During their 7-day international summer program, 25 students from NUS sought to answer one question “what does a meeting of education, sustainability, and tourism look like?” Their quest for an answer brought them to Bali, where they met with several stakeholders to gain more insight.

Prior to their trip to Bali, our CXO and co-founder, Tomo Hamakawa, delivered a presentation introducing our core mission to create regenerative futures, and how Mana Earthly Paradise sets an example of how tourism can and should be. Tomo also raised the point that “the environment & business cases for sustainability have never been stronger!” based on findings from Booking.com’s latest sustainable travel report. Where it essentially states that, travelers want to and are demanding for sustainable tourism; however, there are not enough options out there.

Later on, the students would stay at our eco-villa in Ubud to experience what living regeneration is like. During their stay, they met with our CEO and fellow co-founder, Aska Hamakawa, who shared the inspiration and motivation behind building Mana Earthly Paradise. Through their visit the students were able to witness how sustainability is being put to practice by an stakeholder in the tourism industry.

“The stay at Earth Company’s beautiful eco-resort Mana Earthly Paradise… was particularly effective in raising an awareness of the possibilities of sustainable tourism… The trip [overall] illuminated the delicate balance of SDGs and tourism and provided a rare insight of the complexities in sustainability efforts. Grateful to all our stakeholders in Bali for their generous and kind contributions to student learning on this trip…” – Lynette Tan, faculty member of NUS

Overall, we are glad that the experiences with Earth Company enabled the students to gain firsthand insight. Hopefully the undergraduates will further grow to hone the knowledge and skills they need to regenerate our one and only planet!