IUCN WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group

Dr. Thiago Beraldo Souza is the Chair of the IUCN/WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group (TAPAS Group). Thiago has a PhD in Ecology from the University of Florida where he studied attractiveness, supply and demand of tourism in protected areas. Dr. Souza is one of the authors of the new TAPAS guideline - Visitors Count! He worked 18 years for the National Protected Areas Agency of Brazil - Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and is currently working as consultant for countries like Cape Verde (NDP), Uzbekistan (UNWTO), Albania (IUCN) and the Red Sea. In 2019, Dr. Souza received the National Tourism Award from the Ministry of Tourism as Best Public Manager of Brazil.

Publications: https://florida.academia.edu/ThiagoBeraldo

Dr. Ante Mandić is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Tourism at the University of Split, Croatia; a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Surrey Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, UK; and a Research Fellow at Cornell University, USA. An internationally recognized expert in destination management and tourism policy planning, he works at the intersection of research excellence and policy innovation, advancing tourism as a catalyst for climate action, biodiversity conservation, and community resilience. His influential books, including the Handbook on Managing Nature-Based Tourism Destinations Amid Climate Change (Edward Elgar, 2024), The Routledge Handbook of Nature-Based Tourism Development (Routledge, 2023), and Mediterranean Protected Areas in the Era of Overtourism: Challenges and Solutions (Springer, 2021), together with a broad body of peer-reviewed research published in leading international journals, have positioned him as a trusted voice for academics, policymakers, and practitioners navigating the complexities of sustainable tourism. In 2025, he was included in the Stanford–Elsevier global list of the top 2% most-cited researchers worldwide. In Croatia, he has advised the Ministry of Tourism and Sports on the national Strategy for Sustainable Tourism through 2030, co-authored destination management and carrying capacity guidelines, and led master planning across Dalmatia’s most visited regions, including UNESCO World Heritage Sites. On the global stage, he shapes tourism and conservation agendas as Vice-chair and Coordinator of Knowledge Development within the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (TAPAS Group) and lead author of the landmark IUCN Issues Paper on Tourism, Biodiversity and Community Resilience (2025), while also serving as an accredited Expert Trainer with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). His expertise is sought by international organizations such as IUCN Mediterranean, Plan Bleu, and the Croatian Institute for Tourism, and he is a frequent speaker at high-level forums hosted by, among others, the European Commission, the Union for the Mediterranean, and Cornell University. With a forward-looking vision, Dr. Mandić champions a model of tourism governance that is pragmatic, innovative, and transformative, inspiring destinations worldwide to confront climate challenges while securing long-term sustainability and prosperity for future generations.