ECOTOURISM


Through its affiliate, Ecotourism International, the company has supported ecolodge development projects and ecotourism planning studies in North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The primary emphasis has been on preparing market assessments, feasibility studies, business plans, investment proposals, and policy analyses.

Ed Sanders, President of Ecotourism International, is a frequent speaker on the business of ecolodges. He is a former Vice-Chairman of the Board of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) and a founding director of Sustainable Travel International. He is author of The Business of Ecolodges: A Survey of Ecolodge Economics and Finance (TIES, 2001) and the U.S. Ecotourism Market (World Tourism Organization, 2002). He is a founding partner in a world-class, 13,000 acre conservation and ecotourism project in southern Belize that anchors a much larger public/private/non-profit habitat corridor that protects the last remaining stretch of tropical forest connecting the mountains to the coast of Belize.

In order to complement his business planning capability, Ed Sanders collaborates with some of the country’s leading ecotourism experts and specialized companies, including:
  • Natural resource and recreation master planners
  • Interpretive specialists
  • Ecolodge and landscape architects
  • Environmental engineers
  • Interior designers
  • Green building and energy efficiency specialists
  • Ecotourism generalists
  • Tourism marketing experts
  • Community development planners
For more information see the Ecotourism International website at www.ecotourisminternational.net.