Seleni Matus is the Executive Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies and Adjunct Professor at George Washington University. She has spent more than 20 years designing and directing large-scale, multi-stakeholder initiatives that have mainstreamed sustainable tourism principles into key sectors of the tourism industry. These include the Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative, the Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas, and the Indigenous Tourism Collaborative of the Americas.
Seleni has worked in close collaboration with governments and the private sector in tourism destinations throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America to develop and implement sustainable management plans, programs, and standards that have enhanced the quality of tourism offerings and helped to ensure the long-term health of natural ecosystems.
She served as a lead consultant advising Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. on its destination stewardship strategy from 2010 to 2015 during her tenure at Sustainable Travel International. She led the development, testing, and scaling up of an integrated destination sustainability assessment tool and approach known as the Rapid Sustainable Destination Diagnostic. Seleni has conducted destination assessments in Alaska (Ketchikan), Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize (Belize City), Dominica, Indonesia (Bali), Jamaica (Falmouth), Mexico (Cozumel), Nicaragua (Ometepe Island), Peru (Machu Picchu and Sacred Valley), Honduras (Roatan), Oregon (Clackamas County), St. Eustatius, and Wyoming (Jackson Hole). These destination assessments consisted of stakeholder mapping, stakeholder consultations, destination plan development and validation, the establishment of destination stewardship councils (DSCs), implementation of action projects and ongoing coaching of DSCs. Seleni has also assessed the effectiveness of destination management networks, such as DSCs, for partners that include Travel Oregon.
A native of Belize, Seleni served as the country’s Director of Tourism and oversaw the reorganization of the Belize Tourism Board in order to meet the demands of a fiercely competitive global marketplace. She directed the development of Belize’s first-ever Sustainable Tourism Master Plan and worked with Belize’s Prime Minister and his Cabinet to mainstream tourism as a national priority. The changes resulted in a 6.7% increase in international arrivals, and are widely credited with resuscitating Belize’s stagnant tourism sector. Earlier in her career in Belize, she developed the country’s tour guide training and certification program and managed the Programme for Belize’s ecotourism tour operation and lodges.
She has co-authored several publications including, Linking Communities, Tourism & Conservation: A Tourism Assessment Process; Tourism & Biodiversity: Mapping Tourism’s Global Footprint; and From Ship to Shore: Sustainable Stewardship in Cruise Destinations; and Indigenous People and Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines.
Seleni currently serves as a member of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Sustainable Tourism Committee, and the Association of Caribbean States’ Steering Committee of the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean.
