Adventure Travel World Summit Wrap-up: Beyond Sustainability?

On Tuesday the World Summit drew to a close with a keynote address from futurist, Thornton May. It was a barn-burner of a presentation with comedy, story telling, small group breakouts, and audience participation. The up-shot of Thornton’s message was that we need to “choose” our future. We need to develop a vision of what a future would look like and that will be what we get.

When I look at Thornton’s message in the context of what seemed to be the “hot” topic at the Summit I see a dichotomy. The sessions that seemed to attract the most people and had people talking were those focusing on the issue of sustainability. I’m not opposed to sustainability, but “choosing our future” is aspirational. Sustainability leaves me flat.

I looked up the word sustainable just to be sure that I understood the word. The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides the following definition:

sustainable: 1 : capable of being sustained 2 a : of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged b : of or relating to a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods

Sustainability seems like it is what the adventure travel industry must do to exist as an industry, but it is a pretty low bar if we want to move toward a vision of the future. I believe that the industry very quickly needs to move to a bigger vision. Why is adventure important? Why travel? What is the greater good to be realized? If adventure travel just exists to make money and “do no harm” then there is no future.

To me a better future is one that revolves around aspiration and accessibility. A great future for the adventure travel industry would be one that is inclusive. There would be huge market growth because we’d be relevant. It would be a future where the place visited is better for our having been there. It would be a future that isn’t just about a place, but it’s about people.

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director