MEET OUR
PEOPLE & PARTNERS
ABOUT US
With decades of practical experience in nature tourism around the world, we bring the best tourism planners, investors, financiers, trainers, story tellers and promoters together to build successful and sustainable tourism destinations.
Our people include:
Simon grew up in wildlife parks in England and the U.S. and has 20 years of nature tourism experiences. Simon co-founded Solimar International, a tourism planning and development firm, and has worked with businesses, governments, destinations, parks & protected areas and NGOs in diverse countries and cultures around the world. He has a Masters of Tourism & Sustainable Destination Management from The George Washington University School of Business.
Simon Jones
Neil has worked in nature and adventure travel for over 20 years, including co-founding the multi-award winning tour company Wilderness Scotland which was twice recognised as the World’s Best Green Tour Operator. Originally an environmental lawyer, Neil has lead the tourism and protected area business planning functions of our partner firm, Conservation Capital, for the past decade and has served as a non-executive Director of several nature conservation organizations.
Milena is a specialist in behavioral economics, with a passion for using knowledge about human psychology to understand the root behaviors influencing the travel industry. She is the author of the first book on behavioural thinking for the travel industry and the founder of a boutique consultancy supporting businesses and destinations in applying behavior-smart innovations.
Milena Nikolova
Neil Birnie
Brian owned and operated a US adventure and ecotourism company for eight years. In 2002 he founded Sustainable Travel International, a leading nonprofit working to protect natural and cultural heritage in destinations. More recently, Brian has been Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority, helping them become a globally recognized sustainable
destination and is also a technical advisor to the Rwanda Development Board.
Brian Mullis
Jesarela Is a Honduran native with a passion for multicultural tourism. Her Degree in Hospitality and Tourism from Appalachian State University helped her gain more than seven years of customer service experience. Jesarela supported various citywide events and programming for the Convention and Visitors Bureau Center in Durham, North Carolina. Her passion and experience has guided her to be with NatureScapes as their UPLIFT Program Coordinator.
Simon started his career working for two of the worlds’ leading safari operators as a guide, camp manager and general manager. Simon has worked in a variety of nature tourism segments in Europe and Africa, including guiding, developing new tourism products, sales & marketing as well as conservation linked enterprise start-ups. He founded the European Safari Company and started his own business in 2019; Nature Tourism Development.
Simon Collier
Jesarela Valle
Our partners include:
