International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP) President Prof. Geoffrey Lipman will be a keynote speaker at 20th Global Eco Asia-Pacific Tourism Conference in Cairns, Tropical North Queensland, Australia, on Monday, October 15, to Wednesday, October 17, 2012. He will be speaking about “Green Growth and Travelism… Eco-tourism and Apple Seeds.”

“Green Growth” is the new geopolitical paradigm to respond to the big social, economic, environmental, and climate challenges of today and the population-driven resource challenges of tomorrow. “Travelism” – the “Travel&Tourism” value chain consisting of supply, demand, and the broader destination-focused economy they create – can play a leading role in this transformation, because it delivers on job creation, trade, and development, as well as spreading the happiness of human interaction.

As a contribution to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, we asked nearly 50 government, industry, and civil society thought leaders for their views on the challenges and opportunities from the intersection of these evolving paradigms. The result is a clear demonstration of their vision and the potential of the sector to make a seriously powerful contribution. Ecotourism remains a vital beacon of good practice on this transformation journey.

The challenge now is to channel this “Green Growth” and “Travelism” thinking across the traditional silos of the sector in an age of “disjointed hyper-connectivity” and to make bottom up, joined up thinking as important as the trickle-down approach that dominates the media channels. The answer is “apple seeds” and the next generation.

Professor Geoffrey is Director and “chief disruption architect” of greenearth.travel, a global think tank network, promoting green growth and travelism (travel&tourism) and specializing in strategy, innovation, and funding. Lipman is currently Adjunct Professor at Victoria University Australia, Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University UK, and Senior Tourism Research Fellow at George Washington University US. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council and an Associate of Cosmos China. He has written and lectured widely on tourism strategy, sustainability and airline liberalization. In 2012, he launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit a new compendium of leadership ideas from nearly 50 of the best thinkers inside and outside the sector, “Green Growth&Travelism: Letters from Leaders.”

The 20th Global Eco Asia-Pacific Tourism Conference is an ICTP member.