People with Passion

Keith Vincent

CEO, Wilderness

You may not meet anyone in the industry who's as people-focused as Keith Vincent, CEO of Wilderness. While many big bosses would talk about strategy ad nauseam, Vincent envisions a company and tourism environment where Culture eats Strategy for breakfast.

People with Passion

Keith Vincent CEO Wilderness

You may not meet anyone in the industry who's as people-focused as Keith Vincent, CEO of Wilderness. While many CEOs would talk about strategy ad nauseam, Vincent envisions a company and tourism environment where Culture eats Strategy for breakfast.

On the brand Wilderness

"At Wilderness, we prioritize culture and people. We firmly believe that tourism can pay its own way, and that we can’t rely on just philanthropy for the larger goal of conservation. We want to create an economy around four pillars: Culture, Community, Commerce, and Conservation. It’s not just about animals – people and their prosperity matter, too. We work with more than 40 different cultures which must be approached with respect as much as they do with curiosity and mindfulness."

On Sustainability "Creating genuine experiences for guests can be tricky sometimes because you don’t want to impose on a culture. We promote local staff to management levels to ensure that we keep their unique ways of life at the center of the conversation in informal settings. Guests want to participate, and food is usually the big way they connect first. It opens up the initial exchange and starts the process of broadened understanding and inclusion. Once that’s in place we can start to introduce other concepts and go deeper into the four pillars and non-consumptive ecotourism."

On Current Challenges

"Connectivity is something that we continue to develop. Starlink has been a massive plus for us and its expansion has allowed us to create more opportunities for the communities. For example, more schools have internet now, and when classes are out of session they turn into internet cafes for the villages. In general though, preparing to respond to changes remains our focus whether it’s to natural fluctuations, such as migrations, or to climate change. Beyond that, educating our business partners including free licensed content, USPs, and telling our story remain key."

On Source Markets

"In some ways it doesn’t matter where people are coming from because we need to avoid mass tourism and we have a responsibility as operators. That said, the U.S., UK, and DACH markets are quite mature and are the bedrock of conservation tourism. Latin America, particularly Mexico and Brazil, are growing faster. The U.S. easily makes up about 60 percent of visitors in the high season, the EU about 30 percent and from which we’d love to see more in the shoulder seasons, as we’re more accessible to the EU and because it’s a better value."

On the Role of Travel Agencies "Travel agencies are immensely important, as they are crucial to matching the experiences with the value to bring a higher quality clientele. That helps us tap in to what I like to call 'more patient capital.' These resources allow us to bridge finance between the short- and long-term. For example, good land management now paves the way for our 20- to 30-year projects of preserving more habitats. Fewer boutique agencies in the EU seem to have an interest here than ones in the U.S., which seems to be an untapped opportunity."

On the Next Chapter "We’ve never seen as much opportunity as we do today, and Covid was the catalyst. Young people care, and this plays to our advantage since we’ve put culture at the center of what we do. We are of course developing a project which seeks to restore and restock destroyed land, but the real value-add is that our cultural approach is replicable to other regions. That’s why we are expanding our spheres of influence and will bring this same philosophy and ethos to other parts of the globe, not to mention the massive investments we’re making in renewable energy and being carbon neutral."

On What Wilderness Stands For

On Sustainability

"Creating genuine experiences for guests can be tricky sometimes because you don’t want to impose on a culture. We promote local staff to management levels to ensure that we keep their unique ways of life at the center of the conversation in informal settings. Guests want to participate, and food is usually the big way they connect first. It opens up the initial exchange and starts the process of broadened understanding and inclusion. Once that’s in place we can start to introduce other concepts and go deeper into the four pillars and non-consumptive ecotourism."

On Source Markets

“In some ways it doesn’t matter where people are coming from because we need to avoid mass tourism and we have a responsibility as operators. That said, the U.S., UK, and DACH markets are quite mature and are the bedrock of conservation tourism. Latin America, particularly Mexico and Brazil, are growing faster. The U.S. easily makes up about 65 percent of visitors in the high season, the EU about 30 percent and from which we’d love to see more in the shoulder seasons, as we’re more accessible to the EU and because it’s a better value.”

On the Biggest Current Challenges

“Connectivity is something that we continue to develop. Starlink has been a massive plus for us and its expansion has allowed us to create more opportunities for the communities. For example, more schools have internet now, and when classes are out of session they turn into internet cafes for the villages. In general though, preparing to respond to changes remains our focus whether it’s to natural fluctuations, such as migrations, or to climate change. Beyond that, educating our business partners including free licensed content, USPs, and telling our story remain key.”

On the Role of Travel Agencies

“Travel agencies are immensely important, as they are crucial to matching the experiences and the value – and therefore a higher quality clientele. That helps us tap in to what I like to call “more patient capital.” These resources allow us to bridge finance between the short- and long-term. For example, good land management now paves the way for our 20- to 30-year projects of preserving more habitats. Fewer boutique agencies in the EU seem to have an interest here than ones in the U.S., which seems to be an untapped opportunity.”

On the Next Chapter

"We’ve never seen as much opportunity as we do today, and Covid was the catalyst. Young people care, and this plays to our advantage since we’ve put culture at the center of what we do. We are of course developing a project which seeks to restore and restock destroyed land, but the real value-add is that our cultural approach is replicable to other regions. That’s why we are expanding our spheres of influence and will bring this same philosophy and ethos to other parts of the globe, not to mention the massive investments we’re making in renewable energy and being carbon neutral."

Zum TFest 2024

"TFest ist den Top-Performern und Influencern in der globalen Luxusreisebranche gewidmet. Traditionelle Messen spiegeln meist das Nonstop-Geschehen der Branche wider. Daher bieten wir mit TFest Momente, in denen man innehält, sich verbindet, sich selbst herausfordert und Dinge tut, die man noch nie zuvor gemacht hat. Zum Beispiel eine Session, in der man einem völlig Fremden still in die Augen schaut. Es sind diese Momente, über die die Teilnehmer noch lange sprechen – weil sie menschlich und magisch sind. In diesem Jahr wird es neue Erlebnisse und neue 'Pathways', wie wir sie nennen, geben, die sich um Sounds, Kräuterkunde, Natur und Langlebigkeit drehen. Diese gemeinsamen Erfahrungen, verbunden mit dem Netzwerkformat, stellen sicher, dass Business-Beziehungen und Verbindungen ein tieferes Niveau erreichen, das Jahr für Jahr weiter wächst."