Written By: SEATTLE, WA (September 25, 2025) — Just in time for World Tourism Day, Sustainable Travel International today released two new episodes in its Sustainable Travel: Where Next? docu-series, produced in partnership with BlackRook Media. The series highlights destinations and travel companies that are redefining what it means for tourism to drive positive change. The latest films feature CAS Trips in Lisbon and Flagstaff, Arizona, spotlighting how tourism can foster cultural appreciation, empowerment, and environmental stewardship.
This year’s World Tourism Day theme, Tourism and Sustainable Transformation, emphasizes the need for tourism to deliver more than economic growth; it must be a catalyst for education, equity, resilience, and climate action. The Where Next? films showcase examples of this transformation in action.
- The Lisbon episode follows CAS Trips, a student travel operator that educates through immersion. Rather than traditional sightseeing, CAS Trips designs journeys that allow students to engage directly with locals in mutually beneficial ways. In Lisbon, this means stitching alongside grandmothers, contributing to community-driven projects, and learning about Portuguese history through the art of painting traditional tiles. These hands-on experiences go beyond memorable travel moments, cultivating a deeper connection, cultural understanding, and a sense of global citizenship.
- The second episode features Flagstaff, Arizona, highlighting a U.S. destination integrating sustainability into its identity and visitor experience. Surrounded by fragile ecosystems, the city keeps the outdoors central to community life through its extensive urban trail system. Local breweries are cutting waste and conserving resources, while Flagstaff’s designation as the world’s first International Dark Sky City reduces light pollution and energy use. The city also recognizes the importance of sacred lands and incorporates Indigenous perspectives into its leadership.
With 29 episodes to date, the series has spotlighted destinations ranging from Zurich and Vail to Svalbard, Australia, and St. Kitts, reaching more than 200,000 viewers worldwide. “Where Next? offers a message of hope by showing what sustainable transformation looks like, which is especially important at a time when public discourse is dominated by negativity and conflicts,” said Paloma Zapata, CEO of Sustainable Travel International. “Stories like those from Lisbon and Flagstaff highlight that positive change is happening and can inspire tourism companies and destinations to strengthen communities and safeguard the places we love.”
The carbon emissions from producing the films are being offset through Sustainable Travel International’s Climate Impact Portfolio, ensuring the series aligns with the values it promotes.
The whole series can be streamed online at sustainabletravel.org/where-next. For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]. For sponsorship opportunities to feature your destination or company, contact [email protected].
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Media Contact
- Kaitlyn Brajcich, Sustainable Travel International –[email protected]
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL
Sustainable Travel International is a social enterprise dedicated to protecting our planet’s most vulnerable destinations and transforming tourism’s impact on nature and people. We engage travelers, businesses, and destination leaders in responsible practices that safeguard nature, combat climate change and pollution, and empower communities to preserve the integrity of destinations around the world. Our comprehensive climate solutions help the travel industry reduce its carbon footprint, advance the global net-zero transition, and strengthen its resilience to climate change impacts. To learn more, visit www.sustainabletravel.org.
BLACKROOK MEDIA
BlackRook has delivered high-end documentary video content across EMEA and APAC since 2011. We’ve been nominated at the New York TV and Film Festival. We aren’t just producers – we take responsibility for making sure that the films and social media content we produce for our clients reaches the right audiences. We partner globally with Sustainable Travel International and other industry leaders including: the World Bioenergy Association, the Association of MBAs, the Business Graduates Association and Pensions Europe. Our Events TV teams provide global editorial and technical services too, including – for the last decade – live-streaming for Sibos, the world’s biggest financial services event. Our people have coached BMW executives and – over seven years in the UK – all of the BBC’s digital apprentices too. We’ve produced hundreds of current affairs, news, business, and sport programmes too – for international broadcasters including CNBC, Iran International, and Nigeria’s ARISE News. To learn more, visit https://blackrookmedia.com/
Watch Sustainable Travel: Where Next?