About Us

Sunday, 26 April 2026 11:10

I-DEST is an initiative by two enthusiastic tourism experts specialising in sustainable tourism, created to support destinations, tourism providers, and visitors on the path towards more sustainable tourism. For us, I-DEST is not primarily a technological product but a professional commitment: the continuation of years of work where sustainable tourism, attraction development, destination management, local communities, and digital solutions come together. It’s not a startup but has grown out of the work of a family business that has long collaborated with tourism stakeholders in the Carpathian Basin.

Az Innotime Hungary Kft ügyvezetői, az I-DEST szakmai fejlesztői, Kedves Csaba és Nagy Júlia

The managing directors of Innotime Hungary Ltd, the professional developers of I-DEST, Csaba Kedves and Júlia Nagy

Who are we?

Behind I-DEST stands the Hungary-registered company Innotime Hungary Ltd., which is committed to sustainable operations and has been working for years to ensure that sustainable tourism becomes a practical, measurable, and improvable system for destinations, tourism providers, and local communities in the Carpathian Basin. Our work is based on international sustainability standards, particularly the GSTC approach: we believe tourism can truly create value when it serves the interests of local communities, visitors, businesses, and natural-cultural heritage simultaneously.

I-DEST is the digital extension of this mindset. It is a platform offering knowledge, measurement opportunities, professional support, and practical tools to those who want to not only communicate about sustainable tourism but also implement it. Our goal is to help destinations and providers understand, plan, and develop their own sustainability journey — whether it involves raising awareness, self-assessment, learning, preparing for certification, or taking specific development steps — not just in the Carpathian Basin but globally as well, while also providing guidance to visitors and tourists for planning more conscious holidays or trips.

Sustainability in Practice

The company is based in Bükkszék, in a forested environment, which reflects the philosophy that defines both its operations and professional work.

At the heart of Innotime's work is the practical implementation of sustainable tourism. This involves consultancy, research, education, destination consultation, digital tool development, and raising awareness. The company's mission is to make the principles, tools, and knowledge of sustainable tourism accessible to as wide an audience as possible — including businesses, destinations, and communities.

In its own operations, Innotime strives to consistently embody the principles it professionally advocates: green mobility, flexible and digital working, paperless operations, prioritising local products, knowledge sharing, community involvement, and partnership collaborations. The detailed sustainability statement and the 2025 sustainability report are also available independently on the site; here, we simply want to emphasise that I-DEST is not a standalone project but a natural continuation of this corporate philosophy.

Professional Foundations

The professional approach of I-DEST is defined by international sustainable tourism principles, particularly ESG and GSTC-based approaches. At the same time, it is equally important to us that these principles are understandable and applicable in practice.

This is why I-DEST not only provides information but also helps to organise, measure, and develop it. Through the platform, sustainability is not presented as an abstract goal but as concrete questions, answers, development directions, and decision-making scenarios.

The Driving Forces Behind I-DEST

The founder of I-DEST is Csaba Kedves, a cultural tourism expert and founder-owner of Innotime Hungary Ltd. Over his professional career, he has been involved in the development and implementation of tourism development programmes in Tokaj and Miskolc, gaining direct experience in destination management, cultural tourism, the integration of local products into tourism, and attraction development. He founded Innotime Hungary Ltd in 2018, building on more than two decades of experience in project planning, project management, and attraction development. Within I-DEST, he primarily represents the founding vision and strategic direction: a practical approach to destination development that views the platform not as a standalone digital product but as a professional tool supporting sustainable tourism development.

The editor-in-chief of I-DEST is Júlia Nagy, an internationally recognised expert in sustainable tourism and destination management. Her professional career is also strongly linked to Tokaj and Miskolc, where she worked on destination management development, tourism product development, and destination marketing. Subsequently, she served as the head of the communication and ecotourism department at the Bükk National Park Directorate, coordinating the ecotourism offerings, nature conservation awareness-raising, and visitor management across three counties. Joining Innotime, she brought this destination, ecotourism, and sustainability expertise into the professional content of I-DEST; as editor-in-chief, her role is to ensure that the platform is both professionally credible and accessible, as well as practical for everyday tourism operations.

The editorial and user support work is assisted by Lilla Kedves, a sustainable tourism coach and Good Travel Seal auditor, who supports communication with businesses and the production of multilingual content.

Support

What Do We Aim to Achieve?

We aim to make the path to sustainable tourism clearer, more measurable, and more accessible. We are building a system that simultaneously supports the strategic development of destinations, the everyday decisions of providers, and the more conscious travel planning of visitors.

For us, I-DEST is proof that sustainable tourism is not a separate field but a shared responsibility: of places, providers, travellers — and those who support this transition with professional tools.