Tourism Cares and the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau host CEOs and travel professionals in Trinity River Audubon Center conservation effort
Tourism Cares Dallas
DALLAS, TX – April 5, 2016 – Nearly 100 travel and tourism CEOs and professionals, both local to Dallas and from across the world, donated their time and service at the Trinity River Audubon Center today to kick off the prestigious World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) 2016 Global Summit. Working with the Texas Trees Foundation and Trinity River Audubon Center, volunteers planted more than 1,000 trees and native grasses and helped improve nearly five miles of trails, repairing and restoring the walkways for visitors.
“We are honored that the WTTC has selected Dallas to gather the world’s top travel and tourism executives, and that this esteemed group has taken time out to give back to our great city,” remarked Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO, Phillip Jones. “The Trinity River Audubon Center is a sanctuary for wildlife, residents and travelers, and it relies on volunteer efforts like these to maintain this beautiful local oasis.”
The WTTC Global Summit, hosted April 6-7 at the Renaissance Dallas Hotel, will bring more than 700 travel leaders and international media to the city, raising awareness of the global, social and economic role of travel and tourism. Please read more at: http://www.wttc.org.
For Tourism Cares, WTTC and the Dallas community, this is a natural partnership that brings those who care about conservation and tourism together for a day of service.
“A big thank you to the brilliant Tourism Cares team and the Dallas host committee and CVB for organizing a phenomenal event at the Trinity River Audubon Center,“ said Brett Tollman, Chief Executive, The Travel Corporation. “More than 95 caring industry leaders, from the local community and other US cities and as far away as Japan, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Mongolia volunteered today. We worked, side-by-side, as an organized team and completed the largest planting effort on the site since its opening in 2008.”
The Trinity River Audubon Center welcomes thousands of visitors each year, with more than 25,000 of those visitors being school children, who explore the center’s hiking trails and wetlands to learn about the natural world and role of conservation. With only 10 full-time employees and more than 120 acres of conservation land, which includes part of the nation’s largest urban hardwood forest, the staff relies on the help of volunteers to conserve the natural space and make it available for future visitors.
“Thanks to the help of Texas Trees Foundation and the Dallas CVB, we had a significant group of volunteers planting over 1,000 Texas native plants at our center,” said Casey Cutler, Volunteer Coordinator at the Trinity River Audubon Center. “Together we’re planting seeds of stewardship as we help restore and support the Blackland Prairie and Great Trinity Forest here at the Trinity River Audubon Center. We are so thankful for our partners and volunteers who are here today to lend a hand in protecting the natural world in Dallas.”
Tourism Cares—the philanthropic arm of the travel industry—is the largest volunteer organization for tourism professionals in the world and partnered on this project with the World Travel and Tourism Council, Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, Texas Trees Foundation and the Trinity River Audubon Center. This event would not be possible without the generous sponsorship of the following organizations: The Travel Corporation, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, MaCher and Marriott International.
This is the second volunteer effort planned in concert with the WTTC Global Summit, the first in El Retiro Park in Madrid, Spain, in 2015.
About Tourism Cares
Tourism Cares, Inc., a US 501(c)(3) public charity, preserves and enriches the travel experience for future generations. Founded and supported by leading associations and companies in the travel industry, the Tourism Cares community invests its resources, talent and influence in three areas: we support underappreciated and at-risk destinations and communities; we invest in those entering the industry and professional development for emerging leaders; and we share travel corporate social responsibility knowledge and best practices so that individual businesses can best support their own causes. Learn more at www.TourismCares.org and @TourismCares
About Visit Dallas
The Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau’s goal is to market Dallas as the ideal convention and visitor destination to the regional, national and international marketplace and to favorably impact the Dallas economy through meetings and tourism. The Dallas metro area is the leading business and financial center in the Southwest, offering visitors an unparalleled array of amenities and a central location with two major airports with more domestic nonstop flights than any other U.S. city. As the ninth-largest U.S. city, and part of the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the nation, the Dallas area is the top visitor destination in Texas. In 2015, Dallas partnered with CityPASS, the company that packages discounted, prepaid admission to a city’s top attractions. Now, travelers to Dallas can save 41 percent off admission to the city’s top attractions: the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Reunion Tower GeO-Deck, a choice between the Dallas Zoo and The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, and a choice between the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. For more information, visit www.visitdallas.com.
