SOU Institute for Applied Sustainability to host tourism training

SOU Institute for Applied Sustainability to offer training

Southern Oregon University’s new Institute for Applied Sustainability will team with Travel Southern Oregon and its statewide counterpart, Travel Oregon, to host a sustainable tourism training seminar on April 2 in Portland for travel industry professionals. The session is an opportunity for SOU to build its reputation as a respected and influential resource in Oregon for those interested in sustainable tourism.

Pavlina McGrady, Ph.D. an SOU associate professor of business and fellow in the Institute for Applied Sustainability, will join Travel Oregon research manager Ladan Ghahramani, Ph.D., as instructors for the training session. Participants will become the first cohort of SOU’s Sustainable Tourism Practitioner Training program as they learn about the future of sustainable tourism through a day-long schedule of interactive lectures, and local and international case studies. There will also be a review of Travel Oregon’s 10-year strategic plan.

The session – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 2, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland – will be offered one day before the three-day Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism, which begins at the convention center on Monday. The sold-out sustainable tourism session will have about 50 participating travel industry professionals.

The initial training session on Sunday is funded by a $10,000 strategic investment grant from Travel Southern Oregon. A second training session, to be scheduled in May or June in southern Oregon, will likely be paid for by the Institute for Applied Sustainability.

The SOU institute was created last fall as part of an historic, $12 million gift to SOU from Lithia Motors and its GreenCars division. The two largest elements of the gift are a $5 million scholarship fund and $4 million to establish the Institute for Applied Sustainability, which will collaborate with Lithia on projects including a national sustainability conference, an academic credential in corporate sustainability and a national sustainability demonstration site.