Sustainable Tourism

Destination Development

Each community is unique, reflecting its history, geography, values and the intangible qualities that compel people to invest in that community — whether by running a business, making it home, or exploring its character as a visitor. Calyx works with its partners to protect and enhance destinations by:

• Identifying and protecting community assets (people, heritage, land and buildings)
• Identifying hidden assets and ways to integrate the richness of community activities with classic tourism development
• Providing active training in sustainable tourism and place-based storytelling, and
• Developing linked clusters of experiential and exploratory tourism

Calyx's approach emphasizes:

• Higher revenue tourism development
• Small and medium tourism business and microenterprise development
• Connecting urban and rural communities through passion for local food; and
• Creating better health outcomes by designing engaging ways to facilitate outdoor recreation and healthful eating

We are a local company working collaboratively to identify, expand and protect a wide range of assets in Washington: people, tourism businesses, culture/heritage, buildings and nature.

Steve and Heidi founded Calyx Sustainable Tourism after having worked for decades in hotels and restaurants, farms, large corporations, government agencies and our own small businesses. We wanted to find a way to combine our love and respect for nature, which provides our physical lifeline, with travel and recreation to which we are deeply drawn.

Calyx uses collaborative approaches that foster partnerships, cross-disciplinary planning and work teams, applied learning and savvy tools to promote tourism while protecting the assets that compel people to visit your unique geography.