Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Heritage

Hamdan Abdul Majeed is the Managing Director of Think City, a social purpose organization that provides policy advice for urban development, management and implementation of sustainable solutions. He advocates for change in city planning, using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework.

He is interested in imagining more human-centred, resilient and livable cities. He has implemented the public grants programme for regeneration of George Town, Malaysia, part of the World Heritage site Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca and today a popular destination for cultural tourism in the region.

As a young leader in urban development and city transformation, Abdul Majeed received an Eisenhower Fellowship for his work in 2012 and was recognized at the World Cities Summit in 2014.

Michael Pinksy is an interdisciplinary artist who incorporates art, urban planning, environment and social well-being to respond innovatively to current world challenges. His large-scale thought-provoking installations are often shown in public spaces, casting a critical eye on how we use the public realm.

He is best known for his project ‘Pollution Pods’, which has toured the world. It was listed on Artnet’s ‘100 Works of Art That Defined the Decade‘ and included by Connaissance des Arts in the top 10 artworks that engage with climate change.

He has received awards from the RSA, Arts Council England, British Council, Arts and Business and the Wellcome Trust. His exhibition ‘Pontis’ was shortlisted for the Gulbenkian Museums Award.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel is the Director of the Archeological Park of Pompeii. Having studied classical archaeology, prehistory and Greek philology, he was part of the Great Pompeii Project, an Italian government and EU-funded initiative that began in 2012.

Since his appointment as Director in 2021, Zuchtriegel is leading the site’s ‘rebirth’. He uses innovative technology to restore Pompeii and limit climate change impact. He examines Pompeii’s history from the perspective of gender, race and class and explores its complex social stratification.

Previously, he served as director of the archaeological park and museum of Paestum, another UNESCO World Heritage site. In 2019, he was awarded the Ravenna Festival prize.

Doris Maria Woerfel is a South African tourism expert with more than 20 years of experience in tourism development and marketing. She empowers disadvantaged communities across Africa to harness domestic, regional and international tourism source markets.

She is a co-founder and Managing Director of the African Tourism Council, an NGO specialized in reinforcing the African tourism industry through capacity-building and entrepreneurship development of youth, women and community.

She was previously CEO of the Southern Cross Foundation, which promotes heritage-based tourism in Africa. Under her leadership, the organization consolidated the Heritage Routes network and provided research, capacity and leadership projects and heritage e-learning programmes.

Bruce Yerkovich is a Croatian-American biophysicist and bioinformatics scientist. He is dedicated to promoting sustainable tourism and environmental protection in Croatia. In 2008 Yerkovich founded Linden Tree Retreat & Ranch, a sustainable wilderness retreat and horse ranch in the Northern Velebit Mountain and National Park. The Ranch works closely with park authorities and the local community to develop sustainable tourism practices in the area.

Yerkovich has a doctorate in quantum biophysics. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Zadar in Croatia and worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Merck. His interconnected knowledge of conscious energy and ecosystems has enriched his sustainable tourism practices. His Linden Tree Retreat & Ranch initiative has received global recognition, including the Excellence Award from TripAdvisor.

Aubin Arroyo Aubin Arroyo is a mathematician and a researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He specializes in reflection theory and is passionate about finding connections between mathematics and art.

Arroyo is a firm believer that art can be used to interpret the mathematical concept of ‘inversion of the sphere’. He also explores how art can be used to communicate messages from diverse disciplines that may not otherwise be easily accessible.

He collaborated with renowned French artist Jean Michel Othoniel to create the ‘Wild Knot’ exhibition, shown in Argentina and France. A winner of the MathLapse Festival 2016, the artwork adopted ‘knot theory’, embodying a new connection between art and mathematics.

He served as a tutor for the 2019 Art, Science and Technology programme of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts. He was also in charge of the Mathematical Imaginary exhibition that is now part of the permanent exhibition in the Science Museum of the National Autonomous University.

Jana Apih is the Managing Director of GoodPlace Factory of Sustainable Tourism in Ljubljana, one of the greenest cities in the world. She specializes in marketing, strategic planning of tourism development, and implementation of sustainable practices.

GoodPlace Factory of Sustainable Tourism is a non-profit institute dedicated to promoting the development of sustainable tourism in Slovenia. Under Apih’s leadership, the organization has received support from both the Tourism Ministry and the Tourism Board.

Based on globally established criteria, the project provides destinations and tourism businesses with a concrete tool to assess and improve their sustainability performance. Since 2015, more than 100 destinations and suppliers have joined the Slovenia Green programme.

Jascivan Carvalho is an Ecuadorian-Brazilian social entrepreneur, expedition tour operator, and CEO of Ecuador Sustainable Travel. With more than 25 years’ experience in tourism, he is committed to promoting indigenous community-based sustainable tourism in the Amazon and Galapagos.

Carvalho leads Tropic, an expedition tour operator that fosters positive impact on well-being and livelihoods, and protection of natural and cultural heritage. Tropic works with the Huaorani indigenous community in the remote Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. The company, which received National Geographic’s World Legacy Award for ‘Engaging Communities’ in 2015, currently offers its first community-based tourism programme on Floreana Island in the Galapagos.

Carvalho is also passionate about empowering small community-based tourism. He initiated Waponi, a business incubator for small communities in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia to provide market access and skills for ecotourism.

Kamal Mouzawak is a chef, food activist and founder of Souk El Tayeb. He has a deep interest in empowering Lebanese communities through food. He is committed to promoting sustainable agriculture, supporting rural producers, preserving diverse culinary heritage and uniting people around gastronomy.

Mouzawak created Souk El Tayeb – an innovative social enterprise to encourage sustainable culinary practices with low environmental impact and cross-community engagement – in 2004. It started as Lebanon’s first farmers' market and has grown into an influential organization with a wide range of national and international projects pursuing the preservation of Lebanese food traditions and strengthening of Lebanese communities. Mouzawak also opened Tawlet, a farmers’ kitchen and collaborative restaurant.

He received the Prince Claus award in 2016 and most recently the Foodics Icon Award from Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022.

Kotchakorn Voraakhom is a Thai landscape architect, CEO of Porous City Network and founder of Landprocess. She is dedicated to bringing social and environmental transformation by building green public spaces.

Having observed the impact of the rising sea level on her hometown, Voraakhom established the landscape architecture design firm Landprocess. She and her team produce carbon-sequestering landscapes by using sustainable materials and adopting sustainable construction practices. She also founded Porous City Network, which increases the resilience of climate-vulnerable communities across Southeast Asia by building productive landscape design. Porous works to identify solutions to naturally reduce the impacts of flooding and increase urban resilience in the region.

Voraakhom is the winner of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Award and one of BBC’s ‘100 Women in 2020’. TIME magazine included her on its ‘TIME 100 Next’ list in 2019, along with 15 other women fighting against climate change.