What you'll learn
- Learn about sustainability culture – how to make a great travel experiences and adventures which brings meaningful new knowledge.
- Learn how encounters with wildlife can be both life changing and ethical if approached with respect and dignity.
- Study the most important topics of equality, diversity, and inclusion.
- Master practical methods of conscious and meaningful travel.
Requirements
- No previous experience needed. You will learn everything you need to know.
Description
This course offers current and future tourism professionals, as well as all travellers, an opportunity to learn and rethink a contextual approach to travel.
We will discuss the necessity for a common set of ethical values and regulations, expressed in a concise form – The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.
We will learn about sustainability culture – how to make a great travel experiences and adventures which brings meaningful new knowledge.
We will find out how encounters with wildlife can be both life changing and ethical if approached with respect and dignity.
We will study the most important topics of equality, diversity, and inclusion. Travel and tourism integrity should be based on a proactively promoted culture of sustainability.
Ultimately, this Ethics of Travel course will teach you practical methods of conscious and meaningful travel.
What makes a great travel experience? When your adventures bring meaningful new knowledge and leave an indelible, intelligent, sensual imprint. To achieve this, travellers and their travel advisors may have to change. We all will have to invest more time in learning about the history of travel destinations and the circumstances of the people living there. Ultimately, we should think much more about how to travel consciously.
Who this course is for:
- All travellers who seek conscious and meaningful travel adventures.
- Current and future travel and tourism professionals, who want to build a sustainable travel business.
Instructor
Aldis Kušķis has been involved in the travel industry for more than 20 years. Starting with managing an around-the-world sailing project at the turn of the century, to defending the interests of the European tourism industry and its citizens on the Committee on Transport and Tourism as a Member of the European Parliament 2004–09, he is now an extremely well-connected travel designer creating tailor-made itineraries for cultural adventurers and sophisticated travellers.
Aldis was born in 1965 in Riga, the capital of Latvia. His structured and logical thinking was nurtured and polished at Riga’s 1st Gymnasium (the oldest school in the Baltic states, which traces its origins to the Riga Dom School, founded in 1211), renowned for its specialisation in mathematics. The heady revolutionary times, when Latvia regained its independence in 1991 were also very creative times. Together with other DJs, Aldis formed the first pirate radio station in Latvia. Producing and managing music and arts festivals was a natural progression. Other projects followed, including publishing the first “city magazine” in the Baltics and managing the production company that produced Latvia’s most popular TV talk show of the 2000s. As founder and owner of a number of marketing communications businesses, he managed numerous projects in transatlantic locations from Chicago to London to Stockholm, and helped transform a single advertising agency into a network of thirty companies in five European countries.
Aldis’ process management and oratorical skills proved very useful when he entered politics and was elected to the Latvian Parliament – Saeima – where he specialised in relations with the European Union and the OSCE. After election to the European Parliament, he served on the Environment Committee, worked for the sustainability of maritime transport, and was active on the Transport & Tourism Committee where he worked in close cooperation with the tourism umbrella organisation ECTAA – The European Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators.
Returning to private business in 2009, he established a successful destination management company, which has since designed countless tailor-made itineraries for American, Brazilian, British, and European travellers to the Baltic States and Scandinavia. At the same time, he also served as the Vice President of the Latvian Association of Travel Agents and Operators and the Chairman of the National Tourism Board of Latvia, leading one of the best tourism destination brands – “Latvia – Best enjoyed slowly.” His most recent venture, STAGINGS Travel Design, serves Latvia’s top travelling families as well as many other demanding travellers from all over Europe. He attributes part of his success to strong partnerships with the world’s leading hospitality and travel business brands, like Belmond, Aman, A&K, etc.