CATO Partners With Tourism Cares
The Canadian Association of Tour Operators has announced a strategic partnership with Tourism Cares to collaborate, educate, and advance sustainable tourism.
Tourism Cares is a non-profit organization that advances the travel industry’s positive impact to help people and places thrive. The organization mobilizes the travel industry to use its business as a force for good by uniting, activating, and inspiring all sectors to make a positive impact through travel.
This strategic alliance between CATO and Tourism Cares will propel these organizations’ shared mission to support and advance sustainable tourism.
Brett Walker, CATO Chairman, said: “At CATO, we strongly support the efforts of Tourism Cares to advance the travel industry’s social and environmental impact to help people and places thrive. We know there is strength in partnership, and we must unite to create positive contributions towards responsible, sustainable travel.”
And Walker added: “This partnership with Tourism Cares is a natural extension of the causes we support and I look forward to the impact we will collectively make in the tourism industry.”
For almost 20 years, Tourism Cares has empowered the travel industry with tools, resources, and opportunities to address global challenges and empower sustainable travel around the world.
This includes convening the industry with Meaningful Travel Summits around the world, accompanied by Meaningful Travel Maps (custom-made for each destination that hosts a Meaningful Travel Summit), which are made to help tour operators and travel advisors incorporate sustainable businesses and services into their itineraries.
This partnership announcement comes at an opportune time with an upcoming Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Summit in Victoria, British Columbia taking place on Sept. 28 to Sept. 30, 2022.
The summit will bring together North American industry representatives, including airlines, DMO’s, hotels, tour operators, and travel agents. Through facilitated education sessions, visits to meaningful travel experiences and volunteering, attendees will learn from environmental and Indigenous groups on how we can be better destination stewards for all to thrive.
CATO representatives attending include Brett Walker (Collette) CATO Chairman, Stephanie Bishop (Avalon/Globus family of brands) CATO Vice-Chair, and Emma Cottis (Goway).
Emma Cottis, General Manager Business Systems for Goway, a long-time supporter of Tourism Cares, said: “We are all responsible to ensure that the people and places that we visit are positively impacted, not only at the economic level, but also environmentally and socially.”
Cottis continued: “Tourism Cares provides a community and resources to ensure that travel is a force for good, and events such as the Summit in Victoria provide an opportunity to collaborate with our peers.”
Registration for the Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Summit is still open but those interested in attending are encouraged to register as soon as possible.
For more, go to https://www.tourismcares.org/victoria-summit.
For more on CATO, go to www.cato.ca or www.TourismCares.org .
