INDUSTRY

The Travel Industry

We bring the people and places of travel together for the future of our industry.

Travel opens our eyes to new ideas and new ways of seeing things. As the leaders of the travel industry, we can create lasting change. For travel to truly be a powerful force for good, we need to enact lasting change in the way we do business for the people and places we serve. Tourism Cares helps provide those resources for the industry.

Hover and scroll on the images below to see how Tourism Cares has supported the travel industry:

Our legacy is in the incredible volunteer support of travel industry professionals. Since 2003, we’ve organized events that bring the entire industry together – from all sectors, competitors, collaborators – we’ve joined together in purpose. More than 7,000 professionals have made an impact in destinations around the globe, not only with sweat equity, but in economic impact as well.

Tourism Cares took our impact to the virtual world in 2020, organizing the first ever “Virtual Meaningful Travel Summit” with our focus on the country of Colombia. Through facilitated conversations, panel discussion and a exhibition floor that introduced more than 1,000 travel industry professionals to two dozen local experiences (ready to book!) in Colombia, we gave a voice to local Colombian product looking to enter the market.

We are all on different places in our sustainability journey. Tourism Cares representatives are available for speaking engagements and education to start – or continue – the conversation around sustainability. In 2019 alone, Tourism Cares addressed more than 7,500 travel professionals through direct engagement opportunities.

Travel trade shows give us the opportunity to build business, and connect with local host communities. Through our relationship with IPW, Tourism Cares connects attendees with valuable volunteer experiences that directly create a social, environmental and economic benefit to our local host.

Working with local communities in destinations – and involving them in tourism decision-making – is the best thing our industry can do to make travel more sustainable. Through our Meaningful Travel Summits and Meaningful Travel Map, Tourism Cares directly connects vetted and ready-to-book experiences directly to tour providers, making meaningful product development easier than ever.

There is no competition in doing good. We’ve created spaces – in-person and virtually – for travel companies, big and small, to come together to learn from one another. Tourism Cares creates a space for that to happen, where the magic of building relationships and sharing best practices come naturally when we come together.

In 2019, Tourism Cares, alongside IMPACT2030, united 100 travel professionals for their Tourism Cares Inspiration Exchange (TCiX) event at The Apollo Theater in Harlem for conversation, education and in-community visits, incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guideline to further social impact.

 

When COVID-19 changed the world, Tourism Cares and 5 other NGOs knew our only path forward was in true collaboration. The Future of Tourism Coalition was formed to chart a new, more sustainable direction for tourism and shift the status quo. The Coalition is pursuing a shared global mission: to place destination needs at the center of tourism’s new future. Through the commitment of their Guiding Principles, the greater travel industry and destination agencies can align around a path forward for a more sustainable future for tourism.  Join us!

Tourism Cares is known for our legacy of volunteer projects – but just as important is the education opportunities and professional development for our industry. When we are armed with best practices and equipped with the actions we can take to ensure a better world for the people and places of travel, our industry becomes incredibly powerful.

Tourism Cares remains committed to creating an inclusive industry, with the first Diversity in Tourism grantee being the Black Tourism Talent Directory, developed by the National Blacks in Travel and Tourism Collaborative. The Black Tourism Talent Directory (BTTD) is an online platform created to level the playing field for Blacks in travel and tourism as a matchmaking tool for small Black and Brown travel and tourism businesses, professionals and students to access business, employment, internship, speaker and media opportunities in travel and tourism. BTTD also provided professional development webinars to help prepare Blacks in travel and tourism to take full advantage of industry opportunities.

SPOTLIGHT: PEOPLE + PLACES OF TOURISM CARES

Seeds of Love | Disaster Recovery Grantee

After Hurricane Irma impacted the Caribbean in 2017, Tourism Cares awarded a number of grants, including one to Seeds of Love, to purchase 1000 saplings and seedlings to replant the islands' indigenous trees and vegetation, the vast majority of which were wiped out in the storms. The plantings will prevent erosion, protect the ecosystem, and support tourism.