Isabel Hill
Advisor; Board Member, Envoy, Sustainable Tourism Global Center; Former Director, National Travel and Tourism Office at U.S. Department of Commerce.
Isabel Hill is a recognized leader providing strategic advice to organizations and enterprises at the global level on issues and opportunities associated with the travel and tourism sector. She believes public private collaboration and collective action are needed to ensure that travel remains a force for good in the world. Isabel serves as an Envoy of the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC), a multi country, multi-stakeholder coalition established to lead, accelerate and track the tourism industry’s transition to net-zero emissions and enhance the sector’s positive contributions to nature and communities. Isabel also serves on the board of PYXERA Global, an unique consulting and development organization creating innovate solutions to complex challenges through smart partnerships – in practice areas including: Climate Change, Digital Divide, Economic Barriers and Inclusion, Food Insecurity and Global Health Inequity.
From 2009 to 2022, Isabel was the Director of the United States National Travel and Tourism Office, where she led the first travel and tourism promotional campaign for the United States and supported the creation of Brand USA -an innovative public private partnership designed to fulfill this mission. Isabel also led the nation’s first National Travel and Tourism Strategy in collaboration with the private sector and 12 federal agencies. Isabel led the negotiating team that opened the market for Chinese packaged travel from China to the U.S. and made the successful case to extend visa validly in China from one to ten years. Under Isabel’s leadership, the private sector and Federal agencies collaborated to improve visa policy and processing, creating and advancing the seamless travel experience. Isabel represented the travel and tourism sector interests in the National Security Council and was part of the team responsible for pandemic response. She represented the United States in the travel and tourism work streams of the G20, and APEC, Chaired the OECD Tourism Committee, as well as the bi-lateral Commercial Dialogues with India and China. Isabel also served as a member of the United States Civilian Response Corps, trained at the National Defense University as a planner for reconstruction and stabilization, and participated in the decennial war games with the U.S. Army. She has applied this training in understanding risk and resiliency, increasingly relevant to the issues affecting the travel and tourism sector.
Prior to Federal Government service, Isabel’s experience also includes serving on the Executive Teams of both the South Carolina Department of Commerce and the South Carolina Department of Parks Recreation and Tourism, both as Director of Research, Tourism Policy and Development and as the Film Commissioner for the State. Her initiatives supported local economies through filmed entertainment and travel and tourism, generating over a billion dollars of contribution to the States economy.
