing 200 tour guides and porters in the peak season, while jointly operating products from Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and other countries.
She works in the town of Moshi at the foot of the mountain. Born and raised in Slovakia, she feeds the community with 15% of her annual profits and is run by the branch "Zara Charity Tanzania". She has long sponsored the "Beggar Mountain Porters Association", providing members with professional training, account setting up, medical insurance and other benefits for the first time in their lives; in order to stimulate the popularity of regional tourism and positively guide young people, she has sponsored marathons for many years; believing that education is the root of getting rid of poverty, she has opened two charitable residential schools, so that poor children enter the classroom for the first time. She explicitly opposes the Beggar Mountain Cable Truck project, believing that it destroys beautiful scenery, destroys the ecological environment of wild animals, accelerates geothermal heat, and makes tour guides and porters unemployed, resulting in an increase in crime rates. Tanzania has about 50,000 foreign climbers each year, and a climber usually uses 5-6 porters, cooks and guides during the week. The cable car project is of great concern to Tanzanian porters and the industry at large, and Zanab's views are the focus of the SDGs.
In a flash, she went from a young and beautiful saleswoman to a respected "Mama Zara", from a no-name to a hard-core CEO, from the foot of Tanguo Mountain to the world. She changed the local concept of male superiority and female inferiority, promoted the economic vitality of the community, and woven the products of Qishan tourism into a bond of international friendship. Her outstanding contributions have received awards at home and abroad, including the Humanitarian Award, the Outstanding Contribution Award for Promoting Inbound Tourism in Africa, the Best Tourism Company in Tanzania and the Sustainable Tourism Award. 【1】
The "Three Sisters" of Nepal in the far northern hemisphere are completely different from the fierce and decisive mother Zara. Lucky, Dicky, Nicky are the girls of the 8 siblings. The timber merchant father has a meager income, the family is poor, and the sisters are insecure from an early age, shy and unconfident, but they love each other and hope to make a living together. Finally, they chose the magnificent mountains and moved to the beautiful Lake Fewa at the foot of the Himalayas to run an inn. This is the door of the world's top "Annapurna Route". The rolling ridges are steep and steep, with tropical and polar climates on the mountains, as well as multicultural villages. In the spring of Nepal, the national flower of Lari Gulan is red and purple, spreading all over the mountains, attracting climbers from all over the world. The three sisters are humble and careful, diligent and hardworking, treat guests like family, and gradually feel good about their small days, and their livelihood in this life is not worrying!
Three Nepalese Sisters (from left to right): Lucky, Dikoll and Nicole (Credit: 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking)
Unexpectedly, "compassion" completely changed their trajectory. Female guests are often heard complaining about being harassed by male tour guides, which makes them extremely sympathetic and fidgety. The lucky ones have learned mountain skills courses and have volunteered to be guides. Soon overwhelmed, the sisters began training local young women to help. As the drama grew louder, they set up a non-profit organization, the Nepal Women's Empowerment Organization (EWN), to conduct training. EWN recruits young women who are eager to work in the off-season, waiving tuition fees and providing room and board. For more than 20 years, the curriculum has been gradually systematized, with 4 weeks of study and 6 months of paid internship, which has trained more than 2,000 people across the country. After graduating, the trainees either stayed in office or flew away, and since then they have the ability to make a living and help their families.
At the same time, the mountaineering business is developed. In 1994, the "3 Sisters Adventure Trekking" was opened for women, employing trainee guides and porters. Unsurprisingly, they are ridiculed, blamed, and ostracized by men in the industry. Kind and generous by nature, they eventually won the market and collaborators with a good reputation, including long-term partners overseas. At its peak, the company employed 200 people and operated in Bhutan, India and other countries. Young women in the mountains have been crawling and playing in the mountains since childhood, and their physical fitness as tour guides and porters is super good, which surprises the guests, and their honesty and meticulousness reassure customers.
The eldest sister lucky one is good at unity and cooperation. She founded the Nepal Tourism Women Entrepreneurs Association to lead the development of women in the industry. The three sisters have successfully combined business goals with social goals, bringing a new path for women in the mountains, changing the traditional concept and the pattern of mountain tourism in Nepal. The company and EWN have received nearly two dozen international tourism awards and accolades, including the Outstanding Geotourism Challenge Award in an 83-country referendum by National Geographic magazine, and the second place in the WEPs-2020 Leadership Commitment Award in UN Women's Asia Pacific region. 【2】
During the epidemic, the company issued repatriation fees to let employees go home and paid monthly subsidies. The sisters have always been calm and prepared for danger, and have used the balance of earthquake relief funds during the epidemic period. Lucky said that the tourism industry has always had ups and downs, and during the epidemic period, they are not confused or desperate, but rest and improve. E-learning, technology upgrading, international interaction, they have not stopped. "At that time, our three sisters were just trying to make a rice bowl, and they didn't expect that there would be such a growth, which would drive the development of women in the community!" Today, with a broad international cooperation network, we are more confident! ”
Undoubtedly, there are more difficult obstacles on the road for female CEOs, and it is the forces that support them. Trish Sare of North America and Canada has a special drive. Her mother died of cancer when she was 17. Her mother, who has not been able to travel all her life, has great regrets and advises her: fate is unpredictable, don't wait, see the world as soon as possible! With eternal pain, at the age of 20, she went abroad to work and travel, and she left for 5 years. The 2 years of a Thai villager's home have enabled her to understand the real needs of the destination. In 1994, she founded BikeHike Adventures in Vancouver, a mountain bike + visitor experience that is carbon-free, takes guests out of reach on wheels, and opens up a way for locals to make a living. She designs each product herself and leads the inspection team. Sustainability is followed at every step: visitors interact closely with locals, hire local guides, eat and stay with local products, and leave no trace when they go. Over the past 27 years, the company has developed more than 30 products on 5 continents, paying equal wages to employees worldwide. Every year, the company participates in international public welfare projects, such as drought relief in Africa, typhoon relief in Vietnam, and has been listed several times in National Geographic magazine's "Must-Have Trip of a Lifetime" list. Tracy has delivered on her promise to her mother, while expanding the zero-pollution tourism method and helping the development of destination SDGs – she is enough to comfort her mother's spirit in heaven! 【3】
Mountain bikers (Source: Cairn goms National Park, UK)
Poonam, who is far away in the Eastern Hemisphere of India, has worked in Germany and has a broad vision and abundant resources. Punan is an adventurous nature, visiting remote areas alone at the age of 14 and enjoying spending time with locals. Poverty in the Himalayas of the northern Indian state of Arkhand gave birth to her idea: to use rural tourism to drive women's livelihoods. Relying on the NGO Bachan Charitable Trust, she opened a shelter for poor women, and then Fernweh Fair Travel, which generates income from open source and feeds back into the community. Fan Wei's products are fully integrated with local cultural elements, such as homestay, organic food, yoga meditation, villager interaction, school experience, walking tours, handicrafts and so on. The company trains women in the necessary skills of mountain villages, including homestay management, tour guides, craftsmen, etc., and instills awareness of the protection of culture and the environment in the villagers. Van Viy's customers are mainly from Germany and Western Europe, and tourists are eager to contribute and willing to teach. The guests stayed in the villagers' homes for a long time, contributed deeply to the mountain village, and obtained great spiritual satisfaction. Punan and Van Viy's win-win model has received several accolades, including the International Tourism Women Entrepreneur and Women Empowerment Sponsorship Award and the India Tourism Homestay Award. 【4】
Perhaps among the many female CEOs, Kristine Tompkins of South America has the most profound impact on the macro level. As a member of Tompkins Conservation, she successfully protected the pristine ecology of Chile and Argentina's Patagonia plateau of more than 14 million acres by creating a national park model, and was named the "Patron of the United Nations Environmental Protection Zone", along with her late husband Douglas, the most outstanding ecological conservation philanthropist.
Kristine Tompkins (Photo by James Q Martin)
Christine grew up on her great-grandfather's farm in California and loved nature. She was previously CEO of Patagonia, a high-end outdoor clothing company, donating 10% of the company's profits to environmental causes every year. Husband Douglas is a co-founder of North Face and Esprit. In 1993 she took early retirement to join her husband's ecological business in Chile. The first project was Pumalin. This 964,000-acre temperate rainforest is rich in mountains, coastlines, penguins, seals and sea lions. Purchased as a private reserve, they built roads, camps, visitor centres, opened to the public free of charge, planted 160,000 trees (60% of which are endangered species) and restored 160 hectares of indigenous forest. Through the operation of non-profit organizations, they have purchased more than 20 million acres of wilderness land, repaired it and donated it to the government, and persuaded the government to designate the adjacent federal land as a national park. The national park is a complete set of ecological, cultural and economic protection system, which is very in line with Chile's national conditions. The initial suspicions, hostility, and gossip of the locals were completely resolved over the years.
Wild moose in Chile's national parks (Photo: Linde Waidhofer)
*The Huemul Deer is listed as the most endangered large land mammal on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, with only about 1500 left
Wild camels in Chile's national parks (Photo: Linde Waidhofer)
When her husband died in a kayaking accident in 2015, she did not stop. In 2017, she donated Pumarin to the Chilean government, fulfilling her husband's last wishes; in 2018, she built 25 million new marine national parks on the condition that logging or commercial fishing could not be carried out; in 2019, she signed a decree with the President of Chile and donated the last 1 million acres; plus 9 million acres of federal land, five new national parks were built and three were expanded, making Chile add 10 million new national parks, equivalent to the size of Switzerland. Over the course of 27 years, she and her husband have created a total of 13 national parks in Chile and Argentina, with vast spaces that protect fragile ecosystems. Take threatened mountain lions, for example: in Chile's PNP park, mountain lions have reduced their predation on sheep by 90 percent because they are far from mountain villages, and their chances of being hunted have been greatly reduced. Every grass and tree, a leopard and a deer, a fish and a dolphin in the national park have all survived and multiplied under the careful care of the protectors. Over the years, Christine has received nearly 20 international awards and honors[5] and has won 10 awards with her husband.
Wild mountain lions in Chile's national parks (Credit: Tompkins Conservation)
In 2018, Chile announced to the world the latest tourist destination - "Patagonia Park Road", and the couple's long-cherished wish for many years has finally come true! Today, Christine is still leading the implementation of the vision. The Parkway includes 17 national parks, more than 1,700 miles of routes, and 60 gate-off communities with rich cultural heritage. The "ParkWay" has colorful cliffs and snow peaks, ancient trees, 10,000-year-old ice fields, mysterious starry skies, and various wild animals; annual tourism revenue is expected to be 270 million US dollars, creating 43,000 jobs.
In the 2020 TED Talk, Christine called for unity. "Everyone's life is affected by the actions of other people on Earth," she said. The world's all-out efforts to stop the spread of the epidemic shows hope: it is entirely possible for people to unite in times of despair! Over the years, she has repeatedly emphasized partnerships, including long-term collaborations with governments, local organizations, scientists, charities and communities. Item 17 of the SDGs is "Partnerships for the Achievement of the Goals", which is key to the achievement of projects in Peru and Argentina, and will also be the key to the achievement of all SDGs.
The development of SDGs requires a succession. Enjoy watching Albania's new generation – Blerina Ago joins the relay race! Bryna grew up playing with her father in the landscape and loving nature. Three-quarters of the country is covered by mountains and hills, several famous mountains such as the Albanian Alps in the north, and a world-class "Via-Dinarica" (Via-Dinarica) with a length of 1,200 kilometers spanning seven countries. Argentina's tourism industry started from scratch and has become one of the national development strategies in the past decade. Professional lawyer Briana has been helping the development of tourism and co-founded the Albanian Drift association.
PhotoActive©Albania
After a decade of lobbying for the tourism industry, in 2019 she decisively threw off her lawyer hat and founded Active Albania, a tourism company that threw herself into tourism. When I interviewed her, she was pregnant with a one-month-old baby girl and was full of hope for the future. She says she lives in the luckiest of times and can do what she loves the most and what the country needs the most; she chose adventure tourism because it has the least negative impact on the environment. The company strictly implements 3 principles: sustainability, sustainability, sustainability. The company turned the epidemic period into a preparation period, employees actively prepared new products, and she participated in international industry activities to enhance her vision and drive her counterparts in Algeria to move forward together. In 2021 she was elected to the Executive Committee of the World Rafting Federation, bringing Albania to the higher international arena. Only sustainable tourism, she said, can bring Albania together with Western Europe and the world. The new generation of Bryna has a strong sense of responsibility for the environment and the earth, a strong desire for international cooperation, and is better at using diversified scientific and technological means to achieve goals. If humanity's action to care for the earth is long overdue, Brana's generation no longer allows further delays – this is the hope of the earth and all ecology! 【6】
Video conversations with these CEOs are like a trickle. Although they differ in skin color, age, personality, family background, and "battlefield", they have striking similarities: they are all long-termists, with enough patience and resilience to carry out protracted battles; they are resolute and full of awe, and have a sympathetic and sensitive heart under the tension of planning; they judge the situation, are good at flexibility and cooperation, and strive for the best results under the worst conditions; they are not chaotic in the epidemic, learning to plan and advance. When they went all out not to be "egos," the world embraced them with a smile.
For a year, ten, twenty, thirty years, they struggled to climb the mountain roads of the SDGs. Rushing to the top are Christine and her mother Zara; followed by the three sisters holding hands and Tracy who walks with Mother Paradise; halfway up the mountain is Punan and the women of the mountain village; at the foot of the mountain is Bryna, carrying a baby girl, wrapped around the latest electronic equipment, climbing with all her might. On the rocky mountain with no road, they groped forward, fell and slipped, got up and continued. They have tirelessly written their own history of mountaineering and the chapter in which female CEOs of mountain tourism promote the SDGs.
exegesis
[1] Some of the awards of Zanab Ansel and Zara Travel:
· Tanzania Tourism Authority Sustainable Tourism Award (2011)
· London Travel Show Humanitarian Award (2012)
· Traveler's Eye Sustainable Tourism Business Award (2015)
· African Tourism Association "Outstanding Contribution To Promoting Inbound Tourism in Africa" (2015)
· "Humanitarian Award" of the Vigo International Prize (2018)
· "Most Influential Woman in Business and Politics in East Africa" at the Pan African International CEO Awards (2018)
· Multiple first places in the Tanzania National Park Authority Tourism Awards (including "Best Travel Companies Overall First Place" and multiple sub-first places) (2019, 2020)
【2】Some of the awards of the Three Sisters Of Nepal Trekking Adventure Company and EWN:
· Ministry of Culture and Tourism ,"Best Trekking Company" of Nepal (2007)
National Geographic Magazine "Outstanding Geotourism Challenge Award" (2008, won from a referendum of 320 entries from 83 countries and regions)
· Virgin Holidays Responsible Travel Awards (2012)
· International Tourism Peace Agency "Rebound Force Tourism Community Award" (2019)
· 2nd Place, WEPs Leadership Commitment Award, ASIA PACIFIC, UN Women (2020)
[3] Some of the honors of Tracy Sarah and the Canadian Cycling Trekking Adventure Company:
National Geographic Magazine "50 Trips of a Lifetime : Guided Tours" (2010)
· National Geographic Magazine "Best Adventure Travel Company on Earth"
National Geographic magazine "50 Trips of a Lifetime" (2009, 2012, 2014)
· National Geographic Magazine "A Trip of a Lifetime – South America" (2018)
【4】Some of the awards of Punan and Van Wei Travel Company:
· Adventure Angel's "International Tourism Women Entrepreneurs and Women Empowerment Sponsorship Award" (2019)
· Top 5 Homestay Awards at the Responsible Travel Awards in India (2019)
· Action Awards for "Socially Responsible Tourism International Competition Awards - Top 7" (2020)
[5] Some of Kristen Tompkins' awards:
· Geele Institute for the World Economy "Global Economic Award" (2015)
· Latin American Biodiversity Conservation Award at the BBVA Foundation Frontiers in Knowledge Award (2016)
· IUCN World Conservation Congress – Sustainability Leadership Award, East-West Sustainable Development Summit (2016)
· World Travel Awards, London Travel Show (2016)
· Carnegie Medal for Charity (2017)
· UN Environment's "UnECO Patron" (2018)
· "Traveling Visionaries" at the AFAR Pioneer Awards (2019)
[6] Some of the awards and honors of Brena Argo of Albania:
· Risi Turistike Award from the Embassy of Switzerland in Albania (2015, winner: President of the Albanian Rafting Federation)
· Albanian Ministry of Tourism and Environment "Model Award for Sustainable Tourism Development" (2017)
· UN Women's Directory of Industry Leaders, Innovators, Activists and Social Entrepreneurs in Europe and Central Asia (2019)
· Albania's 100 Influential Women Success Stories (2020)
Source: International Mountain Tourism Alliance