Sustainable Travel Conference

Krissy is a sustainable tourism professional with 20 years’ experience, currently leading social and environmental impact at Inghams and Santa’s Lapland. Their updated 2030 Nature & Climate Action Plan, released in the autumn, involved analysis of future risks, impacts and opportunities to guide long term action.

She previously spent 14 years at Responsible Travel as Head of Values, where she spearheaded responsible tourism initiatives and industry-wide activism campaigns focused on aviation emissions, animal welfare and community empowerment. During this time, she also created Trip for a Trip, the company’s first global giving programme, which provides day trips for children with fewer opportunities worldwide.

As a freelance sustainability consultant, Krissy worked across place-based impact and social value. Her projects included leading stakeholder engagement for a national review of the social housing sector in England, developing VisitKent’s sustainability strategy and working on a global social enterprise programme delivered by Unilever, FCDO and EY.

Krissy began her career in the charity sector at The National Autistic Society and has also held roles at Rough Guides and global communications consultancy Porter Novelli, where she led projects for Hilton Hotels, British Airways and Travelocity.

She is passionate about nature connection and ensuring fair, equitable access to the outdoors – particularly for children.

Chris is an entrepreneur and CEO with, before TerraVerde, a 35-year career in travel, hotels, tailor-made luxury tour operating, hotel room distribution & short breaks.

For 18 years, Chris was CEO of HotelConnect Ltd, a company he founded in 1993 as one of the first accommodation-only sellers. HotelConnect was the first hotel supplier to sell rooms on any UK low-cost airline website and one of the very first to launch online transactional hotel booking. HotelConnect became universally recognised for excellence in customer service and quality checked accommodation, winning many awards for its call centre and internet booking systems.

Since founding TerraVerde with Patrick Richards in 2020, Chris has focussed on GHG measurement and carbon reduction for organisations, travel product & events. Enthusiastically recognising the need to address the impact of travel product, TerraVerde has developed a professional carbon accounting platform to measure and enable carbon reductions for all types of travel & tours. Chris has overseen the development of this and is currently working on the advancement of this system to the next level of sophistication.
Chris oversees the financial & strategic elements of the business and is based in London.

Sophie Portlock is Carnival UK’s VP Sustainability and Strategic Projects, responsible for shaping the long-term strategic direction of Carnival UK and its brands’ sustainability agenda. She works across the business to drive a culture of positive change and deliver its sustainability commitments.
Sophie has built her career over 15 years in the maritime sector, developing skills ranging from systemic thinking, strategic planning, and risk management, to large-scale project management, and operational delivery.
Today, Sophie leads an agenda that extends well beyond Carnival UK’s own operations. She partners with stakeholders in the many destinations visited by the company to build shared social and economic value and identifies alliances to deliver positive, sustainable change for the organisation and its value chain.

Abi supports the delivery of DWF's global ESG and Sustainability strategy. Her role focuses on operational implementation of ESG and Sustainability across core functions, including workforce education and engagement. Abi also leads DWF's climate action strategy, working to deliver net zero by 2045 and support nature restoration.
Abi is an ACA-qualified accountant, and holds a BA in Geography from the University of Cambridge.
 

A freelance contributor to an array of national newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, Metro and Red magazine, Rhonda Carrier has a special interest in women’s travel, slow and sustainable travel, voluntourism, train travel, wellbeing, and travelling with teens and grown-up children – and the intersection of some or all of these. 
As well as undertaking expedition cruises in the Arctic and Antarctica, Rhonda has travelled to Cambodia and Bali to write about women’s empowerment projects and is involved with the award-winning social enterprise Women in Travel CIC, the non-profit Equality in Tourism, and The Safe Travel Foundation.  
She is also the co-author of the new midlife travel memoir 'Wayward Women' (Bedford Square Publishers)

Under ABTA’s ‘Tourism for Good’ framework, Carol’s role is to deliver ABTA’s strategy for sustainable travel and tourism, across the areas of environment and climate change, destination management and local impact, human rights, and animal welfare.  Carol comes from the Fashion and Textile industry and has travelled extensively around the globe, working strategically with diverse supply chains to refine design and production techniques. Additionally, Carol was the Technical Advisor to Defra’s Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) at WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), delivering on the objectives for the fashion industry to reduce the carbon, water, and waste footprint of clothing on the environment. Carol has also worked as a Principal Net Zero Consultant guiding businesses to develop and implement their sustainability/net-zero strategies. Carol brings a multisectoral approach to the travel and tourism sector, where she believes the lessons learned on her journey will help to supporting ABTA Members to bring positive change to the industry. 
 

Tom is the Global Manager, Project & Partnerships at Planeterra. He has built up his responsible and sustainable tourism experience over the last 16 years, working on field-based community and conservation tourism development projects. He currently leads Planeterra’s Global Climate & Biodiversity Initiative.

Tom started his community tourism journey while undertaking his undergraduate dissertation research in Senegal, West Africa. There he encountered community-based ecotourism projects for the first time and decided that this was what he wanted to work on for the foreseeable future. A few years later, his thirst for knowledge inspired him to take on a MSc degree in Responsible Tourism Management, and used the tools and skills he was learning to support the development of a community-led heritage trail in Sierra Leone. Since then he has worked with government agencies to develop inclusive tourism action plans in Haiti and Brazil; with large tour operators and hotel chains to successfully integrate sustainable tourism policies and practices into their operations in Cabo Verde and Croatia; and with conservation NGOs to design and manage tourism strategies in Benin and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Throughout his journey, Tom has witnessed how tourism can be inequitable, working for a small few, while creating social and environmental issues for others. On the flip side, he has also experienced firsthand how tourism, when done in the right way, can create opportunities for people to reach their potential while protecting and regenerating sensitive ecosystems and biodiversity. His passion lies in finding ways to mainstream the latter.
 

Jara Schreiber works as coordinator for the international multi-stakeholder initiative and non-profit association Roundtable Human Rights in Tourism. She is a passionate expert in the field of business and human rights with profound expertise in sustainable tourism and development. By bridging diverse perspectives, she supports stakeholders in integrating human rights into their work in a meaningful and practical way. Jara has initiated and led numerous pilot projects, and implemented guidelines, trainings and tools on human rights in tourism. With degrees in Cultural Studies (BA) and Sustainable Tourism Management (MA) and a working background, among others, with a sustainable tourism consultancy and a tour operator, she combines different perspectives to make the topic tangible and accessible for various stakeholders.

Elaine Learmouth is Head of Regional Experiences at Intrepid Travel, a world leader in responsible travel. Elaine leads Intrepid's team of Regional Product Managers, overseeing the company’s Explorer product range. 

Elaine joined Intrepid in 2025 with extensive experience across DMC, product management and industry, working in product development at both TUI and more recently Exodus in London. Originally from the UK, she spent a decade working in tourism in Cape Town, and most recently held trade-facing roles with Flight Centre.

Dr. Matteo Montecchi is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Marketing at King’s Business School, King’s College London. His research focuses on marketing in the digital era, particularly how technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are reshaping marketing practices, enhancing transparency, and building consumer trust. He also examines the ethical implications of these innovations, especially regarding diversity, inclusion, corporate responsibility, and the representation of marginalized groups. His work provides practical insights to help businesses navigate digital transformation while fostering ethical and meaningful stakeholder engagement. His research is published in leading marketing and management journals.