Stewardship travel immersion program |
Educate and Support a Dedicated Team of
'Travel Rangers' who understand Tahoe's 1) Indigenous Wisdom and Stewardship Culture, Heritage 2) Carrying Capacity of the Wildlife Habitat 3) 12 Sustainability Principles and 4 steps of Geotourism 4) TriNomics: The imperative of: Public, Private Social collaboration (TM of Sheri Woodsgreen) 5) New Career paths with responsible travel leadership 6) Sustainable Travel Adventure Network makes it easy for travelers to choose Geotourism activities sponsored by Green businesses |
Why?
- Long term prosperity requires choices that sustain and enhance the natural assets of the destination.
- DMO's (Destination Marketing Orgs) are no longer the main point of contact, as travelers pull a variety of (unregulated) activities online.
- Many Short Term Rentals lack educated or onsite Hosts.
- The current visitor activity menu requires $Billions for ongoing mitigation, restoration and clean-up expenses.
- Tahoe's unmanaged tourism made Foders NO LIST of 2022 (Ten destinations NOT to travel to) because Nature needs break
- Despite a pivot in marketing by the tourism industry, Lake Tahoe's water clarity goal of 100 ft has not been acheived
- 2010 TRPA Environmental Improvement Program highlights the cost to mitigate the public's footprint $1.4Billion and $2.45B by 2020
10,000 years of washoe people's stewardship legacy provide insight
Our role is to accelerate the adoption of responsible travel by educating, proposing, demonstrating and facilitating Geotourism (recreation stewardship travel) in the Tahoe Truckee Watershed.
Geotourism Expo was a "Learn-by-Doing" model, so agencies, businesses and NGO’s could experience Geotourism using what we have in new ways. Adventures spread out over 150-miles and involved collaboration by 55 to 85 NGO’s, agencies, and businesses. Tahoe Expo demonstrated how to create and host a "community owned" tourism menu that was beneficial for our visitors and destination alike - 365 days a year. This creates paid jobs that contribute to the well being of the watershed, wildlife and people included.
The Prosperity Plan identified Geotourism (destination stewardship) in the ‘Visitor Satisfaction’ cluster as a key action in service to long-term prosperity and water clarity.
Geotourism Expo was a "Learn-by-Doing" model, so agencies, businesses and NGO’s could experience Geotourism using what we have in new ways. Adventures spread out over 150-miles and involved collaboration by 55 to 85 NGO’s, agencies, and businesses. Tahoe Expo demonstrated how to create and host a "community owned" tourism menu that was beneficial for our visitors and destination alike - 365 days a year. This creates paid jobs that contribute to the well being of the watershed, wildlife and people included.
The Prosperity Plan identified Geotourism (destination stewardship) in the ‘Visitor Satisfaction’ cluster as a key action in service to long-term prosperity and water clarity.
What if we...
- Help visitors connect to the '8 worlds' so they care. Immersive adventures hosted with inspired stewardship is how we Sustain Tahoe!
- Increase "Visitor Satisfaction" as suggested in the 2010 Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan (LTBPP) Final Report (pg. 57-79).
- Work as ONE WATERSHED: TriNomics ™ provides a collaborative guide for building GeoTracks:
- Enroll Geotourism principles as a roadmap (international strategy endorsed by 5 departments of the U.S. Department of the Interior
Collaboration
- Learn from others.
The Northeast Kingdom shares similar assets and challenges as Tahoe, with upscale resorts to rural farming. Local leaders asked “What do you love in our destination and not want to lose?" and "What is one thing you are willing to do to help sustain the destination?” This focused efforts from competing to collaborating. They changed their marketing and menu items to highlight unique assets that attracted visitors to stay longer and explore more; return sooner and share new exciting stories. - Sustainability Innovators. David Hansen helped Embassy Suites save $400K a year by implementing energy monitoring, composting and other measures in sustainability. He shared this turn-around model at our 2010 Stewardship Congress to raise awareness and motivate others to lead-by-example. 2010 Stewardship Congress-Speaker summaries
- Learn-By-Doing Sustainable Tahoe facilitated a collaboration with Business, college and resort.
Students from Sierra Nevada College created a Geotourism recreation program for a resort to help increase their revenues. San Jose State University students submitted Geotourism Adventure ideas: SJSU student created GeoTrack - TriNomics™: a collaborative model designed by Sheri Woodsgreen CEO of WISE Ventures .
We adopted TriNomics™ : .ORG; .GOV; and .COM to ensure adventures had buy-in from all stakeholders.
- Non-Profit - .Org: guides the Geotour adventures to enrich the visitors understanding and protect nature.
- Agencies - .Gov: offers grants and access to sensitive or remote areas.
- Business - .Com: provides and supports "Eat | Sleep | Shop | Play" for the destination visitors.
The need for Geotourism was further confirmed and endorsed by U.S. Vice President Al Gore at the 2013 Tahoe Executive Summit when he said,
“The future will look at this Lake and either ask, Why didn’t you do something?….or.... How did you do this?”
If we succeed in protecting Lake Tahoe and the Watershed, our answer will be,
"We found a way to make political collaboration a renewable resource!”
If we succeed in protecting Lake Tahoe and the Watershed, our answer will be,
"We found a way to make political collaboration a renewable resource!”
