Faculty insight with Megan Epler Wood
Megan Epler Wood, an instructor at Harvard Extension School, teaches the online-option course Environmental Management of International Tourism Development, http://www.extension.harvard.edu/cour….
Epler Wood is the founder of the International Ecotourism Society, the first NGO in the world to be dedicated to sustainable development of tourism. She is also the principal of EplerWood International, a sustainable tourism development firm.
Harvard Extension School
Published on Jul 22, 2013
Tourism is one of the largest global industries. The number of people traveling annually is expected to double from 2010 to 2020. Of course, any trip anyone takes in the world has an environmental impact.
Jenny Attiyeh talks with Megan Epler Wood, a leading authority on sustainable tourism, about the steps we need to take to reduce the environmental impact of tourism. This includes everything from locally-made biodegradable soap sold on the Inca Trail to development of and financial reinvestment in popular destinations like the coral reefs of Ambergris Caye in Belize.
Faculty Insights are produced in partnership with ThoughtCast, www.thoughtcast.org
Megan Epler Wood, a sustainable tourism expert and Harvard Extension School instructor, talks with Jenny Attiyeh of ThoughtCast about the importance of considering tourism’s environmental impact.
Megan Epler Wood is a leading authority on sustainable tourism. She founded the International Ecotourism Society and the firm EplerWood International. Her firm advises public and private sector organizations on sustainable tourism practices in developing nations.
What is sustainable tourism? It has a global scope. Tourism is a huge industry: one billion people traveled internationally in 2012. That number is expected to rise to 1.8 billion by 2020. Every trip that a tourist takes has an environmental impact. And Epler Wood is trying to make it a more sustainable industry.
One obvious way to minimize the impact of tourism is to reduce pollution at popular destinations. And Epler Wood and her associates look for tourism projects that are both environmentally sound and beneficial to locals.
They invested in a small business that sells biodegradable soaps for washing pots and pans along the Inca Trail in Peru. A permit on the Inca Trail can run as high as $10,000. EplerWood International was able to finance the business venture.
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice
