Catherine Germier: Rethinking Tourism Beyond Recovery
By: Rhea Vitto Tabora
Catherine Germier is not interested in restoring tourism to what it was. Instead, she asks what it would take for Cambodia and the industry as a whole to build a model that is more honest and more accountable to the people affected by it.
Catherine Germier worked in public utilities for almost ten years before she started talking about tourism. Her early work involved water utilities and sanitation in developing countries, where she provided technical assistance on the infrastructure most travelers rely on but rarely think about. It was through that work that she began to see how tourism often consumed the very resources it depended on.
She did not begin as a tourism professional, she says, but as a professional tourist.
That background explains why she stands out in her field. Many people in sustainable tourism come from hospitality, marketing, or advocacy. Germier came from infrastructure. She learned to think in terms of systems, resources, and consequences, and she brought that mindset into tourism.
What sets her apart is her wide range of skills. She thinks like an engineer, has the discipline of a brand strategist, questions the usual sustainability language, understands commercial realities, and always puts communities first. It is rare to find all these qualities in one person.
What Tourism Still Gets Wrong
While working in developing countries for a French environmental consulting group, Germier traveled constantly. She says she enjoyed ‘bleisure’—combining business trips with exploring new places, before the term even existed.
However, the more she traveled, the less ideal tourism seemed. She quickly saw that tourism often damaged the resources it depended on.
She still believes that tourism can be different. She argues that tourism can create value, opportunities, and empowerment when destinations, businesses, communities, and visitors all share responsibility.
The problem, she says, is that this promise is rarely kept. In her view, tourism remains a privilege—"one that can create superiority and entitlement over a destination, its people, its culture and its resources."
She includes herself in this criticism. "We enjoy a place, consume what it offers, take pictures of its people and culture, then leave without feeling responsible for the value we have taken or for giving something back."
She argues that the problem is not a lack of good intentions, but the gap between intention and action. As she points out, good intentions “are too often not converted into concrete, meaningful action.”
There is a personal side to her story as well. Born in France with what she calls “complex Eurasian roots in Southeast Asia,” she has always seen travel as more than just work. For her, it has been a way to find meaning and sometimes to escape whenever personal crises arose.
Lessons from South Korea
South Korea changed how she thinks. She moved there in 2005, fresh from a postgraduate program in sustainability, and quickly connected with the ST-EP Foundation, which was established in the same year in Seoul as part of the World Tourism Organization's initiative to eliminate poverty through sustainable tourism. Much of her work served the least developed countries, and it forced her to confront just how poorly understood and inconsistently applied the term “sustainable tourism” could be.
Sustainable tourism, she found, was "a complex concept that most people did not really grasp and that needed greater clarity," she says. Rather than defend a single definition, she began translating the idea for whoever was in the room—"a guiding framework for policymakers, a strategic vision for destinations, a business model for operators, and a mindset for everyone."
Skip that shared understanding, she warns, and the whole thing collapses into "an illusion and a source of frustration and confusion."
South Korea became her example of what focused effort can achieve. She admires the country—"while remaining critical, as any French person would"—and respects how it rebuilt from war and started a nation-branding strategy in 2009.
None of it was luck. Its success, she says, was the result of political will backed by human, technical, and financial resources; planning and education; and “a collective sense of cohesion, discipline, commitment, and determination.” She points to the spirit of Saemaul Undong, the New Community Movement, and its three values: diligence, self-help, and cooperation.
From all of it, she drew a principle that still guides her work. Tourism should first deliver wellbeing and inclusive socioeconomic development for local communities. Then she asks the question that turns the industry on its head: "How can you make visitors happy if the people who live there are not happy themselves, especially in the face of increasingly visible inequalities and vulnerabilities?"
“How can you make visitors happy if the people who live there are not happy themselves, especially in the face of increasingly visible inequalities and vulnerabilities?”
Catherine Germier
Why She Avoids the Term "Sustainable Tourism"
Here is where she becomes contrary. For someone whose career revolves around the term, Germier says she usually avoids using "sustainable tourism" in conversation.
She prefers to speak about “sustainability-committed tourism”. As she puts it, “sustainable tourism does not really exist, at least not yet. It remains a vision, perhaps a mirage, or simply wishful thinking."
The change in wording is not just a technical point. A label suggests something is finished and achieved. Commitment, on the other hand, means the work is ongoing and shared. She argues that no business is sustainable by nature, but it can be committed to sustainability.
Tourism experiences are co-created and shaped in real time through collaboration between multiple parties. Even when designed with sustainability in mind, she notes that good intentions "can be ruined by any stakeholder involved, starting with tourists themselves."
She sums up her view with a key point: "Tourism is often presented as a world of freedom and, too often, becomes a world of irresponsibility." She adds that people often act differently when traveling, forgetting that the host country has its own rules, regulations, values, and limits.
What makes this credible rather than preachy is that she puts herself to the same standard. "Few tourists, myself included, truly consider their impact during or after the travel experience," she admits.
She is also critical of the industry's favorite buzzword. She says real impact “is a collective transformation that takes place over the long term. It does not happen overnight, nor can it be credited to the contribution of one person alone." Even voluntourism is not exempt. If done poorly, she warns, it can do more harm to local communities than conventional tourism, “particularly when it becomes a business that harms families, reinforces dependency and feelings of abandonment, or prioritizes the volunteer experience over local needs.”
Catherine Germier at the Mekong-Lancing Training of Trainers on Service Excellence, Skills Development, and Innovative Tourism held in Cambodia.
What Meaningful Tourism Asks Instead
Given all that skepticism, you might expect her to have finally found her paradigm in Meaningful Tourism, the framework she is certified to teach in Cambodia and Laos. She refuses the framing.
Meaningful Tourism, she says, “has always been a movement and a mindset rather than a new paradigm.” It is about bringing every stakeholder to the table and aligning their needs, interests, values, and concerns around a mutually agreed purpose.
In practice, it demands tougher questions than the industry usually tolerates. It asks destinations and businesses "to do more than pursue labels, standard indicators and visitor satisfaction," she explains. It asks whether tourism genuinely makes people feel included, respected, useful and better off: communities, workers, residents, visitors, and future generations. And it insists on these four that most dashboards ignore: "who benefits, who decides, who bears the costs, and what remains after visitors leave."
She describes her approach as “perhaps Eurasian: not hierarchical, but complementary” and uses the Yin-Yang to show how opposing forces can exist together and even strengthen each other.
"The world can be black and white at the same time," she says. "We do not always need to choose one side or pretend that complexity does not exist. We can admit that mass tourism can be both bad and good at the same time."
Which is why she does not feel the need to compare Meaningful Tourism and Sustainable Tourism. Perhaps the problem is not the adjective, she suggests, but the noun: tourism. The real challenge, she believes, belongs to the traveler: "What is the point of traveling back and forth if you do not return as a better person? Every journey should be transformational and designed as an opportunity to be good, feel good, and do good.”
Why Recovery Is Not Enough
The traditional tourism model measures international arrivals, length of stay, occupancy, revenue, and sometimes employment. What it almost never asks, she notes, is "who captures, retains, or loses the value; who bears the costs; or what remains and what is missing after visitors leave."
The human cost of that omission is where she turns unflinching. The old model, she says, "treats communities as a backdrop, workers as variables, and culture, beauty and youth as commodities." It stays fragmented and managed through silos, even though tourism is a complex human ecosystem with social, cultural, environmental and economic interconnections.
This is why she avoids talking about recovery and instead calls for a reset, and sometimes even a revolution. She argues that resilience "cannot simply mean restarting and reapplying the same old recipes. It must mean anticipating, responding, rethinking, relearning and rebounding differently, crisis after crisis."
What she is arguing for is more than an adjustment. "Just as people eventually discovered that the Earth is round, not flat, a tourism revolution requires a fundamental shift in perspective." That means putting local communities at the center of decisions rather than relegating community-based tourism to a niche product or reducing people to destination assets.
She then offers the clearest formulation of her worldview. "From a business perspective, the customer may be king and competition may prevail. From a destination perspective, local residents come first, and collaboration, dignity and wellbeing should guide decision-making."
She sees a community-first approach not as a sacrifice, but as a smart strategy. In her view, “tourism should create value not only for guests, but also, and above all, for hosts. This approach can strengthen a destination's attractiveness and competitiveness."
“Tourism should create value not only for guests, but also, and above all, for hosts. This approach can strengthen a destination's attractiveness and competitiveness.”
Catherine Germier
Cambodia's Chance to Define Success Differently
Nowhere is her thinking more concrete than in Cambodia, where she has planted both her home and her cause.
Ask her what winning looks like a decade out, and she sets the arrival numbers aside. Success, she says, will not be defined mainly by visitor numbers or a narrow focus on volume and year-on-year growth rate, but by stronger livelihoods, greater local ownership and the lasting wellbeing of host communities. She’s unequivocal on one point: "More arrivals do not automatically create more opportunities or empowerment."
Her advice to the country is to stop glancing at the neighbors. "Cambodia should build trust in its own identity rather than compare itself with neighboring destinations or imitate them in a race for volume, low prices and short-term attention."
Its edge is personality: living heritage, creativity, landscapes, waterways, food, spirituality and the generosity of its people.
Play those strengths well, she says, and Cambodia becomes "a distinctive boutique destination, one known for authenticity, quality, consistency and responsible stewardship of its resources."
All of this takes a real investment. It needs a clear, long-term strategy, strong institutions, investment in education and skills, and real collaboration among government, businesses, and communities. It also means not relying on just one sector. She insists that tourism "should be part of a diversified economy, not a dependency; resilience requires credible alternatives when travel is disrupted."
The point is confidence, not mimicry. "The objective is not to copy another country's model but to build Cambodia's own confident, credible, and competitive path—one that visitors respect, communities trust, and future generations can sustain. I don't think this is too much to ask or expect."
Why Destination Branding is Often Misunderstood
With experience across branding, marketing, and sustainability, she sees destination branding not as something a country manufactures through a logo, slogan, or campaign, but as something it earns through a credible promise and consistent delivery.
She believes a destination "is a living ecosystem, not a product," shaped by “the combined actions of communities, businesses, workers, public institutions and visitors.” She argues that meaningful participation makes decisions more legitimate and the country’s story more authentic.
The aim, she says, "is not to appeal to everyone, but to engage visitors, investors and partners who value Cambodia's distinctive character." That requires "a clear sense of national personality, confident choices and sustained consistency across markets and institutions."
Underneath it all lies the thing many branding decks overlook. "Safety, hygiene, service quality, reliability and transparent communication are not secondary operational issues. They are the foundations of reputation."
Get those right, align them with empathy, teamwork and accountability, and the brand is "earned through real experiences and consistently delivered promises, not through B2B promotion or public campaigns alone."
The Coordination Gap
As outgoing Chairwoman of EuroCham Cambodia's Tourism & Hospitality Committee, Germier has focused her efforts on two unglamorous priorities: better marketing data and stronger skills and standards. Both priorities come straight from EuroCham's White Book 2027.
The sector, she says, needs reliable, shared intelligence to guide investment, policy and operations, as well as a workforce equipped to deliver consistent quality, safety and service. In practice, that has meant backing ASEAN certification schemes such as the Safe & Warm Stamp for safety and hygiene, having a structured digital platform where the private sector and the Ministry of Tourism can pool market information, and advancing recommendations on visa policy.
The deeper obstacle is not a lack of data alone. "The widest gap between rhetoric and action remains coordination," she says. “Tourism stakeholders often agree on broad ambitions, but too rarely work from a common narrative, shared evidence base or aligned priorities."
That vacuum carries a cost she names precisely: Limited market visibility makes it difficult for policymakers and operators to make confident, timely decisions, and allows negative perceptions of Cambodia to overshadow the country's real strengths.
She refuses the usual excuses. "There will always be reasons to delay action, but today's data tools, including AI, make it increasingly possible to understand challenges faster and act more effectively."
She admits that EuroCham cannot represent the entire industry, but it can help bring people together, offer practical solutions, and help build Cambodia's credibility. Her background in infrastructure shows here: she is not just looking for better slogans. She wants to build systems—data, standards, and shared evidence—that help destinations make honest decisions.
Reimagining Siem Reap
All of this becomes tangible at the Cambodia Branding Forum, set for Siem Reap on September 29, built around reimagining the destination through active and adventure tourism.
"The main narrative is that Siem Reap offers more than its temples," she says. "It is a living destination for active discovery, where heritage, rural life, nature, culture and adventure come together."
The temples remain central, she shares, but they are not the only reason to visit. Trails, rivers, cycling, walking, local encounters, and soft and hard adventure can encourage visitors to stay longer and spread spending across more local businesses.
The commercial logic is sound. Active and adventure tourism “can create opportunities for locally led guiding, transport, food, accommodation, creative and transformative experiences, as well as wellness and spiritual retreats, while making the destination more relevant throughout the year.”
Her honesty also shows up in marketing. Cambodia is often promoted as an ecotourism destination, but she insists that branding “must reflect what visitors can genuinely experience." She prefers not to promise pristine landscapes or infrastructure that may not always be there. Instead, she wants to focus on its real strengths: rural settings, rich local life, and significant potential for active exploration.
Her single condition is durability. Community initiatives, she says, "should be designed for long-term viability rather than relying solely on short funding cycles. Adventure travelers do not need staged mirages; they need authentic experiences, reliable services and a clear invitation to explore with humility, respect and a willingness to contribute, not simply consume."
All photos provided by Catherine Germier
Cambodia Branding Forum 2026 edition in Siem Reap focuses on active and adventure tourism as a strategic tool to:
refresh the image of Siem Reap beyond Angkor
create fresh, on-the-ground experiences for visitors
build a more diversified, resilient, year‑round tourism economy in Cambodia
The Kind of Growth She Would Turn Down
Even with her strong commercial background, she sets clear boundaries and states them openly.
She would refuse "any short-term tourism growth that threatens the well-being of local communities, damages their environment, or deepens inequalities and vulnerabilities." That makes her wary of anything "driven mainly by greed, desperation, or the promise of easy profit."
She does not hold back when describing the industry’s contradictions. "Tourism can be deeply hypocritical. We promote the dream of authentic encounters while treating people, culture and nature as consumable assets. We demand low prices, unlimited access, increased connectivity, and perfect hospitality, while expecting someone else to absorb the real cost"—workers through low wages, communities through lost space and dignity, and future generations through drained resources.
Sometimes, she says, tourism is like “a large casino, where people expect to become rich quickly and by chance while communities, workers, culture and nature carry the hidden costs."
She says she is not against business or prosperity. She is only against the idea that money is the only measure of success, at all costs.
She prefers slower, fairer growth that creates dignity, resilience, and lasting value, with visitors, operators, and investors all "prepared to pay fairly for the value they receive, and to give something meaningful back to the places that welcome them."
What Change Should Outlast Her
Ask what she hopes will change in tourism because of her work, and she declines the flattering answer.
"Realistically, honestly and humbly, I do not expect anything to change because of me alone," she says. She is also candid about the terrain she works in as a woman without a doctorate. "Some still assume that women must prove their legitimacy more than others, through titles, age or credentials. I have no PhD, but I have experience, conviction and a willingness to keep learning."
Germier is the Founder and CEO of Millennium Destinations, an impact entrepreneur, a sustainability-committed tourism consultant, trainer and destination-branding specialist, she prefers to be known for what she does—as a solution provider, advocate, harmonizer, and facilitator. She puts her energy into sharing, inspiring, and reassuring others, especially women and youth, that change is possible.
“Life is a continuous learning experience, and our challenges can, and should, become part of our purpose,” she says.
Her ambition, in her own words, "is not about ego or recognition. It is about helping move the conversation, and, ideally, practice, one step forward."
She hopes sustainability will no longer be treated as an option, label, or a separate initiative. “It should be embedded in every decision, experience, and business model. If empathy, fairness, and responsible behavior become normal expectations, tourism can become a more honest and positive human activity.”
That is the shift she is working toward: changing the industry's default settings so doing right stops being the exception and becomes the baseline.
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