Sustainable tourism depends increasingly on how intelligently the industry uses technology to shape demand, guide traveler choices, and protect the long term health of destinations. Carlota Galván, Head of ESG at HBX Group, joins Brianne Chai-Onn, Senior Partner and Head of Sustainability in the Global Purpose and Social Impact practice at FINN Partners, at 1TourismWorld for a discussion that connects digital transformation with the future of responsible travel. Brianne frames the conversation in the context of a tourism sector that continues to evolve after the pandemic through rising travel demand, changing visitor expectations, and a growing need to balance resilience and sustainability with growth. Carlota brings the perspective of HBX Group as a travel technology marketplace working across online marketplaces, tour operators, travel advisors, airlines, loyalty programs, destinations, and travel suppliers, and her remarks show how data, digitalization, and stronger coordination across the ecosystem can support more responsible tourism.

Changing Traveler Demand

Consumer demand is already shifting in ways that matter strategically. Carlota explains that millennials and Gen Z travelers are prioritizing more sustainable and conscious forms of travel. They are looking for unique destinations and experiences that connect them more closely to local culture and that generate a positive impact on the communities they visit. Preference is also moving toward alternative destinations, less crowded environments, and more authentic settings. These choices reflect more than a passing preference. They point to a deeper change in how value is being defined in travel.

HBX Group sees that shift in its own sales data. Carlota notes that hotels with sustainability certifications are performing better than hotels without them. She also points to stronger performance among smaller hotels, including boutique hotels, and highlights the growing interest in community based tourism experiences. Those signals matter because they give sustainability measurable commercial relevance. When more responsible products perform better in the market, sustainability begins to move from aspiration into operating logic.

Carlota also makes a broader point that gives the discussion real force. Sustainability, in her view, should not remain a luxury. It should become a basic standard of the travel sector. That distinction matters because it changes the industry's objective. The goal is not to preserve a narrow premium category of responsible travel. The goal is to integrate sustainability into the normal structure of tourism itself.

Rethinking Destination Strategy

Destination management sits at the center of the conversation. When Brianne asks whether tourism boards and other stakeholders are doing enough to promote responsible tourism, Carlota answers carefully, but directly. She says she does not like to generalize, yet believes that much more remains to be done. Better destination planning is essential, and she places particular importance on the development of micro destinations that can help avoid overtourism and distribute visitors more efficiently through stronger flow management.

Technology matters here because distribution depends on better visibility and better planning. Carlota argues that digitalization and the use of technology are crucial in helping destinations understand visitor flows and manage them with greater precision. Growth becomes healthier when demand is not simply intensified, but directed more intelligently across a wider set of places.

Cultural and heritage recovery is equally central to her argument. For many years, tourism has adapted local cultures to visitor preferences. Carlota suggests that this logic needs to change. Her example is direct and familiar. Travelers can often find restaurants serving food from other countries more easily than traditional local cuisine. Sustainable tourism requires a different orientation. The tourist should adapt to the culture of the place being visited rather than expecting the place to adapt to the tourist.

Environmental conservation follows the same principle of long term stewardship. Carlota stresses that destinations need to remain attractive in the future, and that means planning with climate impacts in mind. Some destinations, she suggests, may need to redesign and expand their tourism offerings in order to remain sustainable over time. Tourism leadership therefore depends not only on attracting visitors today, but on making decisions that preserve destination value for the years ahead.

Building Awareness Through Communication

Awareness runs through Carlota's remarks as a central condition for progress. For sustainable tourism to advance, awareness must extend across companies, travelers, and local communities. A shared understanding of what is at stake gives technology and policy a better chance of producing durable results. Without that common awareness, even strong tools remain underused.

Communication becomes especially important when travel companies introduce operational changes that affect the traveler experience. Carlota describes how hotels that remove single use plastics can initially face resistance from guests who question the loss of familiar conveniences such as small shampoo bottles. The response changes when the hotel explains clearly why the plastic has been removed and what environmental harm is being avoided. Once the purpose of the decision becomes visible, the traveler can connect the immediate change to a broader positive outcome. The lesson is practical and important. Successful sustainability measures depend not only on what companies change, but on how they explain those changes.

Experience also helps shape that awareness. Carlota refers to an HBX initiative that sent groups of employees to rural communities in Mexico, where they lived with local communities and gained a closer understanding of how people live there. That exposure changed mindsets because it made the value of cultural adaptation tangible. The experience reinforced a principle that remains central to the discussion. Tourism becomes healthier when travelers and companies learn to engage with places as they are, rather than reshaping them around outside expectations.

Managing Demand With Greater Precision

Artificial intelligence and social media now influence travel decisions at scale, and Carlota is direct about the risks. She says that the increasing use of artificial intelligence and social media for travel recommendations is concentrating even more demand on certain destinations and increasing the risk of overtourism. Recommendation systems can quickly push large numbers of travelers toward the same visible places.

Her answer is not to step away from technology. It is to use technology with greater intelligence and purpose. Carlota argues that data can help detect peaks of demand in specific locations and support the redirection of travelers toward similar alternative options. That approach can reduce saturation while still serving traveler preferences. In her view, this again reinforces the importance of building micro destinations and diversifying the tourism offer so visitor flows can be managed more effectively.

She also points to the need for further technological research that uses artificial intelligence in favor of sustainability. One example she offers is the development of algorithms that can detect unusually high demand in a specific place and trigger alerts that suggest alternatives according to a traveler's needs. Used in that way, artificial intelligence helps travelers make more informed decisions and allows tourism pressure to be distributed more thoughtfully. Carlota's position is balanced and persuasive. Artificial intelligence and social media can contribute to overtourism, but if they are used intelligently, they can also become important tools in preventing it.

Advancing Practical Solutions Across the Ecosystem

Carlota gives the discussion added credibility by describing specific areas where HBX Group is already advancing. One major area is the Think Big program, which she says is actively growing. That work includes projects that empower local communities through digitalization so they can develop sustainable tourism services and help create smaller micro destinations. The purpose is to strengthen local participation while also helping direct travelers toward areas that are less overloaded.

A second area of work involves sustainable product labeling. Carlota explains that HBX wants travelers and tour operators to see more clearly what kind of product they are choosing and what sustainability features those products include. In tourism experiences, for example, HBX is cataloging offerings according to different levels of interaction with animals so partners can decide what type of experiences they want to offer in line with their values. She also points to work with Queer Destinations to help certify experiences, hotels, and destinations as LGBTQ friendly spaces. Across all of these initiatives, the principle remains consistent. Better information gives both intermediaries and travelers a stronger basis for making choices that align with their priorities.

Carlota also describes more forward looking work involving algorithms and machine learning. The aim is to understand more clearly what travelers or tour operators are searching for and then, when a first destination choice is likely to be overcrowded during the intended travel period, offer another destination with similar characteristics. That approach preserves relevance for the traveler while supporting a more balanced tourism system.

Making Sustainability Tangible

One of the strongest ideas in the session comes when Carlota explains the value of data in making sustainability tangible. Sustainability is often treated as something abstract, difficult to define, and difficult to measure. Data changes that. It allows companies to quantify benefit and give practical meaning to what sustainability delivers. For HBX, that ability to make sustainability visible is a key engine behind its work on sustainable products.

Brianne reinforces the significance of that point by linking it to the wider ecosystem. When better performance from certified hotels, boutique properties, or more responsible travel experiences becomes visible through data, the market case for sustainability grows stronger. That evidence supports better investment decisions and gives the industry a more credible foundation for change. Sustainability becomes easier to advance when it can be discussed not only in values based terms, but also in measurable commercial terms.

Strengthening Progress Through Collaboration

Carlota closes the discussion with a principle that brings the entire conversation together. Collaboration among different stakeholders, she says, is the key in both technology and sustainability. HBX Group's position in the middle of the travel ecosystem allows it to build bridges among different actors and move projects forward across the sector. That role has shown the company the value of shared effort.

Her recommendation to the industry is clear. Companies should share projects, co create, and avoid being afraid of collaboration. Sustainable tourism advances more effectively when the sector works together. Technology can support better planning. Data can make sustainability more measurable. Communication can strengthen awareness and traveler adaptation. Collaboration is what allows those capabilities to scale.

The conversation between Carlota Galván and Brianne Chai-Onn presents a practical and forward looking view of where sustainable tourism is heading. Technology serves the industry best when it helps distribute demand more intelligently, support local communities more directly, preserve cultural identity more carefully, and give travelers better information for better decisions. That is how tourism grows with greater resilience, stronger responsibility, and a clearer sense of long term purpose.