Voluntourism Panel

Voluntourism Panel Partner

Planeterra is TIES Voluntourism Partner. Through local organizations, international charities, and travel industry partners, Planeterra has developed a network of 30+ community projects around the world that focus on health, education, community development, micro-enterprise, conservation and employment skills training.

Voluntourism Panel Speakers

Richard Edwards
Director, Planeterra Foundation, TIES Board Member & ESTC 2010 Co-Chair

Richard is the Director of Planeterra, a non-profit dedicated to supporting sustainable community development through travel, where he is responsible for the overall direction of the organization and creating ways to better link travelers and local communities around the globe. Planeterra was founded by Gap Adventures, where Richard is a member of the executive management team, helping to oversee the company’s rapid growth and partnerships with high profile brands such as Discovery Communications, Expedia and STA Travel.

David Clemmons
Founder, Voluntourism.org

David has written extensively on the subject over the last decade - including a quarterly, "The VolunTourist Newsletter," "The VolunTourist Weekly Review," and the "VolunTourism.org Blog." During that same period, he has conducted hundreds of interviews with stakeholders - community residents, voluntourism practitioners, NGOs, academics, and, of course, voluntourists. Voluntourists are of particular interest to him; he has been researching the motivations and expectations of potential voluntourists with his colleagues, Dr. Nancy McGehee and John Lee of Virginia Tech University, since 2007.

Andy Woods-Ballard
Director of Operations, Global Vision International

Andy has worked in America and Scotland with marine mammals; and extensively in the tropics studying lemurs and a range of freshwater, sub-tidal, inter-tidal and coastal habitats and species in Zambia, Tanzania and Madagascar. Using Participatory Appraisal techniques he has aided the interaction of local peoples and protected area managers. Andy has experience working internationally with non-profit and commercial, governmental and non-governmental organisations through the set-up and successful continuation of various projects. When he moved from Mexico back to the UK at the end of 2005, he had run 19 expeditions in the field.

Susan Bryant Thomas
Vice President, Visitor & Convention Bureau Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce

Home to one of the nation’s first environmentally-sensitive planned communities, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina was way ahead of the curve when it came to Green. Today it’s a model for preserving the beauty and tranquility of an island paradise while continuing to thrive as one of America’s premier tourism destinations.