Khalisah Stevens

Tag: travel

  • Speaking at the MALT Congress in AD

    Speaking at the MALT Congress in AD

    At the beginning of February 2024, I was invited by QnA International to speak at the 12th Annual Meetings Arabia & Luxury Travel (MALT) Congress hosted in Abu Dhabi.

    The talk was titled “Sustainable Wellness: Enriching Luxury Travel Experiences with Environmental Consciousness” and I was one of three panel speakers on this “Sustainability & Wellness Tourism Panel” slated for the 29th of February 2024.

    From left to right: Nadia Swan from ARN, myself, Tiffany McGrath from Sustainability Kiosk, and Samir Mehta from Desert Adventures Tourism.

    These panel discussions often fly by and I feel like we barely got to scratch the surface of what sustainability in luxury tourism really looks like, but it was an interesting conference nonetheless and I got to meet some great people: Souhilla Taarabit spoke about managing travel for a large group company with multiple verticals, and in our side chats I learned of the ways she was also making responsible travel choices to lower the group’s overall travel footprint. I met with Eva Lydia Mpanga from NKURINGO SAFARIS, a Ugandan safari travel company and owner of a luxury safari lodge which looked lush AF. The team from Sands Macao and Macao tourism were really fun to speak with (of course we bonded over our shared Asian foodie culture immediately – a happy group of Portuguese tarts if there ever was one).

    Overall it was a good event, it was good to have a peek at the luxury travel sector in the Middle East and learn about the trends and forecasts for this region.

    On a different but parallel note, it is still strange to work, travel, and behave as though massacres and mass starvation aren’t happening on the other side of the region. As Ramadan looms closer, I hope and pray for an immediate ceasefire soon 🍉🕊🙏

  • Introducing UOWD business students to sustainable tourism

    Introducing UOWD business students to sustainable tourism

    I spoke with Dr. Norhayati’s business class at the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) last about destination management and sustainable tourism. Dr. Norhayati designed a series of guest lectures for her capstone business courses where experts in different industries talk about how they’re integrating sustainability in their work. From social entrepreneur, sustainable finance/accounting and fashion, I joined as the sustainable tourism guest lecturer.

    Watch the talk here

    (video password: 4xHW32DB)

    I love how she’s captured the intersecting and all-encompassing nature of sustainability across the different industries for her students, as that’s something I wish I was exposed to more as a bachelors student.

    Because Dr. Norhayati gave me a generous time slot to go over the subject matter (and because her students were already familiar with many of the concepts of sustainability), I had fun organizing the talk to move from the current state of affairs into what I’m trying to do at the GDS-Movement.

    The overview of my talk

    I tried to drive home the message that tourism doesn’t have to be this awful thing that happens to beautiful fragile places that displace and exploits locals and their land, but that tourism could be a source of equity and good stewardship if properly managed and monitored.

    This is a topic that’s been researched and discussed extensively and exhaustively, but I still approach the idea with awe that instead of feeling guilty or forcefully turning a blind eye on your impact during your travels, perhaps your trips could actually leave a place better than you found it. I love the idea of travellers being welcomed and made to feel at home, and mutual respect and dignity are shown between both locals and visitors. This does happen on occasion, of course, but in my experience, the sad reality tends to skew more towards disrespectful and unaware tourists littering and disturbing disenfranchised locals. It’s an awful feeling to see (particularly in Bali or Thailand) waiters or bus drivers swallow their discontent as they see their jobs through in serving a boisterous group of unaware travellers. Seeing the inequity in Asian destinations and the negative impacts of tourism in my home country of Malaysia is what put me on the path of sustainable tourism in the first place (I may write more about this in another post).

    Tourism as a force for good

    You can watch the talk here. Password 4xHW32DB