Traveling is an adventure that connects people, that’s what makes it so exciting. But after experiencing massive, stifling crowds this year in crowded popular destinations, where smart habits were few and far between, travelers around the world are increasingly aware of the negative effects they have. an effect that tourism can have on the local community.
Judging by the growing interest in bringing positivity to tourism through moral tourism, immersive travel, guilty tourism, and regenerative travel, it’s evident that travelers are looking for meaningful reports (in less crowded destinations, perhaps) that give back at the same time. .
For Jessica Blotter and Sean Krejci, co-founders of Kind Traveler, a responsible travel platform, kindness is key. “Being a kind traveler means making travel and lifestyle choices that reflect kindness and empathy not only to oneself, but also to other individuals and communities, the environment and animals,” says Blotter. “Travel that advances positive impact and reduces negative impact is a core element of being a kind traveler and traveling kindly.”
Kind Traveler makes it easy for destinations and hotels to raise budget for local nonprofits in destination communities and talks about how the dollars make a positive impact, according to Blotter. “By putting dollars toward supporting local nonprofits committed to net selling and environmental impact, Kind Traveler is helping to publicize sustainable and guilty tourism efforts in destination communities,” says She. “In addition, Kind Traveler helps increase satisfaction by creating sharing-based reports, creating purposeful, meaningful, and memorable trips,” he continues.
For Blotter and Krejci, the idea came from a vacation in Belize. Both volunteer animal rescuers, they found themselves surrounded by heartbreaking poverty, widespread pollution, and beggar dogs. There wasn’t much they could do unlike the first two. However, when they decided to feed the hungry dogs, the other travelers were also suggested to help them.
And that’s when a change happened. ” This small act of kindness encouraged us to find a deeper way to use our travel dollars to make a lasting and meaningful impact on the local community,” says Blotter. “We thought, ‘What if we could create a way for travelers to make a positive impact on the communities they stop in and be filled with a greater sense of joy and meaning during their journey?'”
In 2016, they introduced Kind Traveler with the goal of empowering travelers to make an impact in the communities they call through a foreign portfolio of hotels, destinations, and nonprofit partners. Several months ago, Kind Traveler deepened its success with Every Stay Gives Back (ESGB) community impact program, which ensures that each and every one of them remains a local charity on a budget in partnership with attractive hotels and destinations. No matter where you book, one hundred percent of the budget raised will be donated to attractive charities.
“Depending on which study you’re referencing, and there are many, 75 to 96 percent of travelers now need their travel dollars to have a positive effect on the communities they visit,” Blotter says. (In 2022, Kind Traveler published its own survey, Kind Traveler’s Global Impact Tourism Report: 10 Global Trends at the Intersection of Travel, Philanthropy, and Sustainability, indicating that 96% of respondents were looking for their travel money to have a positive effect on local communities. )
But when it comes to choosing sustainable travel, some don’t know how to do it and a third find it confusing. Meanwhile, only $5 of every $100 spent through foreign travelers in upcoming countries remains in the visited network. According to the United Nations Environment Program. “Before Kind Traveler, travelers might have turned to voluntourism to pay in advance during their trip,” he says. “However, voluntourism is not available and not all travelers need to participate. “
That’s where ESGB comes in. The program began with a six-month pilot assignment in 2023, funded in 15 boutique hotels and seven local charities in 8 destinations. The pilot program raised more than $73,000 in donations for seven local charities, with the entire budget raised going to engage charities.
Casa Chameleon Las Catalinas in Costa Rica, Kind Traveler’s spouse in an after-school program withArray. . [ ] Opening Minds in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Shortly after the pilot ended, Kind Traveler doubled down on their spouses and, in September, launched the program to the public with a collection of more than 350 luxury resorts, boutique hotels, and glamping reports around the world. Specific examples of the network’s impact come with more than 7,000 servings of nuts and vegetables grown in Sonoma County provided to families facing food injustice while solving food waste with Farm to Pantry in Sonoma County, CaliforniaArray in partnership with The Stavrand, Wildhaven Sonoma and The Gables Wine Region. Hostel; 9,141 hours of enrichment programming presented to scholars through an after-school program with the Dylan Jude Harrell Community Center in coastal Oregon and Washington state, in collaboration with Adrift Hospitality; 330 science-based nature reports presented to elementary students at Pepperwood in Sonoma County, in collaboration with Art House Hotel Santa Rosa; 250 scholarship recipients won school supplies for an after-school program with Abriendo Mentes in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, in alliance with Las Catalinas Casa Chameleon.
Adrift Hospitality’s Inn on the Discovery Coast, Oregon, partners with enrichment systems in an after-school program with the Dylan Jude Harrell Community Center on the Oregon and Washington coast.
“Tourism boards and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) have a powerful voice when guiding support for charitable organizations connected to destination well-being,” says Blotter, who is also on the Board of Directors for CREST (Center for Responsible Travel). In 2021, Kind Traveler created a partnership with Visit California. The local city and regional DMOs choose the nonprofits, identifying nonprofit partners as beneficiaries focused on advancing climate action and/or alleviating poverty.
Measuring and reporting on the effect can be challenging. According to Hospitality Net, only one-third of hotels actively and proactively talk about their sustainability practices to potential guests. “Without a committed sustainability manager on-site, it can be tricky to be constantly reporting on impact and communicating those efforts to customers,” says Blotter. The ESGB program provides third-party donation validation to local nonprofits and reports to report on relevance and positive impact generated through donations. with a live virtual ESGB dashboard created for every attractive accommodation partner and destination.
A partnership with Catalina Island Conservancy
Wood plaques representing ESGB membership seal and QR codes are provided to hotels to make it easy to communicate the metrics and encourage guests to get further involved with community impact efforts.
By helping local nonprofits working to promote environmental and network impact in destinations, “there is an opportunity to advance climate action, poverty reduction, ocean and wildlife conservation, and much more, to help the well-being of destinations,” says Blotting Paper.