Martha Honey: Origins, Challenges & Future of Purposeful Travel: In Conversation with Joe Pavelka

Martha Honey is Co-Founder and Director Emeritus of the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST). She has been an integral part of the development and evolution of sustainable tourism for over five decades. Martha will speak of the key developments she has witnessed in her extensive career that have brought us to where we are today, and offer insights as to the future of travel, more specifically sustainable travel.

Martha brings three decades years of sustainable tourism experience in leading field projects; directing teams of experts; conducting research; writing and publishing studies, articles, and books; public speaking and university lecturing; organizing conferences, symposiums, and think tanks; leading training workshops; and curating and leading international and domestic ecotourism trips. Martha has written and lectured widely on responsible and sustainable travel, including on ecotourism, climate change, overtourism, Travelers’ Philanthropy/Impact travel, cruise and resort tourism, coastal and marine tourism, and certification issues. Her books include 0vertourism: Lessons for a Better Future (Island Press, 2021); Caribbean Cruise Tourism: Selling Sunshine (Routledge Press, 2019); Coastal Tourism, Sustainability, and Climate Change in the Caribbean, Vol. 1 & 2 (Business Expert Press, 2017),  Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? (Island Press, 1999 and 2008), and Ecotourism and Certification: Setting Standards in Practice (Island Press, 2002). She was Executive Producer of CREST’s documentary films, Caribbean ‘Green’ Travel: Your Choices Make a Difference, (2016). Cracking the Golden Egg: Coastal Tourism in Costa Rica (2013), and Travelers’ Philanthropy: Giving Time, Talent, and Treasure (2010). 

Martha has worked on sustainable tourism projects in countries around the world. In 2019, Martha was awarded CREST’s first annual Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to responsible tourism. 

Previously, Martha worked for 20 years as a journalist based in East Africa and Central America. She holds a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and a MA in African American history from Syracuse University.