Sustainable Travel & Tourism Africa - #sttaconsulting

Sustainable Travel & Tourism Africa - #sttaconsulting An advisory & training organisation in sustainable tourism promoting responsible travel & tourism.

An advisory, training & education organiation that provides various platforms for promotion of sustainable tourism. We offer professional support to tourism businesses and policy makers on planning for sustainable tourism. We develop/ review/ assess evaluation tools for green destination management & green operations in tourism. We publish a sustainable tourism report for East Africa to share expe

riences and knowledge. We host the Regional Green Tourism Summit and Mazingira (environment) Awards. We train travel & tourism industry on focal areas of sustainability in tourism- the what, who, why, how of sustainable tourism. We have developed specialised modules for sustainable tourism training. Committed to an industry that collaborates with other sectors and invests in innovative ideas that cushion destinations from environmental and socio-economic threats. An industry that does not compromise the dignity and comfort and host communities, but recognises the host communities and works with them to safeguard local livelihoods

31 organisations. One room. Two days at Lake Naivasha Resort.In 72 hours, the most cross-sector gathering of sustainable...
11/05/2026

31 organisations. One room. Two days at Lake Naivasha Resort.

In 72 hours, the most cross-sector gathering of sustainable tourism stakeholders on the African continent begins. And the list of who has already confirmed their place tells you something about how seriously this conversation is being taken.

Governments and public institutions:
Kenya's Nairobi County Government and Kilifi County Government. The Uganda Consulate. Ethiopia's Ministry of Tourism. Nairobi City County.

Africa's conservation backbone:
East Africa Wild Life Society. Rukinga Wildlife Conservancies. AFEW. The Long Run. Land and Life Foundation. Wilderness Destinations.

The people who move travellers across the continent:
Kenya Airways. Ethiopian Airlines. Eco Adventures. Africa Scenic Safaris. Navigate Destinations. Kaaribu Safaris. Indlovukazi Travel and Tours.

The institutions training the next generation:
Technical University of Kenya. Cooperative University of Kenya. European University of Rome. AMREF Health Africa. Boma International Hospitality College. Machakos University. University of Nairobi. Egerton University

The consultants and strategists:
Smits SusTour Consultancy. Peak & Dale Consultants. Purple Elephant Ventures. Zuri Events. Traveller Storyteller.

The destinations hosting the world:
Lake Naivasha Resort. Lake Naivasha Lodge. Wondergarden Africa.

And at the centre of it all:
Sustainable Travel and Tourism Africa.

This is not a tourism industry talking shop. It is conservation bodies, government ministries, international airlines, universities, county governments, and grassroots operators all in the same room, for the same reason: because sustainable tourism in Africa cannot advance if it only involves tourism.

STAS 2026 Chief Guest Announcement!The sustainable tourism sector makes a lot of claims about conservation. Not enough o...
10/05/2026

STAS 2026 Chief Guest Announcement!

The sustainable tourism sector makes a lot of claims about conservation. Not enough of them are grounded in research.

We are honoured to announce that Dr. Patrick Omondi, OGW, will open STAS 2026 as Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker.

Dr. Omondi is the Chief Executive Officer of the Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI) — Kenya's national agency mandated to coordinate and conduct wildlife research and training. As a Wildlife Ecologist with over 30 years of experience in species conservation planning and management, he has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and built one of the most authoritative bodies of work on conservation science in East Africa.

He is Kenya's international negotiator at CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — where the decisions made directly shape how wildlife and the tourism that depends on it are governed globally. He chairs the IUCN National Committee, serves on the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group, and sits on the boards of the Mpala Research Centre and the Kenya Rhino Range Expansion Initiative.

He was conferred the Order of the Grand Warrior of Kenya (OGW) twice — in 2007 and 2022 — for his outstanding contribution to wildlife conservation and management.
His keynote at STAS 2026 addresses something the sector urgently needs to hear: "The Role of Research and Training in Advancing Conservation-Linked Tourism Development and Biodiversity Protection."

This isn't a high-level call for tourism and conservation to work better together. It's a rigorous, evidence-based examination of what it actually takes — what research infrastructure, what training capacity, what institutional frameworks — to build tourism development that genuinely advances biodiversity protection rather than simply claiming to. Coming from the head of Kenya's national wildlife research agency, it carries weight that no policy document or industry pledge can match.

It is the right keynote to open this Summit. On this theme. In this country.

Dr. Omondi's keynote sets the evidence standard for everything that follows at STAS 2026!

Panel 1 asked where your organisation sits on the stewardship spectrum. Panel 2 asks what you're going to do about it.Th...
08/05/2026

Panel 1 asked where your organisation sits on the stewardship spectrum. Panel 2 asks what you're going to do about it.

The second of STAS 2026's three panel discussions takes place on Day 2 morning, and it picks up exactly where the Day 1 conversation left off, except with a harder edge.

The shift the panel is examining:
The sustainable tourism sector has developed sophisticated tools for reporting on sustainability. What it hasn't developed, not nearly as well, is a culture of leading on it. Reporting tells your stakeholders what happened. Leading changes what happens.

What's the difference in practice? What do the organisations that have genuinely moved from reporters to leaders actually do differently, in how they make decisions, how they measure outcomes, how they hold themselves accountable when the numbers aren't what they'd like them to be?

Samantha Smits - CEO of Smits SusTour Consultancy

Sally Njoki - Secretary General of the African Tourism Board.

Prof. Carmen Bizzarri - Associate Professor of Economic Geography at the European University of Rome

Marlies Gabriel - Co-owner | Strategic Lead, Hatari Lodge, Shumata Camp, and Wondergarden Ltd

Nancy Ogonje - Executive Director of East African Wild Life Association (EAWLS)

A question for the comments: in your organisation or sector, what's the single most significant gap between how you report on sustainability and how you actually lead on it?

Tag a sustainability lead, ESG professional, or tourism executive who should be in this conversation.

📍 Day 2 · Friday 15 May · 10:00am · Lake Naivasha Resort
🎟️ Register: https://events.sttakenya.org/event/sustainable-tourism-africa-summit-2026/ · [email protected] · +254 718 127 557

Big News! We would like to announce Ethiopian Airlines as the Official Airline Partner for the upcoming Sustainable Tour...
05/05/2026

Big News!

We would like to announce Ethiopian Airlines as the Official Airline Partner for the upcoming Sustainable Tourism Africa Summit 2026!

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10 days.And the conversation that has been building across the sustainable tourism sector for years is finally going to ...
05/05/2026

10 days.

And the conversation that has been building across the sustainable tourism sector for years is finally going to happen in a room where something can actually be done about it.

On the morning of Day 1 at STAS 2026, four of the Summit's speakers will be taking the stage, and then sitting down together for a panel discussion that we think will be one of the most practically useful conversations of the two days.

The question the panel is asking:
What do basic, intermediate, and advanced stewardship actually look like, not as definitions, but as lived practice, across three of sustainable tourism's most important dimensions: inclusion, community governance, and institutional governance?

This is not a panel that is going to describe the problem. The panellists have spent their careers working inside it. What they're bringing to Lake Naivasha is a discussion that gives tourism operators, destination managers, and policymakers a way to locate themselves honestly on the stewardship spectrum, and a clear picture of what moving to the next level actually requires.

Brendah Mwiriricha - CEO & Founder of Peak & Dale Consultants

Evie Ndhlovu - CEO of Indlovukazi Travel and Tours

Linda Okolo - Diversity Initiative Lead at Kenya Airways

Elisa Spampinato - Founder & Director of Traveller Storyteller

Moderated by Harriet Owalla, Travel Writer.

Before the Summit: where would you honestly locate your organisation on the stewardship spectrum, basic, intermediate, or advanced, and what's the one thing that would need to change to move you up a level? Drop it in the comments.

Tag someone who should be in the room for this discussion.

📍 Day 1 · Thursday 14 May · 11:50am · Lake Naivasha Resort
🎟️ Register: https://events.sttakenya.org/product/stas26-conference-delegate-ticket/ · [email protected] · +254 718 127 557


Judy Kepher-Gona

01/05/2026

Sustainable Tourism dialogues by Judy Kepher-Gona. To be continued at Sustainable Tourism Africa Summit 2026. Register at events.sttakenya.org

We at STTA wish all workers a happy labour day!
01/05/2026

We at STTA wish all workers a happy labour day!

STAS 2026 Speaker Spotlight - Elisa Spampinato Here's something the sustainability sector hasn't fully reckoned with yet...
30/04/2026

STAS 2026 Speaker Spotlight - Elisa Spampinato

Here's something the sustainability sector hasn't fully reckoned with yet: the story is evidence.

Not instead of data. Not instead of frameworks, certifications, and impact reports. Alongside them, and sometimes more honest than any of them. A well-told story from a community member about what changed when a tourism operator kept their commitments tells you something that a spreadsheet cannot. And a story that doesn't hold up to scrutiny tells you something a polished sustainability report is designed to hide.

Elisa Spampinato lives at this intersection.

As a Storytelling Consultant and Community Connector with Traveller Storyteller, Elisa works with tourism operators, destinations, and sustainability practitioners to build narratives that are honest, credible, and genuinely useful, not just for marketing, but for accountability, for impact measurement, and for the kind of communication that actually changes how people think and act.

She has two slots on Day 1, and that's deliberate.

At 09:00am, her presentation on - "Transforming Community Engagement: What 'engagement' means from a communications perspective" - Showing what engagement means from a communication perspective and how can we modify our practices to guarantee impactful changes at the grassroots level.

At 2:30pm, her workshop - "Change the narrative, empower your community " - A practical session structured around the important questions we need to ask about our Storytelling practices. Participants will learn how to provide different answers to those questions while learning new skills.

A question for the comments before the Summit: what's the sustainability story about your organisation, or a destination you know, that you find genuinely difficult to tell? The uncomfortable one. The one where the honest version and the public version aren't quite the same. You don't have to share the details, but tell us what makes it hard.

Register now: https://events.sttakenya.org/event/sustainable-tourism-africa-summit-2026/

14 & 15 May 2026 · Lake Naivasha Resort

STAS 2026 Speaker Spotlight - Linda OkoloSustainable tourism talks a great deal about inclusion. About building a sector...
30/04/2026

STAS 2026 Speaker Spotlight - Linda Okolo

Sustainable tourism talks a great deal about inclusion. About building a sector that works for everyone. About community benefit and equitable access and tourism that leaves no one behind.

Then ask how many tourism products, airports, hotels, and safari vehicles are genuinely accessible to travellers with disabilities, and the conversation gets a lot quieter.

Linda Okolo operates within this gap.

As Diversity Initiative Lead at Kenya Airways, Linda is responsible for making one of Africa's most significant aviation businesses genuinely accessible to all travellers, not just compliant with minimum standards. The **KQwezesha programme** is Kenya Airways' operational commitment to disability inclusion: real policy, real infrastructure, real accountability for how the airline designs and delivers the travel experience for passengers with access needs.

It is one of the most concrete examples in African aviation of what inclusion looks like when it's treated as a design principle rather than a legal obligation.

**At STAS 2026, Linda presents at 10:30am: "Disability Inclusion in Aviation: Case of Kenya Airways."** This session takes the morning's theme somewhere specific and practical, asking what accountability to all travellers looks like in the country's flagship carrier, and what the broader tourism and hospitality sector can learn from it.

Linda also joins the Day 1 panel, The 2030 Stewardship Roadmap, alongside Evie Ndhlovu and Elisa Spampinato , moderated by Harriet Owalla.

Here's the question we're putting to the community: what's the single most important change the tourism sector could make to be meaningfully more accessible to travellers with disabilities, not eventually, but in the next 12 months? No diplomatic answers. Linda is reading the comments.

Tag a colleague in hospitality, aviation, or accessibility advocacy who needs to be in this conversation.

Register now through link in bio

14 & 15 May 2026 · Lake Naivasha Resort ·

STAS 2026 Speaker Spotlight - Prof. Carmen BizzarriGovernance is one of the most used and least examined words in sustai...
30/04/2026

STAS 2026 Speaker Spotlight - Prof. Carmen Bizzarri

Governance is one of the most used and least examined words in sustainable tourism.

Every strategy document calls for it. Every certification framework includes it. Every international tourism body publishes guidance on it. And yet, across Africa's tourism sector, the governance structures that actually determine who benefits, who is protected, and who bears the cost of tourism development remain, in most destinations, inadequate, underfunded, or absent.

Professor Carmen Bizzarri is one of the researchers asking why.

As Associate Professor of Economic Geography at the European University of Rome, Prof. Bizzarri brings an analytical lens to governance that the sustainable tourism sector rarely applies to itself: what do the economics of tourism governance actually look like? Where does the money flow? Where do the incentive structures break down? And what does a genuinely new governance model for tourism, one built for community development outcomes, not just visitor management, actually require?

At STAS 2026, she will be presenting on "The New Governance of Tourism for Community Development." This is not a session about governance frameworks in the abstract. It's a session about what new governance means in economic geography terms, how the spatial and financial structures of tourism destinations need to change if community development is to move from aspiration to outcome.

A question worth sitting with before this session: is the governance problem in African tourism primarily a design problem, a political problem, or a financing problem? We'd argue it's all three, but which one is the binding constraint in your context? Tell us in the comments.

Tag a governance professional, researcher, or policy maker who should be hearing this conversation.

Register through the link in our bio.

14 & 15 May 2026 · Lake Naivasha Resort ·

Big News! We would like to announce Go Places Digital as the Official Media Partner for the upcoming Sustainable Tourism...
22/04/2026

Big News!

We would like to announce Go Places Digital as the Official Media Partner for the upcoming Sustainable Tourism Africa Summit 2026!

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P O Box 44330
Nairobi
GPO00100

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