MEET THE EXPERTS
Leading Letchworth Gateway Village's Geotourism Program are sustainable tourism experts Michele Archie at Harbinger Consulting Group and Jim Dion, founder and principal of Destination Solutions, LLC.
Michele Archie, Harbinger Consulting Group
Michele archie, harbinger CONSULTING GROUP
Michele Archie leads Harbinger Consulting’s Geotourism work, having supported National Geographic programs for the Greater Yellowstone and Scenic Wild Delaware River. She advised the Montana Wilderness Society on the Geotourism approach for a nature and heritage tourism map of Southeast Montana, is active with the International Geotourism Council, and has been involved in other sustainable tourism studies and initiatives, including the 2017 Letchworth Gateway Villages visitor survey.
About the Harbinger Consulting Group
Since 2003, Harbinger has partnered with nonprofit organizations and other partners to understand and expand economic relationships between national parks and other public lands and their gateway communities. Harbinger has conducted more than 25 of these economic studies, which often spur collaborative sustainable tourism and economic development efforts.
Harbinger has been involved in National Geographic Geotourism programs for the past 12 years, most recently helping spearhead a collaboration involving nine New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania counties along the Scenic Wild Delaware River.
For more information: harbingerconsult.com
Jim Dion, Destination Solutions, LLC
James Dion,Founder and Principal, Destination Solutions LLC
James's work brings tourism stakeholders together to create strong destination partnerships. Since 2005 in partnership with National Geographic, Solimar International and Old Town Creative+Interactive, he led 23 sustainable tourism programs in 17 countries and 35 states within the USA. James served as the Associate Director of the Center for Sustainable Destinations at the National Geographic Society. Previous to his work with NGS, James directed international ecotourism programs for conservation NGO's in Mexico, Central America, and Asia, and he has lectured at the Technical University of Graz in Austria. James' interest in linking tourism to conservation and community development is an outgrowth of his over 15 years of experience as a professional river and wilderness guide/outfitter. He has founded and developed locally run sustainable, tourism businesses in Europe and North, Central, and South America.