Planeterra, Global Community Development Non-Profit, Named Premium Sponsor of CSR Day at World’s Largest Travel Convention
Toronto, ON – Leaders in the tourism industry will gather in Berlin, Germany, this week to present progress in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within the travel industry at ITB Berlin, the world’s largest tourism convention.
March 10, 2011 is officially CSR Day at ITB and a number of industry notables will step to the stage, including Peter Liney, CEO of STA Travel, Leilani Latimer, Director, Sustainability Initiatives at Sabre Holdings, and Erika Harms, Senior Advisor at the United Nations Foundation.
Planeterra, the global non-profit dedicated to sustainable community development through travel, has returned as Premium Sponsor of the day, motivated by the positive steps the industry is taking toward including the social aspect of tourism development in future planning.
“Two years ago I stood in front of the CSR Day audience in Berlin and issued a challenge to the industry to increase the importance of the well-being of communities and local people in tourism development. Today, I believe those communities are beginning to receive proper consideration,” says Richard G. Edwards, Senior Advisor for Planeterra.
“Our attendance at that 2009 ITB Berlin CSR Day introduced us to Erika Harms, who is now Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), an organization through which we are proud to be promoting a common language for sustainability in tourism. It insists on equal weight for environmental concerns and the potential benefits and issues faced by local communities and people in the processes of development related to tourism,” says Edwards. He sits on the Executive Board of the GSTC.