We work with a large, interdisciplinary network of national and international experts who are flexibly assigned to our projects depending on their geographical and technical core competencies.
This ensures that all requirements for a professional, implementation-oriented and creative execution of our consulting assignments are always met.
Sustainable Minds - Globally Connected
We work on a project basis with experts all over the world with different areas of expertise and focus.
Matthias Beyer is a graduate engineer in landscape planning (specialising in sustainable tourism) and a trained hotel manager. He has been working as an international consultant for sustainable tourism in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean since 2002 and co-founded mascontour in 2005. Since 2013, he has been the sole owner and managing director of the company. His professional focus in tourism includes in particular strategy & planning, governance & management as well as evaluation & monitoring. Matthias regularly publishes specialist articles and publications on sustainable tourism and has been a lecturer at Bremen University of Applied Sciences since 2008. He speaks German (mother tongue), English and Spanish.
For me, mascontour is the daily chance to think realities differently in order to set new impulses in global tourism.
Qualification with certificates “Design Sprint 3.0”, “Design Sprint Facilitation” and “Problem Framing”, Design Sprint Academy
Matthias is board member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), a member of the “Sustainability committee” of the German Travel Association (DRV) e.V., the “Sustainability Think Tank” of the France Canada Chamber of Commerce Ontario (FCCCO) and the “GIZ Sector Dialogue Tourism for Sustainable Development”. He is also responsible for tourism in the “Sustainable Metropolitan Region Berlin committee” of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) and is an active member of various other organisations (The Code, ECPAT Deutschland e.V., TT Network e.V., GATE – Netzwerk, Tourismus, Kultur e.V.).
He likes tourism so much that he often forgets to go on holiday himself. But when he travels, he likes to try out local dishes and finds it exciting to interact closely with local people. He only got his driver’s licence at the age of 32, but manages well without his own car. Matthias loves mixing cocktails, dancing salsa and having long breakfasts in cafés at weekends.
Thomas Frommhold holds a degree in geography (specialising in spatial development and tourism). After graduating, he initially worked for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in the field of tourism. Since 2008 he has been working as an international consultant for sustainable tourism and as part of the mascontour team he has managed and implemented various projects at home and abroad. His regional focus is on Eastern and South Eastern Europe. His professional focus in tourism includes in particular strategy & planning, governance & management as well as evaluation & monitoring. Thomas speaks German (mother tongue) and English.
For me, mascontour is the opportunity to implement my personal values in my job as well. In addition, the team that works here is by far the friendliest and most competent that I have ever had the privilege of being part of.
Thomas is an active volunteer on the board of GATE – Netzwerk, Tourismus, Kultur e.V. and a member of the German Association for Applied Geography (DVAG).
Thomas caught the travel bug early on. As a teenager, he travelled all over Europe by train every summer to discover new countries. His desire for authentic travel experiences continues to this day – whether it’s staying in small guesthouses and holiday homes typical of the country or shopping at local markets. Thomas also has a soft spot for lists, be they Excel, to-do or shopping lists. Flexibility and spontaneity are not neglected, however, not least thanks to his young son.
Diana Körner studied Tourism Management and holds a Master's degree in Strategic Tourism Management. After various positions in the hotel industry, she worked in the coordination office of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism (UNEP). Diana has been working as an international consultant for sustainable tourism since 2012 and was responsible for various projects in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa as part of the mascontour team. Her professional focus in tourism includes in particular marketing & PR, strategy & planning (especially in island states and protected areas) as well as training & qualification. Diana speaks German (mother tongue), English, French and Spanish.
For me, mascontour is a network of like-minded team players who are professionally committed to sustainable tourism.
Diana is co-founder of the Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Foundation (SSTF) and Chair of the Board of Linking Tourism & Conservation (LT&C). It also supports the private marine reserve and the Chumbe Island Coral Park eco-lodge on Zanzibar. It also supports the private marine reserve and the Chumbe Island Coral Park eco-lodge on Zanzibar.
It’s better to work with a sea view, says Diana! So, it’s no coincidence that she lives in Zanzibar, where she loves to spend her weekends on the beach with her family. Her small organic garden is now thriving so well that she will probably soon be able to supply the entire neighborhood with her own fruit and vegetables. It doesn’t bother anyone when Diana likes to sing along loudly to good music, even though she can rarely remember the exact lyrics. So it’s no coincidence that she lives in Zanzibar, where she loves to spend her weekends on the beach with her family. Her small organic garden is now thriving so well that she will probably soon be able to supply the entire neighbourhood with her own fruit and vegetables. So it doesn’t bother anyone when Diana likes to sing along loudly to good music, even though she can rarely remember the exact lyrics.
Maeve O'Brien holds an MBA in International Hospitality Management from Cornell University/ESSEC Business School (IMHI) in Paris. She has been living in Asia since 2006 and works not only in projects in the ASEAN, China and Sri Lanka regions, but also in Africa. Her core competences in tourism are policy, strategy and marketing as well as employee activation and entrepreneurship. She has worked with a wide range of international organisations including GIZ, AusAID, MDF, USAID, Irish Aid, New Zealand Aid, LuxDev, ILO, Asia Foundation, UNWTO and WTTC. Maeve speaks English and French.
For me, mascontour is one of the few authentic global companies that offers its customers a sustainable competitive advantage for the benefit of all.
Maeve is passionate about hospitality and tourism education and training, as evidenced by her ongoing advisory role with teachers at the Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Vientiane. She has also been a guest lecturer for various organisations throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
When Maeve moved to Asia in 2006, it felt like coming home. Spending time with the locals is her favorite pastime. However, she never thought that she would become the lead singer of a local rock band from Laos or that she would even sing in a café during a project in China!
Anette Seidel passed the state examination in geography and sport for secondary schools and has been working as a tourism consultant since 1996. She was employed, among others, at dwif Deutsches Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Institut für Fremdenverkehr e.V. (now dwif Consulting GmbH) and at ift Freizeit- und Tourismusberatung GmbH. Since 2013, she has managed and implemented various consulting projects in Germany as part of the mascontour team. Her professional focus in tourism includes in particular development & planning, governance & management as well as marketing & PR with a specialisation in sales. She has also been a lecturer at the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde since 2008. Anette speaks German (mother tongue) and English.
For me, mascontour is a fascinating network of creative and open-minded people who, through their work in tourism, can make a contribution to preserving a world worth living in for future generations.
Anette is the chairperson of the parents’ association of the Waldschule Gerdes e.V. in Berlin-Zehlendorf. She initiates, organises and coordinates important tasks there at the interface between the school management, the board and the parents. She is also the treasurer of the kindergarten EKT Schlachtensee e.V.
Anette has also found an essential part of her vocation with her profession and her work. She wrote “Eternal traveller” as her career aspiration in her final school newspaper. Although the radius for her projects and private travels has become somewhat smaller since she started a family with three girls, her curiosity and desire to experience new things and actively shape change have grown even more with her children. Anette is postponing the topics of rest and relaxation for now.
After completing a commercial apprenticeship, Hendrik Wintjen began his career in tourism in Costa Rica and managed an incoming agency there for several years. This is where his interest in sustainable tourism arose early on, which he was able to develop concretely in his next professional stage in a development policy context (CIM/GIZ) as the managing director of a tourism association. After several years focusing on destination marketing in a public-private partnership, he worked as a tourism consultant for the Dutch Development Cooperation (SNV) in Peru. Back in Germany, since 2010 his consulting work at mascontour has focused not only on Latin America but also on other regions of the world, in particular Eastern and Southern Europe, Africa and Asia. He is particularly interested in the topic of market access, which includes governance and market research in addition to classic destination management and marketing/PR. Besides his mother tongue German, Hendrik speaks English and Spanish.
For me, mascontour means working in an interdisciplinary team that can meet the diverse requirements of a multicultural clientele in a globalized world in a flexible and differentiated manner.
Hendrik is a member of GATE – Netzwerk, Tourismus, Kultur e.V. and of StrategieForum e.V. – Netzwerk für Erfolg und Wachstum.
Several long-term stays abroad – in the USA, Costa Rica and Peru – were formative stations, as was the cooperation with other world regions from Germany. His intensive involvement with different cultures has strengthened his conviction that every culture and every person creates a subjective image of reality in order to construct their own “reality” from it. The best way to philosophise about this with Hendrik is to stroll through a local market.
Tourism is so diverse. This is also reflected in Martin's activities. He works as a travel journalist, tour guide, lecturer, trainer and tourism consultant. During his studies in the mid-1980s, he studied religions, including a year in Pune, India. After graduating from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Martin went to Thailand for six years, where he initially organized seminars, conferences and training sessions on social issues in a Buddhist context for a non-governmental organization. From 1999, he concentrated on tourism: "It was the time when Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar were opening up," he recalls, "and I was right in the middle of it. As a tour guide and travel journalist (he wrote several travel guides for the renowned DuMont-Reiseverlag), he was able to see the opportunities that tourism opened up for the people there - but also how much it destroyed (and continues to destroy). Issues such as sustainability, intercultural understanding and the preservation of cultural and natural heritage are therefore of central importance to him. Martin's focus regions are South East, South and Central Asia. His areas of expertise in tourism include development and planning, storytelling and marketing, capacity development and training (including over 25 years of experience as a tour leader for guides and tour operators). Martin is a regular contributor to newspapers, magazines and online media. He is a native German speaker, fluent in English and speaks a little Thai and Vietnamese.
For me, mascontour is a professional network of creative and dedicated people who care deeply about sustainability in tourism.
Martin is active in GATE – Netzwerk Tourismus & Kultur e.V. and the Myanmar Institute e.V.
As a young boy Martin told his grandmother, “After grown up, I will go away.” This prediction was not because of her (he loved her dearly) or the place where he grew up (the beautiful Lake Constance), but because of his travel bug. In addition to Thailand and India, he lived and worked for longer periods in Vietnam, Myanmar, and Bolivia. Martin loves to immerse himself in other cultures and is always amazed at how wonderfully diverse our planet is. To ground himself, he does yoga and cycling, attends concerts, and enjoys food.
Nicole Häusler studied ethnology and communication science. For her PhD thesis at Leeds Beckett University in the UK, she chose to write about sustainable tourism, with a focus on cultural due diligence. In addition, she holds an honorary professorship and now serves as a deputy professor (50%) at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde (in the Master's degree program in sustainable tourism). After working as a tour guide for TUI in Thailand for 2 years, Nicole started working as an international consultant for sustainable tourism in 1998, partly as a permanent employee (GIZ) and partly as a freelancer (e.g. with UN- International Trade Centre, Geneva). In 2005, Nicole became a co-founder and shareholder of mascontour. She left the company in 2013 to concentrate on her work in Myanmar. Beginning in 2020, she resumed her support for mascontour, working on a freelance basis. Nicole's focus regions are Europe and Asia (South East, South and Central Asia). Her areas of expertise in tourism include destination management, local participation and culture in tourism, governance, tourism and peace as well as monitoring and evaluation. Nicole regularly publishes specialist articles and publications on sustainable tourism. She speaks German (mother tongue) and English (and a little Thai and good passive Spanish). In 2016, she received the "Excellence her" award from the Secretary-General of the UN-WTO at the ITB for her many years of successful work, particularly in the field of community-based tourism.
Since its foundation in 2005, mascontour has continued to develop in terms of content, addressing new topics and critically questioning “old” concepts
Nicole is a co-founder of the Myanmar Responsible Tourism Institute and GATE – Netzwerk Tourismus & Kultur e.V.; an associated partner of the Center for Sustainable Tourism (ZENAT) at the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde; and a member of the Myanmar Institute, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde e.V., German Solidarity with Myanmar Democracy and DeGEval – Gesellschaft für Evaluation e.V., and the Sustainable Tourism Advisory Board of the DMO Uckermark.
Nicole has lived in Berlin for over 20 years – mostly as a second home, since she lived in Thailand for 6 years, in Myanmar for 7 years and in Bolivia for 2 years. She thrives when working in an intercultural context and finds it deeply rewarding to work in crisis-ridden regions. On her numerous trips, she likes to spend a night in homestays located in small villages “in the middle-of-nowhere” but also in more convenient, sustainably certified hotels. She enjoys taking long train rides because “it’s a good way to get some work done”. For relaxation Nicole attends classical music concerts, cinemas/theaters, and operas, or simply lounges on the sofa at home with an exciting crime novel. She also practices “hot yoga” (yoga at 40° C), because “all the daily stress gets sweated out”.
On her numerous trips, she likes to spend a night in a homestay in a village “in the middle-of-nowhere” and then spend another night in a good – sustainably certified – hotel. She loves long train journeys because “it’s a good way to get some work done”.
Nicole finds relaxation at a classical concert, at the movies/theater, the opera or on the sofa at home with an exciting thriller. She also does hot yoga, yoga at 40 degrees, which “sweats out all the stress of everyday life”.
María Teresa studied Business Administration in Nicaragua and holds a Master's degree in Integral Development of Tourism Destinations (Spain) and in World Heritage Studies (Germany). During her studies, Maria Teresa worked for two years as a tour guide and administrative assistant and then gained more than eight years of professional experience in Nicaragua as a project coordinator of various rural tourism projects, university lecturer and as administrator and sustainability officer at the tour operator Matagalpa Tours. She has been part of the mascontour team since 2019 and is responsible for internal management, communication and sustainability. She also supports our team as a consultant for tourism projects in Germany and Latin America. Maria Teresa speaks Spanish (mother tongue), English, German and a little Portuguese.
For me, mascountour is an enriching mixture of shared ideas and experiences, of scientific theory and practice, of teamwork with colleagues who are also good friends.
María Teresa is a member of IEWK e.V., which supports various social projects in Latin America. She is also a member of the Alianza Mesoamericana de Ecoturismo, which campaigns for the restoration of protected areas and environmental education.
Close contact with nature gives her new energy, which is why she enjoys looking after her plants and going for walks in the countryside.
Noah holds a Bachelor's degree in Geography and a Master's degree in "Design of Sustainable Tourism Systems." As a tourism expert from the German-speaking Alpine region, he has been combining profound expertise with practical application since 2018. Originally starting as a Product Manager for mobility, sustainability and outdoor tourism at IDM South Tyrol (Italy), Noah is accompanying diverse national and international projects as a consultant for mascontour since 2023. He possesses extensive international experience and has been particularly involved in sustainable regional development and international development cooperation projects. His core competencies lie in sustainable tourism product development and destination management. Additionally, he is a recognized auditor and consultant for destination and business certifications for Green Destinations and serves as their representative for the "DACH" region. In addition to German as his native language, Noah also speaks Italian, English, French, and Spanish.
For me, mascontour is a team of remarkable individuals who make the company the ideal partner for resilient and sustainable tourism solutions.
Noah loves to travel, discover new cultures, and be inspired by their unique treasure and culinary delicacies. When he’s not traveling, Noah is likely already planning a next adventure – whether for himself or as a trip planner for family and friends – or engaging in lively conversations while enjoying a good glass of (Italian) wine. To satisfy his curiosity, Noah enjoys reading travel magazines, books and journals. As a counterbalance, he likes exploring mountain landscapes, either on foot or by bike. Something that doesn’t suit Noah very much is relaxing and doing nothing.
Kristina is a trained travel agent and later studied cultural anthropology in Hamburg and London. Her extensive knowledge of the tourism industry, along with her professional and personal interest in other cultures and countries have motivated her to advocate for sustainable tourism ever since.
Kristina’s other area of expertise is in PR and sales & marketing. For many years, she held management positions in renowned companies in the leisure and cultural sector in Hamburg and throughout Germany (including Bucerius Kunst Forum, Merlin Entertainments Group). In addition, she worked as a trainer for marketing and was a lecturer at the University of Hamburg. Since 2024, she has been part of the team at mascontour. Kristina speaks German (mother tongue) and English.
For me, mascontour has been an inspiring force and a pioneer in consulting and strategy development for sustainable tourism for twenty years.
Certificate in Management, Chartered Management Institute, GB
Various training courses in PR, marketing, personnel and project management
In 1995, Kristina was a founding member of GATE – Netzwerk, Tourismus, Kultur e.V. Today, she is actively involved on the board. Beyond that, Kristina volunteers in various areas of society, including hospice care, refugee aid, and the church.
Kristina loves the open water. Being in or on it is where she feels at home. She enjoys swimming and sailing, with her favorite place being aboard her family’s small yacht on the Baltic Sea.
Having studied there, Kristina has developed a passion for London and the UK as well. Living in Hamburg with her family, she embraces the cultural life of the city while finding peace and relaxation through yoga.
mascontour GmbH
Office for Asia and the Pacific
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