NORWOOD, Mass.— As part of Tourism Cares’ 20-year milestone, the organization recently unveiled its new Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Map, marking a significant step in transforming the industry into a collective entity focused on using travel as a force for good.
The newly relaunched Meaningful Travel Map is a B2B tool that helps the travel trade and sustainably minded visitors easily source authentic, community-led experiences, products, services, accommodations and tours that can be added to itineraries, creating a competitive advantage to the growing consumer demand for responsible travel and providing direct impact on the people and places of travel. The platform is hosted by Tourism Cares’ partner Wander, which empowers destinations with technology to deliver exceptional map experiences.
“At Tourism Cares, we consider ourselves a pioneer in the meaningful travel movement – driving the industry to conduct business in a way that directly benefits host communities, protects cultural and environmental assets, and engages guests in a deeper, more responsible way,” shared Greg Takehara, CEO, Tourism Cares. “Through our innovative programs, such as our Meaningful Travel Summits and the development of our Meaningful Travel Map, we have been able to generate significant impact for local communities and social enterprises around the world. We are excited for this next phase of programming with our expanded map and its ability to diversify the travel supply chain to incorporate more impactful, locally led tourism experiences that will benefit destinations and the people that call those places home.”
As part of Tourism Cares’ strategic vision to protect the long-term survival of the travel industry, the organization has reconfigured its Meaningful Travel Map program to provide a single, one-stop global source of vetted impact partners. This interactive, user-friendly online platform provides industry professionals with a turn-key resource for discovering and contracting with impact-driven businesses, organizations and social enterprises, and contains enhanced features, such as category filtration, curated sustainability information, group booking offerings and embed capabilities.
“We developed this tool as a way to easily provide operators, advisors and other trade professionals with a one-stop global resource for sustainable product development while widening the impact of tourism to include businesses and nonprofits that are not often marketed or packaged to the travel trade,” said John Sutherland, director of community impact at Tourism Cares. “While there are several consumer-oriented resources for sustainable travel experiences already out on market, this is the first B2B platform of its kind that not only includes vetted products but also serves as a destination development tool that can help scale social enterprises and other community-led organizations to benefit from tourism dollars.”
Currently, the Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Map contains more than 150 vetted sustainable experiences placed throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Jordan. The map is free to use for any industry professional and can be easily accessed via the Tourism Cares website at tourismcares.org/meaningful-map.
Since its inception in 2003, Tourism Cares has been at the forefront of fostering sustainable tourism practices and empowering communities worldwide. As the organization looks ahead into the next two decades, it is imperative that the travel industry works together to protect its most critical assets – the people and places that we depend on.
For more information on the Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Map, including how to participate as a destination, visit tourismcares.org/meaningful-map.
