In 2016, we created the Travel Vanguard to honor values-driven leaders who are driving positive change in the travel industry. This year, we’ve expanded our focus to focus on entire organizations stepping up to ensure travel is a force for good.
Out of more than 100 nominees, this year’s winners include hotels, tour operators, a tourism board, a flight school and a tech-savvy nonprofit. They work on all seven continents and grapple with everything from social and racial justice to accessibility and climate change. Read on to learn more about the inspiring companies that are transforming the way we travel.
Student planes sit on a runway at Phoenix Goodyear Airport in Arizona, where the United Aviate Academy is based.
Courtesy of United Aviate Academy
United Aviate Academy
For diversifying aviation
If you’re a woman or a person of color in the United States, your chances of becoming a commercial pilot are slim: according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, 94% of all airline pilots were male and 93% were white. See the article : China has criticized the US Senate’s bill supporting Taiwan’s defense.
In addition to revealing a huge inequality problem, these statistics also show that flight schools are missing out on opportunities to find the country’s best and brightest next-generation aviation talent, according to Dana Donati, CEO of the new United Aviate Academy (UAA).
That’s why, in December 2021, United Airlines launched UAA. The academy diversifies aviation, while responding to the dwindling aviation workforce and the prohibitive cost of Federal Aviation Administration-approved flight schools.
The academy’s mission is to create the broadest pool of exceptional candidates possible by removing financial barriers and addressing the industry’s poor track record of recruitment efforts among diverse communities. For Donati, the mission is personal. “Being a woman in aviation, I know firsthand the obstacles and financial hardships I’ve faced in achieving my own goals and dreams,” she says.
UAA is the first flight school owned by a major US airline, and it aims to train 5,000 pilots by 2030, with 50% of students identifying as women or people of color. The inaugural class has already exceeded this target, by 80%.
UAA reaches prospective students through alliances with groups such as the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Women in Aviation International, Latino Pilots Association, and the National Gay Pilots Association. It works with historically black colleges and universities, including Hampton University in Virginia and Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. United Airlines has also partnered with JPMorgan Chase to create scholarships for students in need of assistance. Students train at the academy for 12 months before flying for a United Express partner for two years, then eventually moving to United Airlines.
“It’s important to have a diverse pilot population,” Donati says of the UAA’s ambitions, “because diversity of people means diversity of minds.”
In 2013, Volcanoes Safaris launched a tea processing cooperative near the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.
Volcanoes Safaris
For putting community first
Volcanoes Safaris, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, offers one of the best ways to see East Africa’s endangered mountain gorillas. To see also : Dismissals in technology: Israeli high-tech companies prefer to start abroad. But what sets the company apart is its longstanding commitment to making people a top priority for the business.
Founded by Praveen Moman, who was born in Uganda and spent his childhood exploring the habitats of Virunga mountain gorillas, Volcanoes Safaris operates four lodges in Uganda and Rwanda. Moman started the company three years after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. “The dream was so strong that I didn’t really work on all the different components initially,” he recalls. “But I just thought it was a wonderful landscape that needed to be protected, and one day hopefully it can help people here earn a living like they used to.”
One of the first players in the return of tourism after the genocide, Volcanoes led the way in bringing back jobs in the hospitality industry while protecting the communities that coexist with wildlife. The company hires heavily from the Great Lakes region of East Africa, where many families have been affected by war and displacement. Women make up more than 50 percent of the current management staff.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has partnered with the German Investment Corporation to offer relief to more than 10,000 people near its lodges, in the form of masks, water tanks, d handwashing facilities, food donations, etc.
“If you want wildlife to have a future, then you have to focus on communities,” says Moman, who believes local people should be driving conservation, rather than imposing it on them. “They need this land to cultivate and feed themselves, to be able to build a house, to send their children to school and to have an economic livelihood. Conservation must be part of the economic chain.
A room at the Schoolhouse Hotel in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, features soothing colors and wheelchair-friendly carpeting.
The Schoolhouse Hotel
For committing to accessibility
More than 60 million Americans live with a disability, but the majority of hotels in the United States meet only the minimum accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to Charlie Hammerman. Read also : The United States is looking for alternatives to Chinese cobalt.
Hammerman founded the Schoolhouse Hotel, the first boutique property in the world to embed accessibility into every part of the guest experience. Hammerman, whose daughter has cerebral palsy, is an attorney who quit his job at Merrill Lynch in 2007 to start the nonprofit Disability Opportunity Fund (DOF), which invests in small businesses focused on disability solutions. accessibility.
Opened in May 2022 in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, the Schoolhouse Hotel is DOF’s first hotel project. “You’re designing an experience for different kinds of needs, and you’re not going to cover all disabilities,” Hammerman says. “So we decided to try to think about 99% of them and anticipate the new things that will come up.”
The team consulted with experts on everything from visual and hearing impairments to neurodiversity. They removed a foreground for the ballroom wall sconces, as an unnecessary light source could potentially disrupt visual clarity for those relying on sign language or lip reading. Experts conducted virtual tours to help fine-tune color tones, room brightness and carpet texture and advised a meditation room that visitors can retreat to when overwhelmed. All 30 rooms are equipped with voice command technology that connects to the front desk.
Hammerman hopes to set an example for hotels that aren’t tapping into the $13 trillion annual disposable income that the disability market represents. “We want the Schoolhouse Hotel to be a showcase,” he says. “We want Marriotts, Hyatts and Hiltons to stay here. We are a nice little boutique hotel, but they can learn from us too.
Linc Walker (right), an Australian guide with Down Under Tours (a brand of Travel Corporation), shows a traveler a sand crab.
The Travel Corporation
For measuring sustainability efforts
Whether you’re passing centuries-old villages on a Danube cruise in Austria or learning about Aboriginal fishing techniques near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the journeys you take through The Travel Corporation’s brands are now measured against the company’s sustainability strategy.
The Travel Corporation (TTC), which owns and manages 40 travel brands including Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, Red Carnation Hotels, Contiki and Trafalgar Tours, released its first-ever annual impact report in May 2022. The report tracks progress against 11 Sustainable Development Goals aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Among TTC’s objectives to be achieved by 2025: use 50% of electricity from renewable sources, fight against overtourism by extending offers to less visited regions by 20% and reduce food waste by 50%. TTC also ensures that all wildlife experiences adhere to an animal welfare policy created in partnership with World Animal Protection, a London-based non-profit organization.
The first report, which captures data from 2020 and 2021, is part of a five-year strategy called How We Tread Right. Reporting creates transparency, according to Shannon Guihan, sustainability manager at TTC. “The data doesn’t lie, and it helps us identify what works and what doesn’t, allowing us to shift gears to ensure the best results,” Guihan says. “From a traveller’s perspective, it allows them to do their research and make their own decisions about which travel provider works best.”
As its sustainability strategy unfolds, TTC becomes increasingly ambitious. Since the launch of its strategy in 2020, the main objective of the company has been to achieve net zero. In the spring of 2022, it submitted its greenhouse gas emissions targets for review by the Science Based Targets initiative. Once approved, TTC will become the largest private travel agency with verified, science-based reduction targets.
Hotel Jakarta, located in Amsterdam, was an early member of Travalyst’s Travel Sustainable program.
Hotel Courtest Jakarta Amsterdam
Travalyst
For empowering travelers
According to a recent survey by Booking.com, over 80% of international travelers say sustainable travel is vitally important. Yet travel agencies have few ways to show potential customers that their hotel or flight is an eco-friendly choice.
Enter Travalyst, a non-profit organization founded in 2019 by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. It offers information and tools that help conscious travelers make more informed choices about what to book.
Travalyst has brought together global companies with powerful digital platforms, including Tripadvisor, Booking.com and, more recently, Google and Expedia Group, to create common standards for measuring sustainability in hotels and aviation.
“We know that to truly mainstream sustainable travel, it won’t be one company, one organization, or one non-profit,” says Sally Davey, CEO of Travalyst. “It has to be a collective effort.”
For hotels, the coalition has created a set of sustainability standards that include running on 100% renewable energy and investing a certain amount of revenue in community and conservation projects. The measures were rolled out in the form of Booking.com’s Travel Sustainable badge in 2021, followed soon after by Google Travel’s hotel search tool, which now includes an “eco-certified” filter. For flight data, the coalition has aligned Skyscanner’s emissions calculator with Google’s, so consumers can simply search for flights and opt for one with lower carbon emissions.
Travalyst is currently identifying other key partners and expanding its independent advisory group. The advisory group includes Dr Anna Spenceley, chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas (part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature), and Jeremy Smith, co-founder of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency.
“Many consumers don’t realize how deep tourism is as an industry,” says Davey. “Travel is an incredibly powerful force for good when done right. As consumers, we can truly make an impact by making better choices.
Six Senses Fort Barwara was originally a 14th century fort owned by a Rajasthani royal family.
Courtesy of Six Senses/Nilesh Dhakle
Six Senses
For eliminating plastics
Since its creation in 1995, the hotel brand Six Senses has considered environmental sustainability as a key aspect of luxury and well-being. And as Six Senses continues to evolve – with 21 hotels and resorts in 17 countries, many in remote and biodiverse environments – so does its commitment to doing good for the planet.
“Sustainability is part of who we are,” says CEO Neil Jacobs. “The way we build, operate and interact with the community encapsulates our philosophy. We’ve been doing it for nearly 30 years and it’s embedded in our corporate culture.
In 2020, Six Senses was one of the first signatories to join the United Nations Global Tourism Plastics Initiative. The company’s biggest push today is eliminating plastic: this year it worked to eliminate every scrap of single-use plastic from the customer experience, and now it’s tackling plastic for single use in background operations.
All Six Senses properties have full-time sustainability officers who identify projects that will have the greatest impact. At the newly opened Six Senses Fort Barwara in India’s arid state of Rajasthan, a regeneration effort is helping to combat desertification. In the Maldives, Six Senses Laamu has a team of on-site biologists dedicated to marine conservation. Six Senses Yao Noi in Thailand has installed filters that provide drinking water to over 107,000 residents.
According to Jacobs, the long-term goal is to preserve the places their patrons travel far to experience. Because beyond high-thread count linens or lavish spas, experiencing a thriving, bio-diverse destination is the ultimate luxury.
On electric hybrid ships, travelers to Norway can pass through fishing villages like Henningsvær.
USTOA & Innovation Norway
For combating climate change
In May 2022, 40 travel managers from around the world gathered in Bodø, Norway to discuss how their businesses needed to evolve to address climate change. They’ve tried some of Norway’s greenest travel experiences, including Brim Explorer’s Quiet Fjord Tours on an electric hybrid boat. They heard from speakers such as Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru, founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, a community rooted in the principles of environmental justice.
They had come together for the first-ever Sustainability is Responsibility summit, organized by the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA) and Innovation Norway, a public company that brings together exports, investments and tourism under one umbrella. strategic roof. At the summit, Innovation Norway shared practical logistics for achieving its climate goals, including how to overcome financial and governmental barriers.
Norway, a global leader in sustainability, is tackling climate change with measures that have been endorsed by the World Sustainable Tourism Council. The country aims to end all sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2025. Today, thanks to tax incentives, more than half of new cars purchased in Norway are electric. By 2026, Norway’s West Fjords will only allow zero-emission electric ferries, cruise ships and tourist boats. By 2030, the capital Oslo plans to have reduced its carbon emissions by 95%.
“We are on the first step in building a sustainable community that will progress over the next 50 years,” said Terry Dale, president of USTOA, the nearly $19 billion travel trade association. revenue and 9.8 million annual travellers. “Everyone was very transparent and honest and willing to share.”
According to Hege Barnes, Innovation Norway’s Regional Manager for the Americas, sustainability is never a fixed point and requires continuous collaboration and improvement. “There’s a term in Norway called dugnad which means ‘everyone on deck,'” she says. “We all have to help make this happen. You need constant education and a constant reminder that even small things can make a big difference.
Intrepid Travel’s “Egypt Adventure” cruise takes travelers through some of the country’s most iconic historical sites.
Photo courtesy of Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel
For driving bookings through responsible travel
In 2010, Melbourne-based tour operator Intrepid Travel became carbon neutral. In 2018, it became the largest B Corporation in the travel industry, i.e. a certified social enterprise. In 2019, he hired a climate scientist, Dr. Susanne Etti, to lead the organization’s decarbonization efforts for its travel and global operations. In 2020, Intrepid became the first global tour operator to create scientifically verified emissions targets. And by 2035, the company wants its emissions to meet the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the company has grown rapidly, having doubled its revenue between 2016 and 2020, according to CEO James Thornton. “We can be commercially successful, but we can also have a very strong purpose,” says Thornton. “And if you get those two things right, having a strong purpose can lead to business success, and having strong business success means you can invest more in your business.”
Intrepid’s next area of focus is becoming a more active participant in racial and social justice, which Thornton sees as intersecting with environmental justice. In 2019, the company created a Reconciliation Action Plan to strengthen ties with First Nations groups in Australia. Meanwhile, U.S.-based offices are building relationships with BIPOC-owned companies and representatives from groups such as the Crow Nation, Lakota people and the National Blacks in Travel and Tourism Collaborative. Intrepid’s US itineraries now include a South Dakota experience told from a Native perspective.
“[In the past], we were much more driven by climate than by social injustice,” says Thornton. “And that’s why we’re starting to take these first incremental steps in terms of including BIPOC voices.”
A couple enjoy a treetop adventure near downtown Williamsburg, Virginia.
Virginia Tourism Company
For welcoming everyone
In 2019, as the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) prepared to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Africans in Virginia, the company surveyed black visitors about their experiences in the state.
“Some of the reactions were ‘We didn’t feel welcome’, ‘We were talked to’, ‘We weren’t told the truth’ and ‘We weren’t given the whole story,'” recalls Rita McClenny, CEO of VTC, which partnered with marketing firm JMI for the survey.
For McClenny, a black woman born and raised in Virginia, these responses were unsurprising. But the hard data served as the catalyst she felt the organization needed to adopt a more inclusive approach to tourism. “Images make a difference. If I don’t see myself in the story, then I don’t necessarily think I’m welcome there, because nobody looks like me.”
Using this information, VTC took a far-reaching approach to making Black travelers feel more welcome in Virginia, working closely with its advertising agency, destination marketing organizations, and freelance photographers. Since 2018, the organization’s 12-person board has grown from just one black woman to five people of color. VTC worked with iconic Virginia museums and sites, including Montpelier, Monticello, Jamestown, and Fort Monroe National Monument, to tell parts of Black history that had been forgotten or buried. Monticello now features the lives of prominent black residents such as Sally Hemings, a woman born into slavery in Virginia who had several children with Thomas Jefferson — a story most docents weren’t equipped to tell before, McClenny says.
VTC is starting to see the impact of its efforts. In 2021, the company’s annual visitor profile survey showed that 74% of black travelers to Virginia were “very satisfied” with their trip that year, a rate comparable to that of all travelers in Virginia. ‘approval. But the job is never done, according to McClenny. His team is developing strategies to shine a light on black history in the context of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in 2026, while stepping up efforts to identify and eliminate bias against other groups, including Native Americans. Asian, LGBTQ travelers and visitors with disabilities.
“It’s about protecting what we honor,” McClenny says, “and preserving your beliefs to share with others to appreciate. It comes down to love.
