Mr. Delaunay Belleville has kickstarted or developed citizen mobilizations around waste issues. He created the anti-food-waste movement Disco Soupe that generated thousands of community buffets cooked out of food leftovers worldwide. Antoine works for Future of Waste a multi-stakeholder community that gather citizens, social entrepreneurs and organizations to find, support and create projects and solutions to better manage and transform waste. In 2018, Future of waste community worked on waste in the event and tourism industry and launched the toolbox: tackling waste in tourism and events (https://futureofwaste.makesense.org/toolbox/).

Mr. Delaunay will host a workshop Involving stakeholders for circular economy  as a part of the Water & Waste management theme, where he will present his Toolbox for tourism program.

Seyma Bayazit is researcher and lecturer as Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Maritime, Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University. She has Ph.D thesis on cruise port identity for Bodrum. For more than 6 years, her research has been focused on maritime transportation engineering, marine and coastal tourism, cruise tourism, GIS applications for maritime, multicriteria decision making and blue voyage. Her objective is to develop new methods for the measurable identification and management of local identities of port destinations and implement practices to ensure the sustainability of local identities.

Mrs. Bayazit will join us with her presentation: An application for creating a common definition of identity for Bodrum as a part of the Tourism to support local communities, culture & tradition panels.

Paul Peeters, a Professor at the Centre for Sustainability, Tourism and Transport of Breda University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, was educated as an aircraft engineer (BSc). He worked as a conceptual aircraft designer, as a wind-energy researcher, and as sustainable transport and scenarios researcher. At BUas, Paul started in 2002 and is involved in research on tourism and climate scenario’s, system dynamic modeling, serious gaming, tourism transport mode choice, tourism climate mitigation policies, and transport technological development.

Mr. Peeters will join us:

• At the Strengthening Destination Management panel with his presentation The SASTDes approach, Smart Assessment Sustainable Tourist Destinations

• As a panel chair for Facing climate change and tourism challenges panel with his introduction: Pro-active destination policies needed

Albert Folch is the Deputy Director of the TarragonaTourist Board in Catalonia, for the Terres de l’Ebre Region. Associate professor of the University Master’s Degree in Management of Tourism Destinations, at Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona. The Ebre land, located in the most southern part of Catalonia, is characterized by its high ecological value and low density in the touristic activity. In addition, the identity of its inhabitants, through their traditions, history, folklore and gastronomy, make Terres de l’Ebre an unique land. The river Ebre shapes this area declared Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

Mr. Folch will join us with his presentation: The DestiMED Project in Terres de l’Ebre, Catalonia.  at our panel session From the crowds to the Unknown – Creating Green Offer.

Prof.Dr. Tuncay Kuleli is the Director of Bodrum Maritime Vocational School, an academy that offers services in Yatch Master Education, Coastal Zone Management and Marine Tourism in Turkey. For more than 25 years, he has been conducting national-international scientific research and projects on; measurement of sustainability for coastal zone activities; climate change and sea level rise; coastal and marine engineering; coastal GIS; coastal and marine tourism; blue voyage. Their mission is to prepare and carry out scientific and social activities for sustainable tourism and sustainable development.

Prof.Dr. Tuncay Kuleli will join us with his presentation: The Blue Wave Project as part of the panel Tourism to support nature and biodiversity.

Ira Jakša is passionate about nature and eager to protect the environment. In 2005 established a sustainable travel agency offering sea kayak tours especially along the Croatian coast. In 2010 she opened a sea kayaking and sailing base in Kornati. The tours she offers are nature-based and with a strong educational background on the protected areas like national park Kornati. Being on the water and visiting remote parts of the islands she is facing the issues of the waste plastics daily, which lead her to open an Association in partnership with GoodPlace from Slovenia in order to search for solutions which could be implemented also in areas like Kornati.

Mrs. Jaska will join us with her presentation: Steps towards a plastic free coastline as a part of the Water & Waste management panels.

Gregory Bankuzi is the co-founder and president of the Ruhengeri Community Eco-Tourism Association, a local association of people collaborating to enhance tourism development in Rwanda. Recently he was appointed by the African Tourism Board to be in their steering committee representing the interest of African members on the platform. He is behind the Red Rocks Rwanda initiatives, of community-based organizations, where local community can gain from tourism activities, and in the process, have a sustainable income. Red Rocks brings under-served communities into the tourism supply chain and supports community development projects that help people help themselves through their initiatives. He is also a Rwandan tour organizer and guide for various international tour operators.

Mr. Bankuzi will join us with his presentation: Red Rocks Initiatives For Sustainable Development as a part of the Tourism to support local communities, culture & tradition panels.

Hugo de Jong is a sustainable tourism professional with an MSc degree in Leisure, Tourism & Environment. He developed expertise in sustainable destination strategy development in South America, policy advice for recreation and tourism in The Netherlands and community-based tourism in Central America and South-East Asia. Prior to Green Destinations he worked in for the European Centre for Eco- and Agrotourism on the development of Travelife for Tour Operators. As co-founder of Green Destinations, Hugo manages the Award & Certification Programme and helped developing its online sustainability assessment and reporting platform.

Mr. de Jong will join us with his presentation: Certification programs to manage destinations in sustainable way as a part of the panel Strengheting Destination Management. 

Mrs. Tepšić is the Deputy Mayor City of Dubrovnik, as well as honorary consul to the Kingdom of Spain since 2014. She is a professor of the Spanish language, literature and Comparative literature and has more than 20 years of experience in communication, media and marketing. In the City of Dubrovnik, Mrs. Tepšić is responsible for tourism, sustainability and culture. During her work in past two years, the city has been developing an strategic, long term project called “Respect the City”. She has participated in many congresses worldwide where she presented this project, which deals with innovative integrated development and focuses on the sustainable development of tourism in the city. She showed how the City administration faced with the problem of overcrowding, ensuring a better distribution of visitors and suppressing the negative effects of over-tourism. This Project was recognized as an example of good practice in destination management at the World Congress of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) in Krakow.

Mrs. Tepšić will join us with her presentation: Respect the City project. (Oct 9, Zagreb, 11:55)

Mrs. Barreal is founder and CEO of Riviera Maya Sostenible and co-creator of México Sostenible, as well as representative for Mexico and member of the Board of Directors of the World Council of Sustainable Tourism (GSTC). She has a great passion for sustainability and 25 years of experience in communication, branding and marketing in general. Her contributions to the development of the Riviera Maya as a model destination for sustainability have been remarkable, as its international positioning. She has a great organizational capacity that has been put at the service of numerous events, aimed at promoting the concept of sustainability in Mexico and the international. She has been the promoter and manager of the project that has made the Riviera Maya one of the 14 Early Adopters destinations at the global level of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria in 2014.

Mrs. Barreal will join us as a keynote speaker with her presentation: The Latinamerica Experience. (Oct 9, Zagreb, 11:00am)

Mrs. Santos de Cárdenas is a pioneer advocate specializing in sustainable tourism development and stewardship initiatives with community social responsibility at grassroots application. She has been a staunch innovator, keynote speaker and resource person in learning and capacity building workshops for sustainable tourism to include Ecotourism, Community-based and Agri-Tourism promotion. She was a consultant and adviser for Local Government Units (LGUs) in the Philippines and a founding board member of the Asian Ecotourism Network.

Mrs. Santos de Cárdenas will join us as a keynote speaker with her presentation: The Southeast Asian Experience (Oct 9, Zagreb 10:00am)

Since 2016, Mr. Cappelli is the Minister of Tourism of the Croatian Government and it has served as former Mayor of Mali Lošinj and President of the Tourist Board of Mali Lošinj. During his work at Mali Lošinj, he induced many activities regarding the destination management development at the island of Lošinj, Croatia as well as the Lošinj archipelago as a year-round destination. During his mandate, the Tourist Board in Mali Lošinj became an affiliate member of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and a full member of the UNWTO Knowledge Network.

Mr. Cappelli will join us at the Opening welcome.

Mr. Salman is a global sustainable tourism expert from the Netherlands, with an academic background in coastal ecology and environment. He established the QualityCoast Awards program(2007) and Green Destinations (2014), a non-profit organisation with expert partners in 30 countries. Together with partners he created the first Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100 competition, the Green Destinations Standard, and the online Green Destinations platform for sustainability and quality assessment, monitoring, reporting, and certification. The Top 100 Awards series is now the world’s largest programme recognizing and promoting destination sustainability, and the largest Awards programme of ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show. On a day-to-day basis, Mr. Salman is supporting destinations that are committed to sustainability.

Mr. Salman will join us:

• At the Opening Presentation from Green Destinations

• As a panelist for Attracting the Green Traveller panel with his presentation: The Green Travel Guide.

***) Conference fees can be waived to Green Destinations, Top 100 representatives or businesses that submit a Good Practice Story. The number of waivers is limited to 80. Priority will be given to GD Global Leaders, GD representatives, and GD Partners as well as to Top 100 destinations:

• that participate in a certification program using the Green Destinations Standard (incl. QualityCoast, Slovenia Green, Ecotourism Australia);
• whose Good practice story is selected for presentation (orally or as a poster) for the ITB Destination Awards competition.

*) Only for registered Green Destinations Representatives, Partners and auditors.

**) Only for Green Destinations Global Leaders, Representatives and selected Partners. Free for Global Leaders representing GL Network Members.

****) Limited capacity, invitation only. One representative of each 2019 Top 100 Destination is invited free of charge.