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Speakers Set the Stage - AI and Sustainable Tourism
AI is changing how we travel. It presents real opportunities on many levels, from efficiency to economics. Echoing the UN's theme for World Tourism Day 2026, Buddies Without Borders Online Forums have invited teen representatives from more than a dozen countries to form teams to investigate what has been done in their hometowns, identify best practices, assess needs/threats, and make recommendations to their assigned client countries in different corners of the world.
Setting the stage for meaningful discussions this weekend for the Kick-off are our two kick-off speakers: Martin Venzky-Stalling is a futures thinker, senior advisor, facilitator and sustainability strategist with over 30 years of experience in business transformation, t3echnology and innovation across the Asia-Pacific region.
Based in Thailand, he is Consulting Director at Ennova Partners, Chair of the Sustainable Development Committee of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand (JFCCT), and Senior Advisor to Chiang Mai University Science and Technology Park (CMU STeP). Previously, he held senior positions at PwC, PCCW/Hong Kong Telecom and Ovum. His work in sustainable tourism and hospitality focuses on integrating sustainability into business strategy, innovation and destination development, including climate action, resource efficiency and local value creation. He brings together systems thinking, emerging technologies and participatory approaches to explore how AI and other innovations can support more sustainable and competitive tourism businesses and destinations.
Johlize Joubert is the founder of Touristrapp, an AI-powered tourism platform exploring how artificial intelligence can help destinations become smarter, more sustainable, and more beneficial to the people who live in them.
Her work focuses on the intersection of AI, destination management, and sustainable tourism, with a particular interest in how technology can help address challenges such as overtourism, uneven economic benefits, and the need to balance visitor experiences with community well-being and environmental protection.
Johlize believes AI has the potential to reshape not only how people discover and experience destinations, but also how tourism organizations make decisions, support local economies, and become better stewards of the places they represent.
Passionate about innovation with purpose, she advocates for a future in which technology is used not simply to make tourism more efficient, but to help solve meaningful challenges facing destinations and communities around the world. She believes that building this future requires curiosity, critical thinking, collaboration, and the courage to question how things have always been done.
Please join us in thanking our speakers for inspiring future changemakers to think more broadly and deeply about how AI—at the intersection of technology, economics and humanity—can help create a better world. #internationaleducation, #globaleducation, #sustainabletourism, #highschools, #internationalstudents, #AIandTeens
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