Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference in Florence, Italy

Last week I was fortunate enough to travel to Italy for the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference. The venue was in the heart of Florence and only a minute walk from the amazing Cathedral and world famous dome.

The three day conference focused largely on heritage interpretation and sustainable tourism with speakers from all over the world. I was invited to present a 15 minute TedX style presentation and my chosen topic was Ecotourism and Wildlife Voluntourism. I focused, of course, on the cub petting, canned hunting and lion bone industries within South Africa and discussed how unethical wildlife interactions are damaging wild populations and local communities. My whole presentation can be watched below, although please bear with the terrible auto-focus!