The IMPACT Magazine Volume 2
Connections, Conversations,
& Community
The 2026 IMPACT Sustainability Travel and Tourism Victoria Summit in words and photos
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The audience inside the Victoria Conference Centre fell silent as Bob Sanford, the Senior Government Liaison, Global Climate Emergency Response at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment & Health, took the stage to deliver his annual Climate Reality Check.
As he laid out his assessment of the current state of the world, the audience listened with rapt attention. His ending was one of the most powerful moments of the conference:
"There will be no avoiding the penetrating question our warming world is dying to ask and which, especially if you have had the privilege of influencing travel and learning the lessons and gaining insights into the world travel can provide, our troubled planet is fully justified in demanding an answer. It is the one question about the climate threat that could bring us all back down to Earth and ground us again in fact and truth," Bob said.
"It is a question future generations will ask, and upon which our collective prosperity in this warming world may depend: What did you do when you knew?"
Thus began the 9th annual IMPACT Sustainability Travel & Tourism Victoria Summit. Below are photos that capture the conversations, connections, and sense of community that the three-day event inspired. Interspersed are anonymous remarks submitted by attendees, showcasing the powerful a-ha moments, empowering commitments, and deep introspection that happens at IMPACT.
A-ha Moment:
"As a student, the impact of this conference has been an emotional experience. Certainly one that will leave me impacted forever. 'When you break down the door, keep it open for others'. Wow. Just Wow."
A-ha Moment:
"Sustainability is not good enough. To sustain is to maintain. We must give back more than we take."
A-ha Moment:
“Without hope we lose our agency.”
A-ha Moment:
"Just a conference that will imprint my understanding of tourism for my entire academic and professional career."
Commitment:
"I commit to keeping hope alive."
A-ha Moment:
"Change sustainability language to 'What harm are you willing to do?'"
A-ha Moment:
"Wonder opens the heart. And once the heart is open, care follows. When they care, they act."
Commitment:
"I commit to work everyday with my purpose in mind: use tourism to transform the world into a better place."
A-ha Moment:
"In the tourism industry we are educators."
Commitment:
"I commit to make simple but meaningful changes when consulting with Indigenous communities within tourism to hopefully work together."
Poll Question & Answers:
Are you equipped to manage climate disruptions or emergencies in your tourism work?
We’re focused on crisis response communications but not mitigation or adaption = 55 %
We’re preparing in both our operations and communications = 33 %
We’re worried and need to be more prepared = 9 %
We’ve assessed all risks and are adapting our overall business for resilience = 3 %
A-ha Moment:
"We don't just welcome visitors, we
build communities."
Trina White received one of the 2026 IMPACT Awards.
Read more about Trina's leadership at the Parkside Hotel in Victoria in our feature Inside Parkside.
The second 2026 IMPACT Award went to Walt Judas.
Read more about Walt's contributions to tourism in our feature Walt's Epic Life.
A-ha Moment:
"I want to have a good answer to Bob's question: What did you do when you knew?"
A-ha Moment:
"Being performative does not help us with justice"
Commitment:
"Be more intentional with my words."
"A world that is riven with conflict, drowning in distrust, autocracy, rampant inequality and out-of-control technology might well collapse. At all costs, we must prevent that. And, if we don’t give in to fear and despair and believe in one another, we can."
Bob Sanford
Read more about Bob in The Luminous Glory of Light
List one climate change concern you have for your destination or business:
Commitment:
"I commit to walking into the future with my eyes firmly focused on the past."
Commitment:
"I want to approach all the learning I do in school with a decolonization and regeneration mindset, and to be more annoying about it to my classmates."
A-ha Moment:
"Change happens when you stop accepting the system and instead do the work to change the system."