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Martha Honey

Co-Founder and Director Emeritus

Center for Responsible Travel (CREST)

POSITION

Co-Founder and Director Emeritus

COMPANY

Center for Responsible Travel (CREST)

COUNTRY

United States

SCENE

Social

SOCIAL

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What makes Martha Honey a Global Shaker?

Martha Honey is Co-Founder and Director Emeritus of the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), based in Washington, DC.

CREST is a policy-oriented research organisation dedicated to increasing the positive global impact of responsible tourism. It works with governments, policy makers, non profit organisations, international agencies and tourism businesses to find solutions to critical issues confronting tourism.

It recognises tourism’s potential as a tool of poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. It was set up by Honey and Bill Durham, a Stanford Professor of Anthropology and a MacArthur ‘genius’ fellow. Honey was named one of the world’s top 10 eco-travel “watchdogs” by Conde Nast Traveler.

CREST notes that tourism is the world’s largest employer, accounting for one in 10 jobs globally. It’s the main foreign exchange earner for 83% of developing countries.

But alongside this, the organisation says the tourism industry has “suffered from a lack of thoughtful scrutiny and attention,” in public debate and cutting edge research and analysis.

“Responsible travel is no longer the goal of ecotourism alone, it must be embraced by the entire travel industry,” CREST writes on its website. “In this era of climate change, responsible travel is not an option, but an imperative. Given this reality, CREST remains committed to its original vision to transform the way the world travels.”

Over the last two decades, Honey has written and lectured widely on ecotourism, impact tourism, cruise and resort tourism, climate change, and certification issues.

Her books include Coastal Tourism, Sustainability, and Climate Change in the Caribbean (Vol. 1 & 2), Marine Tourism, Climate Change, and Resilience in the Caribbean (Vol. 1 & 2), Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? and Ecotourism and Certification: Setting Standards in Practice.

She has been an editor and author of a study on cruise ship tourism in the Caribbean, and worked for 20 years as a journalist in East Africa and Central America. She holds a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

Tags: Responsible Tourism, Sustainable Travel, tourism

Last updated: September 25, 2020