Paula Vlamings

What makes Paula Vlamings a Global Shaker?

Paula Vlamings is Chief Impact Officer at Tourism Cares, an organisation that aims to unite the travel industry to advance its social and environmental impact.

On LinkedIn she describes herself as an “executive-level professional in social enterprise and sustainability with diverse skills in sustainable tourism, community investment, environmental conservation and women’s empowerment issues.” She adds that her specialities are cross-sector collaboration and community engagement.

The organisation is a member of the Future of Tourism movement, and has its own ‘meaningful travel’ platform — an online educational tool created as a business to business digital training and resource tool to support travel companies’ sustainability practices.

Photo on Tourism Cares Facebook page

At the same time, Vlamings is the founder of Prosper360, a consultancy founded to create a “full circle of prosperity within the travel economy,” which includes travelers, communities, tourism and hospitality providers, and the planet. The organisation creates partnerships and implementation strategies to build and scale mission-driven programmes, with clients including the Belize Tourism Ministry and the Institute at the Golden Gate.

Before this, she spent just over two years travelling from San Francisco to Tierra Del Fuego in Argentina, documenting the trip in a blog called OurBiggerPicture.

Her career has always taken her through travel organisations. Between 2010 and May 2014 she was Executive Director of Planeterra, the nonprofit foundation of global travel company G Adventures, which connects social enterprises to the tourism marketplace with catalyst funding and a market link for small businesses supporting women, youth and indigenous communities.

Tourism Cares partner, Fundación Cortés. Photo on Tourism Cares Facebook page

Previous to this, she was policy development director at the Presidio Trust, which is charged with managing the 1,191 acre urban national park in San Francisco, and then Director of Programme Development at the Institute at the Golden Gate.

She holds a degree in Political Science from Virginia Tech, and a Master of Public Policy and Administration from California State University Sacramento.

Last updated: September 26, 2020

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