Leading the Way in Sustainable Tourism
Sustainability Leaders United guides your journey to become a leader in sustainable tourism. Explore destination showcases, gain insights from exclusive interviews with industry pioneers, and access expert insights from around the world.
Our global network connects you with specialists offering the latest knowledge and transformative strategies in travel and tourism. Be inspired by our recommended speakers who bring innovative ideas and critical observations to drive regenerative tourism development.
Established in 2014 by Dr. Florian Kaefer (Switzerland), SLU remains dedicated to fostering resilient tourism that benefits communities and the environment. Join our mission to shape a sustainable future in tourism and beyond.
Our Impact
Some of our milestones so far:
480+
impact makers featured
We believe in sharing stories, experiences and solutions. And we love to inspire and encourage tourism professionals to embrace sustainability.
From 79
countries
We take pride in connecting changemakers around the world, across borders, languages and cultures. We can all learn so much from each other!
Engagement
leaders
Over 20k professionals engage with Sustainability Leaders United on LinkedIn, share our posts and follow our newsletter. Ready to join?
Spotlight: Destinations
Central Coast, Australia
Explore Destination Central Coast in Australia in this sustainable tourism spotlight: how they promote sustainable development and engage business communities.
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Bhutan
Explore how Bhutan champions sustainable tourism development through its High Value, Low Volume policy, among other initiatives.
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West Sweden
Explore how West Sweden leads in sustainability, from Gothenburg's global acclaim to regional efforts.
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Flanders
Learn how Flanders blends heritage with sustainability: from green events to eco-friendly cruise strategies.
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Barbados
Discover Barbados, the up-and-coming sustainable destination with its deep-rooted culture.
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Finland
How destination Finland is taking concrete actions dedicated to preserving its natural resources and landscapes.
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Werfenweng
Join us on a tour through the Austrian village of Werfenweng, famed for its soft mobility concept.
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Parc Ela
Learn about the sustainable tourism strategy of Parc Ela, one of Switzerland’s most pristine regional nature parks.
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Basque Country
Meet the pioneers behind the sustainable tourism success story of the Basque Country in Northern Spain.
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Slovenia
Learn about Slovenia's award-winning destination strategy and its sustainable tourism changemakers.
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Barcelona
Barcelona is on a mission towards a more sustainable development as a tourist destination. Here's how they do it.
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Príncipe Island
The small African country São Tomé & Príncipe is a destination firmly committed to sustainable tourism. Read their story.
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Switzerland
Switzerland is a popular destination. But is its tourism sustainable? We took a closer look.
ExploreBook: Sustainability Leadership in Tourism
This professional guidebook highlights sustainable tourism development and management for businesses and destinations. It presents a unique collection of expert interviews, combined with latest insights and thoughts on the most relevant topics and trends linked to sustainability in tourism, sustainable business management, and destination development. This is a book which offers inspiring personal stories and reflections, and at the same time serves as essential know-how guide for busy tourism entrepreneurs, managers, and developers who care about business resilience and the well-being of destination communities.
Latest Impact Maker Stories
Meet the Who is Who in Sustainable Tourism
Saskia Griep of Better Places on Responsible Tourism and Climate-Conscious Travel
Saskia Griep of Better Places shares her vision for responsible tourism, and how to create meaningful travel experiences that benefit people and the planet.
Geoff Manchester of Intrepid Travel on Redefining Adventure Travel through Small-Group Tours
Geoff Manchester of Intrepid Travel on how sustainable tours and community initiatives create meaningful connections, while addressing climate and overtourism.
Antara Phookan on Advancing Sustainable Tourism in Assam and Bengal, India
Explore Antara Phookan’s journey in sustainable tourism and conservation in Assam and Bengal. Discover her challenges, rewards, and impactful initiatives.
Testimonials
Steve Noakes
Sustainability Leaders United fills a gap. It gives travellers, businesses, policy makers, students, NGOs, development agencies and others who might be interested, the opportunity to get an insight into ‘how’ and ‘what’ experienced players in the sustainable tourism field have done or are doing.
Karma Tshering
Sustainability Leaders United is a great platform to provide inspiration and give impetus to spreading sustainable tourism. Through its networking it is able to solicit information from experienced and visionary individuals and advocate it to strengthen the understanding and applications of sustainable tourism. This is truly a noble initiative and commitment from the team. Your efforts are highly commendable.
Palitha Gurusinghe
I think the work you are doing under Sustainability Leaders United is great! Highlighting sustainability leadership examples across the world is a great contribution. The interviews with key players in the sustainable tourism world are a great source of inspiration to the leaders in the tourism industry. Reading through the interviews one can learn very interesting and valuable facets about the sustainable tourism world.
Ary Suhandi
Simple and inspiring. Stories from inspiring people are very important. Considering all the negative events and actions in the world, we need to make people understand that there are still people with integrity and high spirits in keeping the world in good shape and harmony. I think it is our responsibility to spread news about these people to the global society; to inspire people to do the same in their own league, no matter how small it is.
James Crockett
It is great to have this resource to come to for inspiration and to reinforce your knowledge of others working towards sustainability within the travel industry. So many champions doing great work go unnoticed and it is helpful that some of the hardest working and most passionate devotees to this mission get highlighted here and their work and insights shared.
Jonathon Day
Sustainability Leaders United is incredibly important. First – it is inspirational! The stories of each of these leaders serve as an incredible testimony to what can be done. Secondly – it shines a light on the thinkers and doers and shows a global community of like-minded people. So many advocates of sustainable tourism work in their own fields – unaware of the other “fellow travellers” facing similar issues. SLP proves that no one is alone as they work to promote sustainability in the tourism system.
Anna Alaman
Sustainability Leaders United is one of these places where you feel proud to be part of it when you are selected. Some of the “gurus” in sustainability are featured here. It is a space to share experiences, learn from each other and to grow our responsible tourism network.
Kathleen Pessolano
Sustainability Leaders United is a valuable voice in the responsible tourism discussion. I read its incisive interviews and articles to learn about good practice examples, stay informed about colleagues’ work, and even find potential partners and collaborators.
Vik Nair
This is an excellent project to pool all of the experts in one platform. These experts can jointly collaborate to contribute more effectively in making this world more sustainable. Every destination has unique challenges and no one approach can solve these issues. Hence, only through smart collaboration can we be more effective in sharing our expertise globally (thinking globally but acting locally).
Theodota Nantsou
The stories and testimonials presented through the SLP spark hope that human ingenuity, coupled with good intentions is an endless source of solutions to the global environmental crisis. Very well presented and easy to read, not filled with the usual technical jargon but narrated in words that come from the heart of the sustainability leaders, SLP is a pool of valuable knowledge on how to build living economies.
Amran Hamzah, Ph.D
Sustainability Leaders United is an excellent platform for sustainable tourism champions to share their knowledge and experience in an informal and yet informative medium. The interview format allows for the sustainable tourism leaders to share their insights and even candid views as we search for novel solutions to long standing as well as emerging issues. What I like most about the format and questions posed is that they are thought provoking and yet grounded in pragmatism and hope.
Shannon Stowell
I’m honoured to be included in this hall of amazing people and hope that together we can make real differences in our own circles. It’s a real encouragement to see so many people sacrificing to make the world better.
Peter de Wilde
To give a platform to anyone who is contributing to more sustainable and more flourishing destinations is very valuable. Every new vision which contributes to a better industry and a better world, needs pioneers. Sustainability Leaders Uniteds inspires and broadens the network of engaged people.
Eduardo Santander
Sharing best practices and knowledge is an essential element to boost sustainable transformation and engage more businesses and destinations to follow this path. ETC highly values your inspiring work to create a network of sustainable leaders gathering all changemakers and I am personally delighted to have a chance to share our work and contribute with my views!
Les Carlisle
Sustainability Leaders United is definitely one of the strong initiatives needed to assist with future-proofing all remote tourism operations, for people and organisations to collaborate, learn from each other and pool resources to make a real difference.
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