Ayako Ezaki
Director of Training Strategy and Development at TrainingAid
Erlangen, Germany
Ayako Ezaki is Co-Founder and Director of Training Strategies & Development at TrainingAid, an international tourism and training company offering training and skills development opportunities for tourism industry professionals. Having worked for more than a decade in tourism professional training and education, Ayako specializes in content building, educational program design, training facilitation and project planning. She also brings many years of experience in online communications and content marketing.
Through TrainingAid's partnership with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), Ayako serves as Training Director to develop, manage and market the GSTC Sustainable Tourism Training Program. In addition, Ayako serves as the Expert Coordinator for Tourism Declares Climate Emergency, a global network of tourism industry stakeholders coming together to make tourism more climate positive. Prior to starting at TrainingAid, she worked as Director of Communications for The International Ecotourism Society.
She has contributed to various publications, including "Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: Principles of Sustainable Operations" (2021), “Sustainable Tourism & the Millennium Development Goals” (2012) and “Have Fork Will Travel: A Practical Handbook for Food & Drink Tourism Professionals” (2014).
Ayako graduated from Wesleyan University (Connecticut, USA) with a B.A. from the College of Social Studies.
Ayako shared her views on representation in tourism in our recent panel article tackling the question: „What examples of actions and solutions for increasing representation in travel and tourism would you like to highlight for others in this industry?“
In March 2022 she contributed to our panel on Climate Action in Tourism, tackling the question: „What are some of the examples of impactful climate action in tourism you've seen or been involved in?“
She also shared her examples of Positive Tourism Impacts on Communities in our panel article tackling the question: „There are a lot of great examples that show tourism can be a positive force for local communities. What are some of the most inspiring examples you have experienced?“