Bruce Beckham

Bruce Beckham is a consultant in the travel and tourism industry specializing in travel industry philanthropy and corporate social responsibility.  He is the Executive Advisor and the former executive director and CEO of the travel industry’s premier non-profit organization, Tourism Cares. He is a Certified Tourism Professional, the former owner of a travel agency and packaged tour company and a former president of NTA.

After selling his travel companies in 1992, Beckham began a new career as a professional speaker and consultant, producing and presenting educational workshops and seminars throughout North America on marketing to and serving the packaged travel industry.  In 2000, he took a part time position as the executive director of what was then the United States Tour Operators Association’s Travelers Conservation Foundation (TCF).  What was part time became full time with the merger in 2005 of TCF and the National Tour Association’s National Tourism Foundation (NTF) that formed what is now Tourism Cares and the official philanthropy of USTOA, NTA, ASTA and IATAN.

Under Beckham’s leadership, Tourism Cares was recognized numerous times for its many accomplishments including the World Travel Market’s Environmental Award, and Global Tourism Award (twice), the US Department of the Interior’s Take Pride in America Award, the Society of American Travel Writers’ Phoenix Award, and the Association of Travel Marketing Executive’s “Inspiration Award” in 2003 and 2010. Tourism Cares recently celebrated its 10th anniversary of its unique volunteer program called Tourism Cares for America in New York City where more than 600 travel professionals volunteered at Coney Island and Jamaica Bay to perform clean up and restoration projects in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.  Since 2003, these types of activities have marshaled more than 4,000 volunteers donating nearly 35,000 service hours at a value of more than $600,000 in donated restoration assistance to sites such as New York’s Ellis Island, New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Mount Vernon, Gettysburg and Alcatraz Island.  Tourism Cares also awards hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to natural, cultural and historic sites throughout the world on an annual basis and provides $75,000 in scholarships each year to students preparing for careers in the travel and tourism industry.  Tourism Cares has now expanded its philanthropic activities overseas with its inaugural Global Outreach project in Peru in May of 2012.

Throughout his career, Beckham has demonstrated the highest standards of the travel and tourism industry and served as a role model for others in the industry.

Beckham resides in Canton, Massachusetts with his wife, Beverly, an author and award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe.