TUESDAY MAY 10

Free Public Event! Help plan the future of tourism in Alaska communities

Alaska Geotourism Collaboration
Conference and Visioning Workshop
With guest speaker, Jonathan Tourtellot
Call-ins welcome from around the state

At the Anchorage UAF Cooperative Extension Conference Room
1675 C Street #100
Anchorage, AK 99501

> R.S.V.P. to 907-786-6300 on Monday and ask to reserve a space
> If you want to phone in, please notify us via  907-786-6300

Program, Tuesday, May 10, 2016:

8:00-9:15 am Plenary visioning session for Alaska Geotourism. Note: statewide call-in session, with opportunities for communities stating their needs and opportunities regarding tourism call 786-6300 for telephone contact info.

9:15 am to 10:15 am Bristol Bay Geotourism Panel — Dr. Adelheid Herrmann, Moderator, with:

• Jonathan Tourtellot,Tourism Consultant/Geotourism
• Anthony “Tony” Nakazawa, UAF – Alaska Geotourism Collaboration
• Darlene Kawennano:ron Johnson,Geotourism Master Trainer; Owner, Diamond Dar’s Alaska Adventures & Eagle Vision Consulting
• Michael O’Neill, Levelock Yup’ik
• Hiro Matsuura,Taisei Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan  
• Daisy Alfaro, Owner, Daisy Tours

10:30 am – 11:45 Today’s Green Movement and Alaska Green Energy and ANILCA – its present situation and future opportunities for Rural Alaska.  ANILCA beneficiary issues —politics of concessionaire rule change; methods for increasing local benefits via improved local capacity, incentives, etc.
Moderator – Dr. Edgar Blatchford (UAA Journalism and Communications), Liz Vazquez – Invited (Alaska State Representative and former Chair of Chugach Electric), Pat Pourchot – Invited (former Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Dept of Interior); Sierra Club representative confirmed, Adelheid Herrmann (Geotourism Collaboration and former Alaska State Representative), Malcom and Cindy Roberts – invited (Anchorage Bridgebuilders).

Noon-Lunch with Jonathan Tourtellot: Highly insightful presentation of emerging international travel trends including more on newly emerging international sustainability ratings and global Top 100 Destinations competition   Special Guest Speaker – Jonathan Tourtellot (Note-Donation of $10 for Box Lunch – please call 786-6300 to reserve a lunch box)

1:30 pm – 2:30 Planning session based on previous sessions and summation of visioning goals

2:45 – 3:30 Next steps, including persons responsible for each.

R.S.V.P. to 907-786-6300 on Monday and ask to reserve a space or notify that you want to call in.

Information: Tony or Nina at 786-6300       Email: atnakazawa@alaska.edu

NOTE—This meeting is being held in conjunction with
The 11th International Green Energy Conference
being sponsored by the University of Alaska Anchorage and
the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering.
May 8-11th, 2016 at the Anchorage Hilton Hotel –
see http://www.iage-net.org/igec11

____________________________________________________

Guest speaker: Jonathan B. Tourtellot,  International Geotourism  Consultant

Jonathan Tourtellot is a consultant specializing in sustainable tourism and destination stewardship. He is also a journalist and editor with a focus on travel, geography, and science. Motivated by his desire to encourage protection of distinctive places, Tourtellot originated the concept of geotourism, defined as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.” He helped the U.S. Travel Association develop the 2002 study Geotourism: The New Trend in Travel, a landmark survey of American traveler behavior and attitudes about issues of sustainability.

Tourtellot launched and ran the National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations (CSD) for nine years. He is the primary author of the Geotourism Charter, a set of stewardship principles adopted by various world destinations from Norway and Guatemala to Portugal’s Douro Valley and the city of Montreal. He initiated and supervised the Destination Stewardship surveys reported annually as the cover story in National Geographic Traveler magazine 2004-2010. In helping to expand Traveler’s coverage of tourism and destination management, he wrote the magazine’s first two feature stories on the topic, “The Two Faces of Tourism” and “The Tourism Wars,” both winners of the Lowell Thomas award. As geotourism editor for Traveler, he has written on such topics as resort sprawl, nature tourism, heritage travel, and climate change.

Tourtellot instituted National Geographic’s Geotourism MapGuide program, unique in that it invites full participation by destination residents and so raises awareness of distinctive local assets. Self-taught geographer, sometimes photographer, and public speaker, Tourtellot has addressed numerous national and international groups, including the U.N. World Tourism Organization, UNESCO, and the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Prior to his work in the tourism field, he contributed to several National Geographic books and served as project editor for several others, including Britain and Ireland, Into the Unknown, the first National Geographic Photographer’s Field Guide, and Exploring Our Living Planet, with Dr. Robert Ballard. In books and magazines, he has covered places ranging from Icelandic volcanoes to Amazon rain forests and from the desert valleys of Nevada to the marshes of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. He lives on a mountainside in northern Virginia.