Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #40

ELITE TRAVEL TRENDS
© Sean Fitzgerald
RE-WILDING THE
Laura Turner Seydel, spokesperson for Ted Turner Expeditions,
At the recent Virtuoso Sustainability Summit in Las Vegas, Laura
Turner Seydel, daughter of the US media mogul Ted Turner, was
among the most highly outspoken when it came to setting a clear
roadmap for the future. After the summit and press conference, she spoke
to us about what she sees as being the key motivators for industry players
to work towards a more sustainable future.
Laura Turner
Seydel
Ted Turner Expeditions
We need to encourage everybody to take
action in their own sphere of influence.
That’s what dad has always done the
best. He has really been such a visionary
on various issues. Now, opening up his
properties to share with the public is really
something. My father owns two-million
acres around the US – primarily out in
the west, but some in the south-east.
He invested so much in restoring the
land and bringing it back that he saw an
amazing opportunity to focus on telling the
story about conservation, opening his places
up to the public and making them best in
class. Vermejo Park Ranch, which is
585,000 acres, is the largest
contiguous piece of land privately
held in the United States.
When dad first started acquiring ranches
several decades ago, they were largely
overgrazed, because they were cattle
ranches, and cattle don’t belong here.
When dad was five years old, he learned
the plight of the American bison and how
30-million of them had been killed – mostly
to control the indigenous Americans, who
depended on the Bison for their entire
livelihoods, and were thus pushed onto
marginal lands and reservations. When he
had the opportunity to focus on bringing
back the bison, he also realised it would be
the best thing for nature, and nature really
did come back in full force. He started TTX
– or Ted Turner Expeditions – in 2015 – so
we are the new kids on the block relatively.
At Vermejo Park Ranch, we just hired
Jade McBride – a year ago – from Ranch
at Rock Creek, who is one of the best