Barbados RPCV M.J. Kietzke wins environmental award for promoting ecotourism
M.J. Kietzke joined the Peace Corps where she spent three years in Barbados, working as a community nutrition editor.
< Back to News Archive The Travel Specialists Is Winner of ASTA’s 2000 Environmental Award
Las Vegas, Sept. 25, 2000 –At the opening general session of the American Society of Travel Agents’ (ASTA) 70th World Travel Congress this morning, M.J. Kietzke, CTC, founder of The Travel Specialists, was presented with the 2000 ASTA Environmental Award. The award, which honors an individual, company or country that has made a significant impact in preserving and protecting the environment, was given to Kietzke for her pioneering efforts in creating and promoting eco-tourism programs.
ASTA President and CEO Joe Galloway said, “M.J. Kietzke has a long professional history as an active member of the ecotourism movement. She has taken environmental preservation to new heights and has worked tirelessly to bring her vision of eco-friendly travel to the forefront of the industry.”
When still an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Kietzke studied with World Campus Afloat, a university-at-sea program, where she saw the world while studying onboard. Following graduation, she joined the Peace Corps where she spent three years in Barbados, working as a community nutrition editor. There she worked with local citizens, enrolling them in programs to grow more of their own local foods.
Unable to shake her wanderlust when she returned to the States, Kietzke enrolled in the Travel School of America (Boston). She went to work as a front-line agent for five years with Garber Travel and, later, was the manager of a smaller Boston agency.
In 1985, Kietzke founded The Travel Specialists, a full-service travel agency that specializes in international business and vacation travel, doing more than $2 million in sales annually. The Travel Specialists’ mission is to promote understanding and cooperation among people though travel. A year after opening the Travel Specialists, Kietzke became a senior partner of The Travel Collaborative.
In 1991, Kietzke, with her partner Anthony Sanchez, founded the Eagle Eye Institute, a non-profit, environmental education organization that provides hands-on, exploratory learning of the environment and career bridging to natural resource fields for urban residents, especially under-served youth.
Kietzke is currently the director of Co-op America Travel-Links, a 60,000-member organization of concerned citizens who want to spend their travel dollars in ways that make positive environmental and cultural impacts on the world.
The mission of the American Society of Travel Agents and its affiliated organizations, is to enhance the professionalism and profitability of members worldwide through effective representation in industry and government affairs, education and training, and by identifying and meeting the needs of the traveling public. The Society and its affiliates comprise the world's largest and most influential travel trade association with over 26,000 members in more than 170 countries. < Back to News Archive
