Costas Christ is one of the world’s top sustainable tourism experts, whose work has taken him to more than 130 countries across six continents. He has served as a strategic advisor to heads of state, travel corporations, conservation organizations and non profit associations, connecting tourism to the protection of natural and cultural heritage and poverty alleviation around the world.
He is an award-winning writer for National Geographic where he also serves as Editor at Large. Costas was recognized with Conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall, Oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, and CNN Founder and Philanthropist Ted Turner, as an Eco Warrior working to save the planet. NBC News said: "For the past 30 years, Costas Christ been at the leading edge of the green travel movement, since way before it was ever called green or even a movement."
In 2017, he received the International Peace Through Tourism Award for his sustainable tourism training work in former conflict zones in Colombia and Sri Lanka. Costas is the author of Tourism and Biodiversity: Mapping Tourism's Global Footprint (UNEP 2003), and a co-author to Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places (CI 2004), Transboundary Conservation: A New Vision for Protected Areas (CEMEX 2005) and Echoes of Bhutan (Schaffer 2017). Costas' articles and essays have also appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, and Sunday Times of London. His television and radio appearances include Good Morning America, Travel Channel, BBC World, CNN International, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Weekend and National Public Radio.