Dini Hajarrahmah, the current Ph.D. student in the Howard Feiertag Hospitality and Tourism Management Department at Virginia Tech, was an invited speaker at The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) 2023 SOM (Senior Officials’ Meeting) held at the Seattle Convention Centre on August 3rd, 2023. She spoke at the Senior Disaster Management Officials’ Forum during a workshop titled: “Assessing the Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Travel and Tourism in APEC Economies.”

She presented her social enterprise called Wanderlust Indonesia, a community-based tourism experience that organizes and guides custom tours for businesses, educational groups, and private groups. She shared Wanderlust’s efforts that move beyond sustainable and toward regenerative tourism (actually making the destination stronger). This includes educational and volunteer experiences aimed at mitigating the impact of rising sea levels on Indonesia's tourism destinations in collaboration with local community members. The activities are varied, but include planting mangroves, regenerating coral reefs, building a community library and education centre for climate resilience, conducting educational ‘farm to cup’ coffee tourism, beach and river clean-ups, and more.

Dini chatting with Brian Beall, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Travel and Tourism, National Travel and Tourism Office, U.S. Department of Commerce
Dini with the other panelists at the Forum representing the University of Hawaii School of Travel Industry Management and School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology; Dersyn Studio Sustainable Architecture in Thailand; Magnums Unique Accommodation Airlie Beach in Queensland – Australia; and Rapid Resilient Reefs for Coastal Defense (R3D) Project at University of Hawai’i.

Several photos of Dini’s presentation at the Forum that was held in person and online via zoom: