Pack for a Purpose™ is a newly founded non-profit organization dedicated to providing needed educational materials and medical supplies to children around the world. The organization was founded on the principal that every little bit helps, and all it takes to get involved is to use a small amount space in your luggage for supplies when packing for a trip abroad. The concept is simple, and getting involved is easy. The Pack for a Purpose website lists, by country, the contact information for lodges around the world already supporting legitimate educational and medical community projects, and their specific needs based on the projects they sponsor.

Daniela Ruby Papi, PEPY Tours – Our goal is that people who join us on a trip will be inspired to live, travel and give differently after their trip to Cambodia. We aim to expose travelers to the people and ideas that are having the most impact on the issues we are looking to effect change in: education, the environment, and health. We focus less on service and more on learning, and like to look at our trips as edu-ventures: educational adventures which allow travelers to support projects, programs, and people we believe in.

Danielle Weiss, Planeterra Foundation – My first volunteer experience was a two-month solo trip to the Middle East when I was 19 where I divided my time between volunteering on a kibbutz and travelling throughout Israel and Egypt. This first experience enabled me to make lasting friendships with local people, gain an in-depth knowledge of their daily life, and build the confidence to know that I could travel alone as a single woman.

In recent years, increased tourism in the Park, infrastructure development, electricity lines and mobile phone stations has becoming the case of uncontrolled littering around the camps set-up for visitors and at scenic spots, selected for picnics or camping. Over 90% of he garbage disposed of improperly in the park are done so by Mongolian visitors and Mongolian employees of the visitors camps. Up to date, there is practically no non-biodegradable products that are produced in Mongolia: virtually all plastics and other polluting elements are imported.

Wild Asia is looking to hear from accommodation operators from across Asia (big or small, privately run or community driven). The awards, now in its fourth year is one of the only Responsible Tourism awards driven by Asians, and aims to support the creation of sustainable destinations in Asia. All entries are screened by Wild Asia’s team using a self-assessment checklist (aligned with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria) and all finalists are visited by a team of fact-finders.

Boundless Journeys’ annual charity event incorporates meaningful community service into an amazing travel adventure. Boundless Journeys’ August 2-9, 2009 Peru: The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu trip serves as a special charity event to benefit the Instituto Machu Picchu and a community school in the village of Huanca. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Peru and its iconic archeological site, Machu Picchu, but very few visitors get off the beaten path and truly connect with the people and places they are there to experience.

Tourism Australia, Tourism Queensland and Gold Coast Tourism are staging the seventh National Conference on Tourism Futures from 17-19 August 2009 at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa, the Gold Coast. The Conference takes a forward perspective on the industry, looking out over a ten year timeframe and examining opportunities and issues for the future. The 2009 conference theme is ‘Redefining the Future’ and will examine the ‘over the horizon’ trends and opportunities that are reshaping the future of Australian tourism.

“Without tourism, the Pantanal (in South America), the world’s largest wetland, would have just turned into a major cattle feed-lot for McDonald’s” – Costas Christ, at the International Symposium on Sustainable Tourism Development. Highlighting the roles of tourism in supporting and promoting conservation, this article discusses the social, economic and environmental sustainability of travel and tourism, noting that “the very essence of tourism is selling culture and nature, and those must be protected or there will be no industry.”

“The Maasai of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba—two of the oldest cattle cultures on earth—are emerging from a century of ‘white man’s conservation,’ which turned their lands into off-limits game reserves. Now, with a new model of conservation, wildlife is back in their hands and the tribes are vying for a piece of the ecotourism pie. But can poachers become protectors?” On April 7, the Emmy Award-winning PBS series INDEPENDENT LENS presents David Simpson’s MILKING THE RHINO, which examines the deepening conflict between humans and animals in an ever-shrinking world.

Jamaica for Sale, a documentary about tourism & unsustainable development, takes a sharp look at the environmental, economic, and social impacts of tourism such as: degraded water quality and shoreline habitats, depleted marine species, poorly regulated large-scale development that relies on low-wage, unskilled local labor, and uncontrolled development of an industry that leads to inflation in land and housing prices, and consumes large amounts of local natural resources.