Ecotourism Australia, with the support of the Queensland Government and Tourism Queensland is currently organising the organisation's eighteenth annual conference, the Global Eco Asia-Pacific Tourism Conference.

The 2010 Global Eco Conference will be held 25-28 October at Queensland's Sunshine Coast and is themed Experience is Everything!

Convenor's Message
Global Eco 2010 brings together practitioners from around the globe to discuss the opportunities presented by ecotourism. This Asia-Pacific event provides a unique platform for sharing knowledge, highlighting best practice case study examples and outlining new initiatives that will drive the future of ecotourism into the next decade. Importantly the conference also presents the challenges and realities of building an ecotourism business and sector.

In the International Year of Biodiversity there is no better time for players in ecotourism and experiential tourism to contribute to discussions and positive for this vital tourism sector. Achieving a competitive advantage, a crucial part of business, it is essential to keep up with the latest trends, technologies and tools that are available for ecotourism.

Meeting in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland provides an outstanding location to provide highly applied and practical examples of nature-based tourism, the greening of the industry and partnerships between tourism and protected area managers.

With an exceptional program featured over four days and an array of extremely valuable networking opportunities, I encourage you to make Global Eco an essential part of your professional development in 2010.

Tony Charters
Convenor