The Tourism RESET

This is the first episode of 'Bred To Entertain' a three-part series with World Animal Protection dedicated to captive wildlife in tourism.

My guests today are Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach and Sarah Blaine. Jan is Director of Wildlife Research and Veterinary Expertise at World Animal Protection, holds a PhD in diagnosing health issues in Asian elephants, and has led the most comprehensive assessment to date of Thailand's captive elephant industry.

Sarah co-founded Mahouts Elephant Foundation in 2015 and has dedicated her life to the welfare of elephants. Her foundation directly partners with Karen indigenous communities, empowering them with the tools they need to support their families and their elephants in their home village.

Bred To Entertain is the latest report across 15 years of research, which highlights that conditions for elephants have barely shifted since 2019, even as the number of captive elephants in tourism grows.

• Check out World Animal Protection's Bred to Entertain report here.
• Find out more about Sarah's work and the Mahouts Elephant Foundation here.

The book recommendations from this episode:

• Travels on My Elephant: Mark Shand
• A Voyage For Mad Men: Peter Nichols

Beyond these conversations, you can deep-dive into expert-led Masterclasses, or dip your toe in with the 5-minute RESET series, over on thetourismreset.com. Create your learning dashboard today. Zero barriers to expertise.

50 episodes of The Tourism Reset and we're marking the milestone with a big topic and a very special guest.

My guest today, Gopinath Parayil has spent over 20 years asking one question: how do we create a better place to live? He's the founder of travel company Blue Yonder, an award winning travel company founded in 2004 in Kerala India.

His business and team have been first responders across major climate disasters for over two decades - the Kerala floods, the Nepal earthquake, and Cyclone Aila.

"It's high time that this $10 trillion humanitarian potential of tourism industry is unleashed." Gopi

As disasters hit more destinations, more often, Gopi's case is simple: this isn't a problem that's going away. It's a direct threat to business continuity, wherever you operate. And it's not just about responding once disaster strikes - Gopi argues tourism has a role to play at every stage: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

This conversation is about what that actually looks like on the ground, what agency means in practice, and why tourism's $10 trillion economy might be the most underused resource in building resilience today.

Here's what stayed with me long after this conversation

🌍 Why a dying river and the loss of his father became the starting point for a completely different way of building and running a travel business

🌍 How a village of flood-damaged saris became a doll, a global movement, and $132,000 raised - without a single cent of it being donated and why that matters

🌍 Why Gopi's team trained 1,500 people to swim - and how it became part of a wider disaster-response system

Episode 50 is powered by Tiger Mountain Pokhara (Nepal), one of The Tourism Reset's partners helping keep expert-led insights and solutions open access for all, zero barriers for travel pros and business owners around the world to get in the know.

Find out more about Blue Yonder here.

Enjoyed this episode? Explore The Masterclasses from the industry's leading experts and discover stories that invite in fresh thinking over at thetourismreset.com. On-demand. Accessible for All. Zero barriers to access.

25 Antarctic tour guides walked away from careers they'd spent years earning, and a place they loved. Not because the work dried up. Not because they changed their minds. Because of what they witnessed on the ice.

My guest today, Dr. Elizabeth Cooper, set out to find out why people were choosing to leave the industry. What she uncovered is an inconvenient truth about Antarctic tourism - one that directly undercuts the ambassadorship narrative the industry relies on, exposes the self-governance, and reveals the realities of life for the species that call it home since tourism moved in.

Here's what stayed with me after this conversation...

🌍 The tipping points that made 25 Antarctic guides leave the tourism industry for good

🌍 The real cost of a trip to Antarctica & why the sustainability narrative doesn't hold up

🌍 What happened next when a guide flagged an endangered fish on the ship's menu

🌍 What Liz says real care looks like - and why it has nothing to do with visiting at all

Liz's book recommendation - 'Slow down or die' by Timothée Parrique.

To find out more about the research mentioned in this episode visit Science Direct - search 'Mind the gaps: The moral journey of tour guides who quit' or click here.

Enjoyed this episode? Explore 40+ Masterclasses from the industry's leading minds and discover stories often missing within the industry over at thetourismreset.com. On-demand. Accessible for All.

Migration. Present in the places and destinations tourism operates in and sends travellers to. Tourism relies on the idea of freedom of movement - so what happens when those two worlds collide?

This story began as one man's dream to cross what he calls "one of the last remaining wildernesses." It became something else entirely. The story of a family's fight to survive.

My guest today is Rasmus Krath, a Danish filmmaker and adventurer who has spent his career in places most people won't go - from pirate territory in Somalia to conflict zones in Afghanistan.

In his latest film Rasmus spent six days filming a family crossing one of the world's most dangerous migration routes - crossing the notorious Darién Gap jungle, a vast area between Colombia and Panama.

Here's what stayed with me after this conversation...

🌍 Why Rasmus stopped traveling "to see places" & started traveling to bring back stories

🌍 His words: "Migrants travel, adventurers travel. So why not travel with migrants?"

🌍 Passport privilege and the missing impact opportunities for the tourism industry

🌍 The moment tourism and migration sit side by side and what that contrast brings up

You can watch the trailer for the film on Vimeo or Youtube. Search 'WHO OWNS THE STORY OF MIGRATION? To support the film you can donate, follow Rasmus on Linkedin for the links.

Enjoyed this episode? Explore 40+ Masterclasses from the industry's leading minds at thetourismreset.com. Video-first. On-demand. Zero barriers to access. Create your login today to gain access. Designed for tourism pros, hospitality teams and travel businesses.

If community tourism is part of your business, if community impact matters to you in the places you operate, or if you publish impact reports - this episode is for you.

My guest today is Ewan Cluckie, co-founder of Tripseed, a majority locally-owned, women-owned DMC based in Thailand. Tripseed recently became the first tourism operator in Asia to receive the Fair Tax Mark and is the first business anywhere in the world certified under the Fair Tax Foundation's new standard.

Here's what stayed with me after this conversation...

🌍 Why zero leakage is not the goal and why not all economic leakage is so called 'bad'

🌍 Why some "community impact" claims are, in Ewan's words, "nonsense" - and what it would take to know if yours holds up

🌍 Why economic leakage remains the BIG elephant in the tourism industry - going unnoticed, missing from impact reports, conferences and boardrooms

🌍 What Ewan discovered behind the scenes of some of the leading sustainability certifications and that made him walk away from B Corp

Coming to The Tourism Reset an on-demand Masterclass dedicated to this topic, packed with further insights, leading expertise and practical tools for your business, plus real-world case studies to get inspired from. Create your login today to gain access when it lands.

Enjoyed this episode? Explore 40+ Masterclasses from the industry's leading minds at thetourismreset.com. Video-first. On-demand. Access for All.

What's behind a hotel lobby that invites in a full-body exhale from its guests, and another that does the opposite? The answer? Already written into their nervous systems and missing entirely from most business strategies and ROI docs.

My guest today is Dr. Willy Legrand, Professor, author, and speaker based in Germany, where he's been teaching sustainability in hospitality for over two decades. In this episode, you'll discover what his garden tells us about him that his prolific academic career cannot.

Here's what stayed with me after this conversation:

🌍 What biophilic design is, what it isn't, and why it matters to your hotel, lodge, resort

🌍 The hotel lobby that fooled Willy, until it didn't, and why he left feeling disappointed

🌍 How architects and hotels can hijack biophilic design, and what it costs them

🌍 The overlooked research on hotel back-of-house spaces, where staff spend time

To find out more about the Hotel Yearbook mentioned inside this episode, click here.

*This episode is powered by Your Nature Anew, where tourism meets wellbeing.

Ready to learn more? Explore Masterclasses or the 5-Min RESET series from the industry's leading minds at thetourismreset.com. Video-first. On-demand. Zero Barriers To Access.

How does tourism hide the voices of communities on main tourism routes? And what happens when this industry is a vehicle to bring back lost stories and heritage instead?

My guest today is Professor Sandro Carnicelli, who teaches tourism at the University of West Scotland. Born in São Paulo to an Italian family, he completed his PhD in New Zealand, today he calls Scotland home. A journey that's shaped years of research and teaching - including his mapping of 50 tourism routes across southern Brazil, a project that connects deeply to his own heritage and, as he puts it, touches his soul.

Here's what stayed with me after this conversation

🌍 A powerful answer to "what does decolonising tourism actually look like?" - the first step any of us can take, whatever your role or the size of your business.

🌍 What Sandro discovered mapping 50 tourism routes across southern Brazil - the histories and stories tourism so often chooses to hide rather than acknowledge.

🌍 The anti-tourism attraction in Brazil that flips the script and engages visitors to confront a version of history the standard tour and usual narrative leaves out.

🌍 How domestic tourism in Algeria is helping communities reconnect with their identities, stories, culture and way of life that colonisation almost erased.

Enjoyed this episode? Explore 40+ Masterclasses from the industry's leading minds and voices at thetourismreset.com. Video-first. On-demand. Zero barriers to access.

You can connect with Sandro on linkedin.

What does it mean to really 'arrive' in a place? And what's the compelling business case for stillness in tourism? Some of what we'll explore in today's episode...

My guest today is Beáta Szablics, a tourism business strategist, experience designer, and certified forest therapy guide. She was the first-ever guide to host nature therapy sessions on the icy continent of Antarctica.

Most tours or hotel experiences are built on motion. Beáta's work does something quote different. Her work is already enabling guests around the world to truly connect with a place, and to themselves.

Here's what stayed with me after this conversation...

🌍 What Beáta means by place-based sensory experiences, why it's one of the most underused tools in tourism for guest engagement.

🌍 How to make the business case for slowing down in an industry where the entire model has been built on more, and why demand is growing for experiences like this.

🌍 Why guests are sharing that the most powerful moment of their entire trip is moving from 'doing' to 'being', and what that means for the future of designing travel experiences.

This episode is powered by Your Nature Anew, where tourism meets wellbeing.

Enjoyed this episode? Explore 40+ Masterclasses from the industry's leading minds at thetourismreset.com. Video-first. On-demand. Access for All.

The New York Times called Dr Thomas Doherty (author of Surviving Climate Anxiety) the most prominent American advocate of eco psychology. Jeremy Smith is co-author of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and has spent more than 20 years at the front line of tourism's response to the climate crisis.

This episode goes somewhere most industry conversations and sustainability conferences don't. Not the spreadsheets, not the pledges - but the psychological reality of operating in an industry navigating one of the defining tensions of our time.

This episode is powered by Your Nature Anew, where tourism meets wellbeing. Beàta Szablics supports hotels, tour operators, agencies, DMCs and DMOs to move beyond five stars to five senses. Find out more at yournatureanew.com

Here's what stayed with me after this conversation...

🌍 Why the anxiety you feel about the climate and nature (as someone working in tourism) isn't a weakness, why it's a healthy sign and what it's actually telling you

🌍 What's missing from most tourism businesses' climate response that no emissions spreadsheet will ever fix!

🌍 What Jeremy witnessed on a small island off the coast of Cornwall that completely changed how he sees tourism's role in the world to come

🌍 The three-step framework Thomas uses with clients navigating climate anxiety — and how to apply it to where you are right now

Catch their 5 Minute Reset over at The Tourism Reset. Access on-demand Masterclasses from 40+ of the industry's leading voices. Video first. Zero paywalls. thetourismreset.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Climate Anxiety and Eco-Anxiety

06:56 Personal Journeys: Thomas and Jeremy's Experiences

15:11 Understanding Eco-Anxiety: A Healthy Response

24:04 Navigating Climate Anxiety in the Tourism Industry

34:59 The Human Connection: Emotions vs. Technical Solutions

38:55 The Power of Duality in Environmental Perspectives

41:14 Gendered Perspectives on Nature and Nurturing

43:34 Complexity and Connection in Environmental Education

46:55 Navigating Climate Distress and Information Overload

49:33 Finding Grounding in Nature and Local News

51:06 Slowing Down in an Accelerated World

56:10 Environmental Identity and Personal Connection to Nature

01:01:19 Engaging with Nature Through Tourism

01:06:25 The Role of Tourism in Climate Awareness

01:11:24 Identifying Personal Environmental Identity

01:14:03 Personal Practices for Grounding and Reconnection

Join Katie Thompson and a panel of leading experts live on the 2nd of April for Rethinking Flying, a live learning event only at thetourismreset.com. Or catch the recording.

What truths would the aviation industry rather you didn't know? In this episode we find out.

This week I sat down with Katie Thompson. Twenty years in the cockpit. Head of Flight Safety at NetJets. Responsible for hundreds of aircraft and thousands of pilots. An insider. And someone who walked away from a career she loved.

Katie isn't criticising or finger pointing from the outside. She's here to create change and share the solutions which already exist. Including how to reduce aviation emissions by up to 50%, today. Not as a promise of tomorrow.

Want to learn more and equip yourself with the facts? A brand new MASTERCLASS on this topic drops in spring 2026, developed with leading researchers, professors and experts. Available only at thetourismreset.com

If you'd like to read the book Katie recommended:

• All We Can Save - Katharine Wilkinson & Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (Editors)