Agora

Eleni Skarveli, Director, GNTO UK and Ireland

Eleni Skarveli began her career in the tourism industry just prior to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. She gained valuable experience working in the Advertising Directorate at the Greek National Tourism Organisation’s headquarters. Afterward, she assumed the role of overseeing the Brussels office, which later transformed into BENELUX, based in Amsterdam, where she successfully served for a span of nine years. In September 2021, Eleni was appointed to the London Office, where she assumed responsibility for the British and Irish market.

Leveraging her background in European institutions, specifically her experience in the European Parliament, along with her strategic marketing expertise, Eleni launched the SustainableGreece.co.uk platform. This initiative aims to inspire Greek stakeholders to showcase sustainable initiatives within Greece while simultaneously raising awareness about responsible travel. By combining her knowledge of European institutions with her marketing acumen, Eleni strives to promote sustainable practices and encourage responsible tourism within Greece. In 2022, she founded the Sustainable Travel AGORA in an effort to unite diverse industry experts to drive collaboration and sustainable practices, emphasising that sustainability requires a collective, inclusive approach.

Carol Rose, Head of Sustainability, ABTA

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. 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.

Amy Skelding, Managing Partner, FINN Partners’ UK Travel Practice

Amy Skelding is the Managing Partner of FINN Partners’ Travel Practice in the UK. FINN is a founding member of the AGORA and has been named PR Agency of the Year for six consecutive years at the Travel Marketing Awards.

Bringing nearly two decades of experience in travel PR, digital, marketing and communications to her role, Amy has a passion for the industry that began in her youth as a travel presenter on BBC Radio 4. Her promotion to Managing Partner in 2024 is a testament to her ability to drive growth, provide strategic counsel to clients, and deliver integrated campaigns that achieve remarkable results.

Her expertise spans traditional and digital media, and she is known for seamlessly blending creativity with data-driven insights. Recognised as one of TTG’s Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders in 2013 and a Travel Pride Champion in 2023, Amy is committed to driving meaningful change in the industry, particularly in sustainable tourism. Her dynamic approach and genuine passion for travel continue to shape FINN Partners’ success in the UK market.

 Debbie Flynn, Managing Partner, Global Practice Travel Leader, Finn Partners

Debbie Flynn has been in the travel industry for over 30 years and was the founder of travel specialist PR and marketing agency Brighter Group.

After 23 years as one of the UK ‘s leading tourism PR agencies, she sold her agency to FINN Partners in January 2018. Now in her role leading FINN Partners travel teams globally, Debbie continues to be at the forefront of global travel communication and once again listed in the PR Week PowerBook as one of the top 10 influencers in travel PR in the UK. ​​

Debbie is also an observer to the board of the Advantage Travel Partnership (the UK’s biggest leisure and business travel consortia), on the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council, an advisor to WTACH (World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage) and one of the founding circle for WXO (World Experience Organisation).​​

Debbie also leads the way in giving back to the industry in her roles as a trustee of travel industry water aid charity Just a Drop, Chair of the Anglo Jordanian Society, and a pro bono advisor to Tourism Cares.​

Chris Wright, Managing Director, The Sunvil Group

Chris Wright has more than 28 years of experience in tour operations, aviation, and industry regulations. He has become a leading figure in the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion within the sector, and an advocate of sustainable and slow travel.

A passionate traveller himself, Chris is deeply connected to the destinations he serves, particularly Greece, where his love for the culture and landscape runs deep. His interest in outdoor pursuits and the environment has fuelled his belief that tourism should be a force for good, contributing to the well-being of local communities and preserving the natural environment, whilst also providing a rewarding and enriching travel experience.

At The Sunvil Group, Chris has spearheaded the development and promotion of no-fly holidays to Europe: Croatia, Italy, Spain, The Nordics and, of course, to Greece. No-fly holidays to Spain now equate to 10% of holidays booked to the country. Chris’s vision for the future of travel is one that balances adventure and responsibility through the development of further innovative products and partnerships that promote sustainable tourism and inspire travellers to make a positive difference.

Matt Callaghan, Chief Operating Officer, easyJet Holidays

Matt is easyJet holidays’ Chief Operating Officer and member of the management board, responsible for all aspects of customer experience and business operations as well as the development and implementation of the easyJet holidays sustainability strategy, ‘Holiday Better’.

 The award-winning strategy focuses on three key pillars –create better holiday choices which is about making sustainable travel affordable and accessible to everyone; keep our holidays special which is maximising the benefits and minimising the negative impacts of travel and tourism, and transform travel for everyone which means embedding sustainability into business decisions and behaviours and driving meaningful change in the industry. As part of this, Matt has implemented a partnership with UN Tourism to help develop the first environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework for tourism businesses, co-designing a measurement tool that is meaningful and feasible for better monitoring how tourism businesses impact, and depend on, people, planet and prosperity. Prior to joining easyJet, Matt held a number of senior customer and operational roles at British Airways.

Meera Dattani, Executive Editor, Adventure.com

Meera Dattani focuses on community-led tourism, food and cultural heritage, soft adventure, and wildlife and conservation in her work. Recent features include a story in Condé Nast Traveller on Kibale Lodge in western Uganda, which champions nature and community tourism, and supports local education and cultural initiatives, alongside luxury lodge life; a behavioural science-based feature looking at traveller actions and sustainable travel choices for the Evening Standard; exploring community, nature and hyper-local food tourism in Belize for Green Traveller; and looking at the reasons behind Costa Rica’s status as a world-leading ecotourism destination in Adventure.com. Meera is also executive editor at award-winning website Adventure.com, which received an Outstanding Contribution recognition for Positive Impact Storytelling at the 2024 Inspire Global Media Awards. Among the shortlisted 12 Adventure.com features by writers and photographers from around the world were stories such as: ‘Beyond safaris: Why it’s time for tourism to end the Disneyfication of Africa’,‘A way of life: How Slovenia got so green’, ‘How bees became a former poacher’s saving grace in Kenya‘, and ‘Want to really ‘travel like a local’? Read this first’.

Lucia Rowe, Managing Director, A-ROSA River Cruises UK and Ireland

Lucia Rowe is a dedicated travel executive, with over 18 years combined experience starting up complex product concepts as well as directing operational areas in large and small travel organisations. She is the Managing Director of A-ROSA River Cruises in the UK and is part of the Institute of Travel & Tourism Board as well as one of the founding members of the ITT Sustainability Committee. She is also part of the CLIA River Cruise Committee, regularly working on industry-wide sustainability aspects of the river cruise industry.

Lucia’s career has been built on a passionate approach towards a variety of managerial roles and business sectors: from hands-on river cruise start-ups with A-ROSA River Cruises and DER Touristik to private Yacht concepts (Lurssen Yachts/Beluga Group – nowadays Ritz-Carlton Yachts). A strategist with a solid reputation for driving top revenue numbers while providing quality product, Lucia is a results-driven professional, skilful at building strong and successful international teams by adeptly coordinating people from different backgrounds, nationalities, and positions. Lucia was educated at MBA level and is fluent in four languages with proficiency in a fifth.

Daniel Pearce, CEO and Owner, TTG Media

Daniel Pearce is CEO and Owner of TTG Media, the award-winning media business delivering results for the travel industry in the UK and beyond through its events and awards programmes, website ttgmedia.com and print publications TTG and TTG Luxury.

Celebrating 28 years in the media in 2024, Daniel has been passionate about sustainability in travel since resetting TTG Media’s business purpose in 2019 under its new mission for ‘Smarter Better Fairer Travel’. In December 2023, TTG Media became one of the first media businesses in the UK to attain B Corp Certified status, underlining the company’s passionate belief in prioritizing people and the planet alongside profit. A journalist by trade, Daniel worked for newspapers and magazines across a range of businesses and markets before becoming Editor of TTG (Travel Trade Gazette) in 2010. In 2012, he moved to brand director, before mounting a management buy-out and setting up independent business TTG Media in 2013. Last year, TTG marked 70 years since the publication of the first edition in March 1953.

Nico Nicholas, CEO and Founder, Trees4Travel

Nico is an entrepreneur with a can-do attitude and an appetite for creative, impactful, sustainable business ideas. A powerhouse of energy, drive, and enthusiasm, he describes Trees4Travel, Trees4Events, and Zeero as the culmination of all his passion and life experiences.

He has spent the last three years building an environmental tech ‘business for good’, educating and supporting the travel and events industries in delivering sustainability and positive change. He enables them to transform and cultivate a regenerative approach to their activities by measuring, managing, and mitigating emissions using sophisticated technology to help understand and reduce emissions.

He leads a hybrid process of restoring biodiversity and supporting communities while simultaneously backing up every tree by investing into clean energy projects and innovations, focusing on 15 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Nico is now focused on creating plants to convert municipal bio-waste into sustainable fuels and has gained interest from a number of governments from locations across the globe.

Xenophon Kappas, General Director, Captain Vassilis & Carmen Constantakopoulos Foundation

Since 2011, Xenophon Kappas has served as the General Director of the Captain Vassilis & Carmen Constantakopoulos Foundation a private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable development in Greece, with a focus on agriculture, social cohesion, culture, and the environment. With extensive experience in sustainable development and social engagement, he has worked and collaborated in the past with various environmental NGOs in diverse roles, contributing to civil society initiatives.

In addition to his professional career, Xenophon has been an active volunteer since his youth. Over the past decade, he has focused his efforts as a board member for both national and international organisations dedicated to humanitarian and environmental causes. He holds a degree in Business Administration and two Master’s degrees in European Studies and Latin American Studies, with a specialisation in politics and development.

Hazel McGuire, General Manager UK and Europe, Intrepid Travel

Hazel McGuire is a leader in responsible travel at the world’s largest travel B Corp, Intrepid. She has 17 years of experience in senior commercial, marketing and general management roles, predominantly in the travel and transport industries.

Hazel previously contributed to significant growth at Flight Centre Travel Group touring brands Topdeck Travel and Back Roads Touring as well as with global hop-on, hop-off sightseeing brand Big Bus Tours. She now leads Intrepid’s continued growth across the UK and Europe and is responsible for implementing strategic plans, managing day-to-day business, and ensuring the company achieves its goals in balancing purpose and profit. Hazel led her team to achieve its biggest month of sales in history in January 2024 and delivered a 60% revenue growth in 2023 vs. 2019.

Richard Hammond, Executive Videographer and Founder, Green Traveller Productions

Richard is the founder of Green Traveller Productions, a media production agency that produces content with purpose for the visitor economy. He manages a network of writers, photographers and videographers and is himself an experienced videographer and drone pilot.

He has been involved in communications about sustainable travel for over 25 years and has held a variety of roles in the media, including editor-in-chief of the trade newswire TravelMole (1999-2003, establishing its sustainable tourism newsletter in 1999), the Guardian’s eco travel correspondent (2004-2008), and ha swritten articles for a range of titles, including National Geographic, FT, Telegraph, The Times, and The Sunday Times. His latest book ‘The Green Traveller’, was published in 2022 by Pavilion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Richard has recently undergone ‘Sustainable Production’ training by Albert – the film and TV industry consortium that is supporting the industry to create positive environmental change.

Nejc Jus, Director of Research, WTTC

Nejc Jus is the Director of Research at the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and is based in London.

He is responsible for shaping, leading and implementing the WTTC’s research agenda. The research is a key pillar of WTTC’s advocacy and is used to guide work in company’s strategic priority areas. Nejc is also responsible for building and maintaining relationships with company’s research partners.

Prior to his role at WTTC, Nejc held various research positions at leading global real estate companies including JLL, Knight Frank and Savills. Nejc holds BA in Land Economy and Management Studies from University of Cambridge and MSc in Environmental Economics from University College London. Hailing from Slovenia, he loves to travel for adventure and to experience new cultures.