RT Clinics Guest Speakers

Andrew Jones has worked, over the past 40 years, in a number of senior management and corporate positions in prestigious hotels, resorts and management companies in London, Bermuda, Canada and several countries in Asia.

In 1996 Andrew started a new journey when he founded and became Guardian of Sanctuary Resorts, a company that offers responsible and sustainable tourism experiences where people can balance their body, mind and spirit in an environmentally friendly space.

Andrew was previously Director, Asia Pacific Affairs for the International Hotel and Restaurant Association and a member of the Board of the Indian Ocean Tourism Organization. Andrew is a Certified Hotel Administrator of the American Hotel and Lodging Association and a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality.

Andrew is a leading proponent of Corporate Social Responsibility and Wellness, and knowledgeable Speaker, Moderator and Panelist on matters of Responsible and Sustainable Tourism at many Hotel, Environment and Social Enterprise Forums and Conferences. Andrew is a member of the World Travel Market World Responsible Tourism Day Advisory Panel.

Andrew also believes in contributing to the community, is a Past President of the Rotary Club of Kowloon and Chairman Emeritus of the KELY (Kid’s Everywhere Like You) Support Group in Hong Kong.

Vishwaraj Gyawali (Raj Gyawali) is the Founder Director of Socialtours.com, and partner in socialtreks.com. Socialtours.com is a great responsible travel enterprise which started with a small project in 1998 with the goal of leveraging tourism to promote local development in Nepal. The small project has turned into an inspiring leading Responsible Tourism company in Nepal, Tibet, India and Bhutan and one of the first ones to conduct a custom designed RT audit. Currently, Raj looks after the corporate marketing and strategic development of the organization.

Together with a group of community based experts and RT entrepreneurs, he started a project, in 2009, focused on collaboration among localized experts to offer a unique RT product in the Indian subcontinent: the Green Circuit initiative. Gyawali is directly involved in different organizations including United Planet as Co-coordinator for Nepal and Coordinator for Ghana; Nepal River Conservation Trust as Board member; Joy Foundation Nepal as Honorary Life Member; KEEP Nepal as life member, and Namaste Nepal as board member.

Ajay Jain is a full time writer, journalist and photographer based in New Delhi. He is not limited in his medium of expression, equally comfortable writing for newspapers and magazines, as well as his own books and blogs. He is also  engaged in building travel communities both online and offline – through a unique concept called the Kunzum Travel Cafe.

Ajay advises travel companies on how to use new media for brand building and increased sales, and uses the same strategies to promote his traditional and interactive books. 

Supratim Basu, popularly Raj Basu is an activist working in the Easter Himalayas for ‘community livelihood and conservation’ through tourism for almost 25 years now. Founder member of numerous Tourism and Conservation organizations, namely Help Tourism, Association for Conservation & Tourism, Pelling Tourism Development Association, Manas Maozigendri Ecotourism Society, Upper Assam and Eastern Arunachal Pradesh Biodiversity Conservation and Ecotourism Forum, Indo-Bhutan Friendship Association, Singapore-East Himalaya Program and many more. Often referred to as the ‘Gandhi of Tourism’, Raj has been instrumental in showing the way to ‘Conservation based Tourism with local initiatives’. Raj has been consulted by His Majesty’s Government of Bhutan for their National Ecotourism policy, by UNDP for Rural Tourism projects in India and was recognized for his contribution to tourism in 1998 by His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. He has been instrumental for initiating Cross-Border Tourism for Peace on the Indo-Bangladesh, Indo-Myanmar, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Nepal borders.

[message type=”custom” width=”100%” start_color=”#9DAAC7″ end_color=”#9DAAC7″ border=”#BBBBBB” color=”#333333″]Participate in the Responsible Tourism events at ITB Asia 2012. Don’t miss out on this chance to meet inspiring people who’ve made a difference in their destinations via tourism. Wild Asia together with other amazing sustainable tourism partners will be at the Responsible Tourism Center booth (Exhibition Hall, L7455). Come meet us and we’d love to have a chat with you! [/message]