“The Global Ecotourism Forum is a catalyst for a wake-up call and for action”

Interview with Arturo Crosby, international consultant in rural and nature tourism, and ecotourism pioneer in Europe and LATAM

Catalonia is preparing to host the Global Ecotourism Forum (GEF) 2025, a key event that will bring together international experts, institutional leaders, and local actors to redefine the future of ecotourism and sustainable tourism. It will take place from October 22 to 24, 2025, at the Món Sant Benet Hotel (Sant Fruitós de Bages, Barcelona).

Over three days, Catalonia will become a laboratory of transformative ideas and actions, with conferences, debates, and practical experiences that will address the major challenges for the sector: climate change, accessibility and inclusion, regenerative tourism, and technological innovation.

The event, led by the Generalitat of Catalonia through the Departments of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, and of Business and Labor, with the collaboration of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, will mark a before and after in defining a new global agenda for sustainable tourism.

The Global Ecotourism Forum will feature the participation of more than 40 internationally recognized experts in ecotourism, conservation, and sustainability; institutional representatives and political decision-makers; entrepreneurs, organizations, and local actors with inspiring experiences; and local communities promoting new perspectives on territory.

We talk with one of them: Arturo Crosby, an international consultant in rural and nature tourism, and a pioneer in ecotourism in Europe and Latin America.

What is the relevance of the Global Ecotourism Forum 2025 for the tourism sector? Why should tourism professionals attend this conference?

I’m certain that if you look at the Forum’s program, the question answers itself, because it includes both very relevant content and a panel of experts and organizations of high caliber with significant knowledge and experience in this ecotourism sector—or as I prefer to call it, nature based tourism, a term better understood by non-specialists.

Any Forum, especially one of this scale, serves to connect and network professionals, experts, businesses, organizations, and various tourism administrations and natural-area authorities, as well as to establish easier links with different speakers. In other words, it’s a unique opportunity to bring together a wide spectrum in one place and at the same time.

Can you preview which thematic axis or perspective will guide your keynote at the forum?

It will be a profound reflection to understand and distinguish the value and price of nature—and how tourism plays a key role in both.

Although value and price are often confused or associated, the truth is that there is a gap—sometimes a very large one—and perhaps this helps explain part of the problem of mass tourism in natural areas.

It’s necessary to understand how nature is valued, and tourism is clearly key in that, since it is tourist and hiker demand that assigns value—generally referring to aesthetic appreciation of the landscape rather than to the importance of ecosystems and biodiversity. Everything is based on perception criteria; and tourism, for example, places a price.

What challenges and trends would you highlight as key in coming years to drive ecotourism?

Obviously, since the pandemic, motivation has grown to travel to natural spaces, whether protected or not; but one must consider that most of these consumers are hikers rather than tourists, so the cost/benefit balance is negative.

Costs outweigh benefits, which is why we need to develop tourism management models focused on sustainability—implying profitability and competitiveness—and we have to regulate visitor flows based on motivations, expectations, and the fragility of the environment on both environmental and social levels.

Thus the clear trend is that demand will continue growing—and that is a challenge that must be managed. I was already explaining this in tourism design seminars in natural areas more than 10 years ago, when tourism saturation was not yet an issue.

How do you believe this forum can help accelerate the transition toward more responsible and sustainable tourism in coming years?

This is a very difficult question to answer, but evidently a forum like the Global Ecotourism Forum is a catalyst—a wake-up call and a call to action—which is needed both in the conservation sector of rural and natural environments and in tourism, specifically in ecotourism or nature tourism. The question is to know how to take advantage of it and create synergies to achieve the necessary change in how tourism and natural capital in a territory are managed.