🌿 What does sustainable travel really mean — beyond the buzzwords? 🌎 And how can storytelling and GSTC standards move sustainable hospitality from a checkbox to culture?

In this podcast, documentary filmmaker and ‪GLP Founder Rob Holmes joins host Amy Wald of The Conscious Check-In to explore how authentic storytelling, destination stewardship, and GSTC-aligned practices can accelerate the shift toward sustainable travel destinations worldwide.

Travel journalist Kathleen Rellihan joined GLP on a visit to  Mexico’s Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve where a pioneering carbon model pays local landowners to  leave the forest alone, allowing nature to regenerate. This groundbreaking initiative, led by environmentalist Martha Isabel "Pati" Ruiz Corzo, shows how grassroots conservation can drive climate solutions.

The success of Sierra Gorda highlights the power of community-led efforts, driving climate justice with economic incentives. It’s also a hopeful story of reconnection—reminding us that climate action starts with falling in love with nature again.

Community tourism is a sustainable tourism model in which local communities develop, own, and manage tourism experiences, allowing them to benefit from tourism directly. Community tourism usually centers rural and indigenous communities in lesser-known, lesser-visited areas that are often left off the traditional tourist map. 

in this article, we share a success story of community tourism from the Community Homestay Network of Nepal.