Lebawit Lily Girma

Founder at Tourism Lens

Lebawit Lily Girma is the founder of Tourism Lens. She is currently a full-time travel news reporter, as well as a freelance award-winning journalist. Lebawit counts more than 12 years of experience in the travel industry reporting on global tourism—with a focus on sustainability—for both business and consumer-facing travel publications.

This former corporate attorney ditched her Washington DC office for the road and a new career in travel storytelling in 2008, and her writing and photography have been published in major publications: BBC, Conde Nast Traveler (US and UK), CNN, National Geographic Traveller UK, Travel & Leisure, Sierra, Lonely Planet, and The Guardian, among others, plus past in-flight magazines such as Delta Sky and MorningCalm (Korean Air).

For nearly two years during the Covid pandemic, Lebawit was also editor-at-large and full-time global tourism reporter at Skift, a news company focused on the business of travel. There, she wrote about the future of tourism and its recovery for a niche audience of travel executives, from the evolution of tourism boards as destination stewards, to equity, responsible marketing, community tourism, and climate action, among other topics analyzing the meaning behind “build back better” for the travel industry. Her articles dominated the platform’s top 10 most viewed stories in 2021.

Lebawit appears regularly in the media, and she is sought out for industry events as a speaker or moderator on global tourism topics. Her appearances, including keynote speeches and interviews, include CNN with Richard Quest, Bloomberg CityLab, Skift Global Forum, ITB Berlin, WTM Africa, Alaska Media Road Show, Belize Digital Marketing Summit, CREST World Tourism Day Forum, and Women in Travel Summit, among others.