Earth Changers, Vicky Smith, London, UK

I’m the founder of Earth Changers, a startup and curated collection of positive impact tourism, launched in 2017 and accepted by UNWTO as a solution for tourism for sustainable development. We promote life-changing places with world-changing people for extra-ordinary experiences with purpose. Voted Travelmole UK Best Responsible Travel & Tourism website 2019, and Ambassador for UK Government Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Year of Green Action 2019.

I’ve worked in tourism since 1995, managing tour operations in mountain destinations, and in web development, marketing and ecommerce since 1999 including more mass market tourism, for online agents, aggregators and media. Witnessing the negative impacts, I moved into sustainable tourism from 2006, consulting in volunteer tourism, charity challenges, safari, conservation and for destinations sustainable tourism and marketing strategy.

I’m a qualified ranger in Southern Africa, have a Masters in Responsible Tourism Management with an acclaimed thesis on the marketing and greenwashing of volunteer tourism, and have been recognised as one of the UK’s top 100 social enterprise women in the NatWest/Pioneers Post WISE100 2019 and 2020.

www.earth-changers.com  | https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicky-smith/