Tess Wilcox’s single greatest passion is to spread environmental awareness. As the new owner and CEO of World Resorts of Distinction (WRD), she leads an all-female team of driven professionals with a genuine appetite for environmentally friendly travel.
“We’re a young team and we’re proud of it. We’re also entirely female, which is not exactly intentional because I am a big believer in diversity, but it is refreshing in the business world, especially on the Gold Coast, where a lot of the biggest companies are run predominately by men,” she said.
WRD is a Gold Coast-based resort creative agency that provides its carefully curated portfolio of some of the world’s best luxury, sustainable resorts with a suite of personalised services including marketing, social media, sales, branding and publicity. “WRD is essentially an extension of my personal life and how much I love exploring and preserving the world,” Tess said. “I have always felt extremely fortunate to have my dream job and was driven to buy the business because I knew there were ways in which I could expand it that we hadn’t previously explored, including further embedding the sustainability seed within our culture.”
Tess notes that while the travel industry has many cultural and economic benefits it also, unfortunately, has a negative impact on the environment. It is one of the largest industries in the world – surpassing that of oil exports, food products and automobiles – and according to a study published in Nature Climate Change in May 2018, the carbon footprint of international travel is four times bigger than previously thought.
Tess’ small yet dynamic and pioneering team of marketing, PR, social media and design specialists are intimately familiar with the travel industry and well equipped to challenge the status quo. “We live and breathe sustainability and that’s what makes our team, vision and brand proposition so unique,” said Tess.
Readers also enjoyed this story Influencer Entrepreneur
