Tourism, environment
on schedule

The UH lecture will talk about
long-term sustainability

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Finding the delicate balance between sustaining the tourism industry, meeting its demands, protecting the environment and making profits in the industry will be the subject of a lecture April 9 on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus.

The 4 to 5:30 p.m. lecture, "Tourism Strategies for Sustainability and Profit: Is Balance Possible?" will be given by Pamela Wight, chief executive of Pam Wight & Associates, a firm specializing in ecotourism concerns.

It will be the UH School of Travel Industry Management's second annual lecture under a $500,000 grant given to the school in 1999 by a former U.S. ambassador to Australia, L.W. "Bill" Lane, a promoter of environmental and cultural preservation and education.

A panel of experts will discuss the topic after the lecture. Taking part will be Bernard Lane, editor of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism (and not related to the ambassador); Ivo Martinac, head of the master's degree program in sustainable energy engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden; and Juanita Liu, a professor of tourism and graduate chairperson at the travel industry school at UH.

The lecture will kick off a three-day international "think tank" on sustainable tourism which will bring together representatives of the world's leading university tourism and hospitality programs.

Using the Lane funds and money from other sources, such as $409,000 grant in September 2000 from the U.S. Department of Education. The travel industry school has run a variety of studies on how tourism affects visitors, residents and the environment.

Last year, students set out to discover how visitors' behavior is affected by signs they read at Hanauma Bay, Diamond Head and the Manoa Cliffs trail. Others studied the ecology along the Big Island's Saddle Road and others looked into the environmental impact of residents' and visitors' use of Hanauma Bay and Kaneohe Bay.

The travel school expanded the Sustainable Tourism and Environmental Program (STEP) that was created by the Lane grant into STEP-UP, with the "UP" standing for University Partnerships. The idea was to have students work with businesses and the community to help them decide what is best for all.

The Lane Lecture is free and open to the public. For information check www.tim.hawaii. edu/STEP.htm or call 956-3474. For information on the think tank, check www.sustainable travel.org.

Strategies "Tourism Strategies for Sustainability and Profit: Is Balance Possible?" will be given by Pamela Wight, chief executive of Pam Wight & Associates. When: 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9 Where: University of Hawaii-Manoa Cost: Free For more info: www.tim.hawaii.edu/STEP.htm or 956-3474.