Glen Hornby
Kiribati

Kiribati is a land of mystery, perhaps a little too much mystery in Glen’s view. As an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) Glen is on a mission to change that.

Glen's assignment will work to attract more tourists, with the goal of alleviating poverty through sustainable tourism income. Glen will be working as an Online Marketing Coordinator for the Kiribati National Tourism Office for six months based in Betio.

He will oversee Kiribati’s online presence, aiming to make the Pacific island nation more widely known, and provide more accessible information to potential visitors.

The Australian Partner Organisation for Glen’s assignment is Pacific Asia Tourism Pty Ltd, a founding member of the Oceania Sustainable Tourism Alliance based in Australia and focussed on the development of sustainable tourism to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the Pacific Islands.

Glen has experience in website development, but has been teaching tourism and technology at Griffith University for the past five years, while completing his PhD in Online Destination Marketing.

These elements of Glen’s background combined to attract him to the AYAD Program. In this role he not only hopes to develop Kiribati’s online presence, but to train and educate the locals in how to promote the region to establish a sustainable future.

With a passion for travel and culture, Glen has travelled extensively through Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Through his travels Glen has also become a fan of ethnic music, and is packing his guitar hoping to learn some new tunes from the locals. Already in marketing mode, he said “that’s only for weekends when the surf’s not happening, and SCUBA tanks are empty!”